REALLY THE BLUES

Jazz trumpet player Eddie Piron thinks that performing in Nazi-occupied Paris is bad enough, but when the drummer in his band is found face-down in the Seine, he realizes that his trouble is only beginning.

Paris, 1941. American jazz musician Eddie Piron has lived in the City of Light since before the war began. But Paris under occupation is not what it once was, and things are looking a lot darker for a man like Eddie. The great jazz artists of the day, like Django Reinhardt, are lying low or being swept away under the racial policies of the Nazis. But the SS has a paradoxical taste for “negermusik,” and their favorite gathering place is La Caverne Negre, where Eddie leads the band. One night the drummer for “Eddie et Ses Anges,” an in- different musician but an essential part of the group, dis- appears. When his body is found in the Seine the next day, Eddie becomes entangled in the murder investigation. He soon finds himself in the clutches of a mercenary intelligence broker who begins to understand why Eddie Piron is really in Paris—and what he’s trying to hide. Nominated for the prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Novel for Floater in 1986, JOSEPH KOENIG followed his debut with three more novels in close succession, culminating with the New York Times Notable Book Brides of Blood in 1993. After a twenty-year absence, his critically acclaimed False Negative marked his return to publishing.