The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin

The draw of the book is arbitrary, is it not? In this case, the cover and the title spoke to me. The Axeman’s Jazz is just begging for more questions to be asked, don’t you think? Who is the Axeman and why Jazz? As a result of this, I decided to purloin this book on a whim and I wasn’t disappointed.

What you have is a serial killer in New Orleans called the Axeman at the turn of the twentieth century who is savagely killing people and readers, this is based on a true story. At first, it seems to be Italians but is it as clear cut as that?

We follow three characters as they try to discern the truth, all for different motives: Michael, who is a policeman, under pressure both to perform but also socially due to his living circumstances; Ida, who along with her friend, Louis (more about him later) is a Pinkerton secretary with designs on becoming an investigator and her sights on finding out who the axe-wielding maniac is; and finally, Luca, who has recently been released from a stint in prison, and has an uncertain future ahead of him where he needs to decide whether to stay in New Orleans and the influence of the mob or to leave to start a new life.

And so the scene is set and what unfolds is a story which has mystery and twists and fully realised characters who you root for, with their very human aspirations and the very real dangers facing them, all attributed to their circumstances and for Ida and Louis, their skin colour and station.

It seems opportune to discuss Louis as it is none other than jazz supremo Louis Armstrong, brought to life by Celestin as a companion to Ida but also as a link to the jazz scene, synonymous with New Orleans at the time. I mean, I don’t know if Louis ever had a friend with ambition to be a full blown Pinkerton but Celestin’s storytelling makes it feel possible and that’s all that’s needed.

This is a good book: it’s tense; it has drama; it has great dialogue; it has squirmy moments and it is all delivered with pace and aplomb for a novel which is someone’s debut. I see that Celestin has written subsequent books, presumably with the same characters: the ending certainly suggests that we have not seen the last of them.

Would recommend.

Rachel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars