The Axeman’s Jazz – Reading Group Questions
- Which of the three main characters – Ida, Michael and Luca did you relate to the most?
- Each of the three detectives ends up pinpointing a different person as the one responsible for the killings. Who do you think came closest to the truth?
- The main theme of the book is truth and prejudice – how what we consider to be the truth may just be our own, personal interpretation of the world around us, and how that interpretation can be influenced by our prejudices. How are the Axeman and his crimes used to show the way people’s prejudices affect how they view the world?
- Race is the other main theme of the book. Ida, Lewis, Michael and even the Axeman have lives that are shaped by the racial politics of the time. How does each character react to the impositions put on them by the racist society they lived in? How does each character react to the racial prejudice they experience? Do they fight or run or compromise?
- Do you think the racial prejudice in the book still exists in society today?
- Ida is a misfit partly because she is an African-American girl that is light-skinned enough to pass for white. How has this fact shaped her personality?
- All three detectives have a personal motivation for wanting to solve the case – redemption, self-worth, self-realisation. Contrast these different motivations – what do they say about where each character is in their life and career?
- Ida, Michael and Louis all end up as different people from the ones they were at the start of the book. Are all these changes positive, or have they been damaged by the events of the book?
- Luca committed many reprehensible crimes in his time as a corrupt cop – do you still consider him a hero despite all the bad things he has done? Do you feel that he finally found the redemption he was looking for by the time of his death?
- The book is littered with mentors and students, both good and bad. Luca and Michael, Michael and Kerry, Ida and Lefebvre, Lewis and Marable. At the end, Michael becomes Ida’s new mentor. How do these different relationships play out in different ways?
- Michael and Annette’s marriage, a marriage that was legal in some states but illegal in others, has parallels with the gay marriage debate in current society. Is it fair or valid to draw a parallel between the legalisation of inter-racial marriages and the legalisation of gay marriages?
- Michael goes to church every Sunday despite professing to having no religious feelings. Can you understand why he does this?
- The main characters all have a love-hate relationship with the city of New Orleans. Ida, Lewis, Michael and Luca all want to leave the city at some stage in the book. What are the reasons for the complex relationship they each have with the city of their birth? Would you leave your home-town under similar circumstances?
- Simone protects her brother despite the fact he is a killer. She rationalises that he is mentally disturbed and not responsible for his crimes. How would you react in such a situation? Would you shelter a loved family member, or give them up to the authorities?
- Similarly, Michael decides to inform on Luca in the corruption trial. Unlike Simone, he betrays the person close to him. Was Michael justified in doing this? Would you do the same in a similar situation?
- Do you think the Axeman was justified in taking revenge on his parents’ killers?
- Is the reason the Axeman’s parents were murdered linked to the themes of truth and prejudice?
- A large part of the book is an exploration of the culture of New Orleans – its music, its folklore, its French heritage, its unique racial mix – which of these elements did you find the most interesting and why?
- The letter printed in the book is a real letter received by the Picayune newspaper at the time. What do you think the intention of the real-life letter-writer was?
- The author has included newspaper reports, police reports, correspondence and other paperwork in the book. What did these add to the story and the book?
- The author included many biographical details of Louis Armstrong in the book – did these change the way you thought of Armstrong? If so, how?
- Who do you think the real-life killer was, and why was he doing it?