Andy Derain

A former fashion photographer encounters murder and corruption in New Orleans It's too hot to sleep. It's too hot to be up. This is New Orleans in the summer. And as dawn breaks on a sweltering July morning, André Derain awakens to a scream from his courtyard as a man is stabbed just below his window. Acting on impulse, Derain leaps out the window, in the buff, and chases the attacker down the alleyway, but the man with the knife gets away. By the time Derain returns to the courtyard, the victim has died. It's just another day in the French Quarter.   He should have known better than to get involved. Derain's act of naked courage lands him in the middle of the police investigation, which turns out to be much bigger than this onetime fashion photographer can handle. With nothing but a zoom lens and charm to spare, Derain will learn that in the Crescent City, corruption runs as deep and muddy as the river itself.   Bad Girl Blues is the 1st book in the Andy Derain Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A back-alley murder carries André Derain from the streets of New Orleans to the sun-drenched hell of the Cayman Islands. It's quiet in the Garden District, and André Derain can't sleep. After a lifetime as a fashion photographer in New York and the French Quarter, he needs noise, excitement, action - and he's about to get more than he can handle. A call comes in from the New Orleans homicide department, tipping Derain off to a grisly shooting on Tchoupitoulas Street. He grabs his camera and charges out the door. The night has just begun. The victim was the pretty-boy son of a local gangster who flies into a rage when Derain tries to sell the crime-scene photos to the local tabloids. With the entire criminal underworld of New Orleans at his throat, Derain is desperate for a vacation. He'll have to settle for a very deadly trip to the Caribbean. Postcard from Hell is the 2nd book in the Andy Derain Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.