The Axeman by Ray Celestin
Reviewed
by Keith McCoy, Somerset County Library System
Originally
Submitted to Library Journal
A rainy
stretch in New Orleans right after the Great War, and a serial killer stalks
the city. The method is an axe, and the
conceit is a tarot card left behind. A
shunned police detective gets saddled with the case, while an ambitious young
black girl with a fondness for Sherlock Holmes pursues him on her own, in hopes
of starting her detecting career. The
Mafia has its own interest in finding the Axeman, too. Celestin’s first novel has loads of noir
atmosphere, and the characters are engaging enough. But the mystery is slow to build, especially
with three detectives and three viewpoints, and a teenage Louis Armstrong is
only a tagalong to the female PI. It’s based on an actual unsolved case which
covered seventeen months rather than the two months written about here. The ending comes at the reader from all
directions, like a Gulf storm.
Verdict: A must for fans and denizens of the Big Easy,
and perhaps for those who like true crime from the past retold as fiction.
