"Set in an alternate America in the 1920s, this thought-provoking, noir-ish detective novel sings to a soundtrack of jazz, speakeasy hustle, and “what ifs?” around the mistreatment of indigenous populations."
Presenting an exhilarating murder mystery that plays out in a Mississippi city in the heady 1920s, Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is mind-bendingly inventive. With American history reimagined as having not involved the annihilation of indigenous peoples, and the sprawling, multi-cultural city of Cahokia being an ancient indigenous city, this takes the noir-ish context to new thought-provoking levels. It’s also dizzyingly compelling, characterful and chockful of curveballs you’re unlikely to see coming.
The opening scene sees Detective Barrow and his partner discover a corpse on the roof of a pyramid-shaped skyscraper, amidst “a clot of shadows,” with “the wind full of wet flakes.” It seems the victim has been ritually murdered, and the death will incite mayhem in the city, with culture wars and personal passions playing out against a backdrop of skyscrapers, fog and smoke to a wailing jazz soundtrack.
Cahokia Jazz is nothing but richly-written, twisty and dazzlingly fresh.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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A thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently -- from the bestselling author of Golden Hill.
In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.
It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth.
The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.
Cahokia Jazz features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, General Fiction, Alternative history fiction, Fiction, Speculative fiction, Audiobooks of the Month, Recommendations
Cahokia Jazz is available in Paperback, Hardback, Audiobook
Cahokia Jazz was written by Francis Spufford and published by Faber & Faber
Cahokia Jazz has 481 pages
£18.00
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