The City Blues Quartet is a multi-award-winning series of novels plotting the intertwined history of Jazz and the Mob through six decades in the 20th century.
In an Oulipo-inspired writing constraint, each of the four parts is based around a different city, decade, season, weather, song and theme. These (excluding the theme) are outlined below…
| Book | The Axeman's Jazz | Dead Man's Blues | The Mobster's Lament | Sunset Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City | New Orleans | Chicago | New York | Los Angeles |
| Decade | 1910s | 1920s | 1940s | 1960s |
| Season | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter |
| Weather | Rain | Sunshine | Snow | Wind |
| Song | The Mysterious Axeman's Jazz | West End Blues | Relaxin' At Camarillo | Alone Together |
Winner of the CWA John Creasey Dagger for Best Debut Crime Novel of the Year — Winner of the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Best Crime Novel of the Year Translated into Swedish — The Independent Newspaper Crime Book of the Year — Shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award — Shortlisted for […]The Axeman’s Jazz
Winner of the Historia Magazine Best Historical Crime Thriller of the Year — Mail on Sunday Books of The Year — Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of The Year — Finalist for the Académie du Jazz’s Prix Du Meilleur Livre De Jazz — Shortlisted for the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy […]Dead Man’s Blues
Shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year at the Amazon Publishing Capital Crime Festival — The i Newspaper Books of the Year — The Times Books of the Year — The Times Book of the Month Gallery Book Notes Bibliography Map New York, 1947: The city that never sleeps. A killer who’ll never stop. Award-winning […] Out now! Gallery Book Notes Bibliography Map Los Angeles. Christmas, 1967. A city on fire as a killer strikes . . . A young nurse, Kerry Gaudet, travels to the City of Angels desperate to find her missing brother, fearing that something terrible has happened to him: a serial killer is terrorising the city, picking […]The Mobster’s Lament
Sunset Swing
