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.
I’ve written three of the books so far (links below), with the final instalment on its way.
In an Oulipo-inspired writing constraint, each of the four parts will be 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 — The Daily Mail 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 Best […]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
