Bluegums (Lucien Caye Private Eye Story)

By O'Neil De Noux

Sounds like an easy gig for New Orleans private eye Lucien Caye. Escort a pretty lady to the bayous to confirm her father had died accidentally. Gator got him. Ann Kinzer does not believe it was an accident and brings Lucien to see an old crone called The Chula who tells an unbelievable story about the descendants of slaves who lived in the holds of slave ships, escaped into the swamp. They are as white as sheets, bulging eyes, long fangs, fingernails like talons. Zombies? No. They are Bluegums. Lucien and Ann make a chilling discovery – old tales are sometimes based on the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: O'Neil De Noux
• Release date: Feb 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465853714

O'Neil De Noux

O’Neil De Noux writes in many genres, primarily realistic crime fiction, strong on setting, mostly New Orleans, featuring the accurate dialogue of the streets. He also writes scintillating erotica. His publishing credits include 20 novels, nine short story collections and over 300 short stories. From contemporary to historical, De Noux uses several recurring characters in his New Orleans stories and novels: NOPD Homicide Detective John Raven Beau (21st Century); NOPD Homicide Detective LaStanza (20th Century); Private-eye Lucien Caye (1940s) and NOPD Detective Jacques Dugas (1890s). A primary theme in De Noux’s fiction is the effect of violence on victims and their families as well as the sometimes debilitating effect of violence on law enforcement officers, private-eyes and their loved ones. As a former private-eye and currently a police investigator, De Noux knows his subject well. De Noux’s stories span from mystery to mainstream, literary, suspense, thriller, science-fiction, fantasy, horror, erotica, humor, westerns, children’s fiction as well as cross-genre stories – erotic-detective, science-fiction mysteries and the like. O’Neil De Noux’s “The Heart Has Reasons” (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, September 2006) won the Private Eye Writers of America’s prestigious SHAMUS AWARD for BEST SHORT STORY 2007. The SHAMUS is given annually to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. In 2009, the Short Mystery Fiction Society awarded the Derringer Award for Best Novelette to another Lucien Caye story, “Too Wise” by O’Neil De Noux (which appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’s November 2008 Issue). The Derringer Award is given annually to recognize excellence in the mystery short form. In June 2012, De Noux’s novel JOHN RAVEN BEAU was named 2011 POLICE BOOK OF THE YEAR by Police-Writers.com, a group that boasts of 1153 state and local law enforcement officials from 485 state and local law enforcement agencies who have written 2504 police books. A hyper-realistic crime story, JOHN RAVEN BEAU provides an intimate look into the beleaguered NOPD Homicide Division, a story that begins in the French Quarter and ends in a swamp, all within the city limits of America’s eternal city, a city that cannot be destroyed – New Orleans. A second Beau novel was released in 2013 – CITY OF SECRETS. Books by O’Neil De Noux (all available as eBooks and trade paperbacks). Go to www.oneildenoux.net for links.

Book preview

Cover Art Copyright 2012 O’Neil De Noux

There are many secrets hidden in the deep swamp.

Life on the Mississippi

Mark Twain

Bluegums

O’Neil De Noux

Copyright 2012 O’Neil De Noux

Smashwords Edition

My problem is, the man from New York explains, I can’t understand what they’re saying.

I cover the receiver so he can’t hear me laugh.

They have the strangest accent, Mr. Noonan adds.

It’s probably a Cajun accent. I lean my freshly-shaved face in front of the black, revolving fan perched on the corner of my beat-up mahogany desk. My aftershave tingles in the fan’s breeze.

Anyway, Noonan continues, it’s all in my telegram. If you can get those people to confirm Adam Kinzer died an accidental death, we’ll be set.

I have your telegram right here. I open the yellow Western Union telegram and press it flat on my desk.

You don’t have much of an accent, Noonan says.

I’m from the city.

Right. His voice is as sarcastic as most New Yorker tend to be. They live in the only real city in America, right? The center of the universe, right?

Actually, you sound as if you’ve lived in Brooklyn.

No, just the French Quarter, I answer. And Bywater.

What?

I’ve lived in New Orleans all my life, except in the army. No need explaining how we don’t have southern drawls here, except in the movies where we all sound like we’re from south Alabama or like refugees from a French bordello.

You’re a vet, huh?

Fifth Army. I fought in the Sideshow. Italy. That’s what General Mark Clark factiously called the Italian Campaign. Pressing the receiver between my chin and right shoulder, I instinctively rub my left arm were the round from a German Mauser smashed through my humerus outside Monte Cassino, sending me home early from that