MORTAL SINS by Penn Williamson - FIRST EDITION BOOK

Here's a dynamite cop story/murder mystery set in 1927 New Orleans, where there are still a number of plantation houses on large estates within the city limits and the bayou is virtually at the back door of the French Quarter. It is so well written, read, and produced that the listener will feel the summer heat and the stickiness following the afternoon thunderstorm. It's a tough town in black, white, Creole, and Cajun, from dirt-poor to aristocrat, running on prohibited liquor, sex, drugs, and general corruption. While telling a gem of an action tale, the author also does a wonderful job of encouraging the listener's serious consideration of the role of race in our society, not just in the social stratification of earlier times but also in the matter of all sorts of human perceptions, relationships, and values. Times have certainly changed, but have we changed enough? This work, read by Theodore Bikel, features graphic violence, adult language, and situations in the gritty but charming setting of an earlier but by no means simpler New Orleans.