Novels set in New Orleans
 

When we were in Savannah we read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
and it really enhanced our trip. We're getting ready to head off to New Orleans
and would love some suggestions of novels that take place there. Thanks!

Don't some of NO native Anne Rice's vampire novels take place in New Orleans?

Donna

Several of Anne Rice's vampire novels are set in New Orleans. Another that she wrote is "A Feast for All Sainits", a novel about the free black population who lived in New Orleans in the 1840's.

Jean

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Pelican Brief by John Grisham.

Julie Smith has written a series of mysteries with a woman detective in NO. She also wrote a few based in San Fran, but the NO books are better. The cop is named Skip Langdon and she's really likeable, always eating and listening to cool music and roaming the city streets. These might be fun if you're a mystery lover!

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy.

There are also a couple of anthologies of famous Southern writers on New Orleans (Faulkner, T. Williams, Capote, etc.). I think one is called "Literary New Orleans."

James Lee Burke's fictional detective Dave Robiechaux (sp?) is based in Iberia Parish in Cajun Country but he is an ex-New Orleans cop, many of his fellow characters are NO types of one kind or another and a fair amount of the action is set in the seamy and steamy underbelly of NO.

If you like crime fiction and NO, he is a good read.

The Witching Hour is another of Rice's books which is set in New Orleans.

Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in the Quarter

A great read!

There are plenty but none capture the city as well as "A Confederacy of Dunces". After you've read it, be sure to check out the statue of Ignatius J. Reilly (lead character) on Canal Street at the Sonesta hotel.

Confederacy of Dunces is very funny, touching but also slightly gross. It definately captures NO.

Out of print but maybe available through your public library or certainly through abe.com, half.com, etc., are several books by Frances Parkinson Keyes set in New Orleans. She was a prolific writer, so you will need to check titles. One is Dinner at Antoine's, and another is Crescent Carnival.

I just remembered one of my favorite writers, Ellen Gilchrist, frequently places stories in the south, many times in NO.

"The Moviegoer", by Walker Percy. It's one of the greatest novels of the last fifty years.

Another one is "French Silk" by Sandra Brown (suspense/romance).

Lots of great suggestions, here. I agree the Confederacy of Dunces is the best. I was in New Orleans in November and wrote and article on Literary New Orleans. If you really want to get acquainted with the writers of New Orleans, take Kenneth Holditch's literary tour. ([email protected]) and check out Joshua Clark's site: frenchquarterfiction.com
He is the editor of a book of that name that collects loads of writers who wrote and write about New Orleans.
Vera

"New Orleans Legacy", I think it is by Alexandra Ripley

Dead Sleep by Greg Iles ... it is a suspense thriller ... beware, once you start reading you will have trouble putting it down

Many books by author Frances Parkinson Keyes are set in New Orleans. My favorite is "Dinner At Antoine's". You can also tour the house where she lived & wrote many of her books. It's called the Beauregard-Keyes House because it was also the home of Civil War General PT Beauregard. It is near Ursuline & Chartres St in the Quarter. Then you could eat at Antoine's to complete the saga!