A Virtual Stroll to New Orleans

Since we’re still in the dog days of summer, I thought I’d take a stroll through the Big Uneasy (at least fictionally). I’m working on BEAUCOUP FRACAS, the sixth book right now. It’s always so fun to travel back to New Orleans—but I won’t lie. I’d rather “visit” New Orleans fictionally in August. It is the hottest and most humid in August. 

So, I love you New Orleans, but not as much in August. 

And now a little about BEAUCOUP FRACAS.

Do you know the definitions/pronunciations for the words in the title? When we first moved to New Orleans, I could figure some things out from context, but I’ll admit I spent a lot of time looking up definitions. 

beaucoup (adjective)

beau·​coup | \ ˈbō-(ˌ)kü

Definition of beaucoup

slang

: great in quantity or amount: MANY, MUCH

fracas (noun)

fra·​cas | \ ˈfrā-kəs

Definition of fracas

: a noisy quarrel: BRAWL

a drunken fracas

So, here’s hoping the book will live up to its title and be a big brawl. Lol

And now here’s a snippet from BEAUCOUP FRACAS for you today, this time from the point of view of the Baker in the story (note: this is an unedited excerpt!):

Gideon Baker rarely got excited or annoyed. He’d learned this useful skill from his large—very large—family, and by being the youngest son. The seventh son, with six sisters younger than he was, made for a lot of learning. 

It hadn’t helped him that much with his first marriage, but he’d been young. And he had learned not to try that again. Marriage was for, well, for people not like him. 

He would give his family credit for helping to hone his skills as a private investigator. Not only were they mostly in the business of finding stuff out for their jobs, but they had honed the finding out to perfection practicing on each other.

He tried to avoid taking the really dirty jobs—like soiled diapers the stench hung around for too long.

His focus was on the domestic side. He mostly worked for divorce lawyers. Zach, his dad, wasn’t too impressed, even if he was a fan of the Perry Mason Show. 

“I’m their ‘Paul Drake,’ their guy to find out things,” Gideon pointed out to Zach too many times to recall. 

“Hardly,” Zach had said, with the look of dismissive affection that only a dad could deploy. 

He didn’t feel very Paul or Drake today. 

The case had seemed a fairly easy one. Track down the missing husband, which should lead to the money he was hiding. 

Husbands getting ready to divorce their wives often tried to hide money. 

Not so often they hid themselves, he admitted. But this guy had an additional reason to hide. 

He’d gotten crosswise with Cinzia Calvino. Who was aligned with one of the local wise guy families. It wasn’t yet clear just how deep Cinzia was in the family business. But she was probably in deep enough for his missing guy to be motivated to stay missing. 

* * * * * 

Beaucoup Fracas is available for preorder on Apple Books (the date is a bit out there but I’m hoping to finish it much sooner. Once I have a better idea, I’ll post preorder links for other vendors!)

Do you even know all the Baker siblings’ names? Is there one who you think needs to get their story told sooner rather than later? I know, just write a book! But if you have a favorite, please let me know!

Perilously yours,

Pauline