Rapacious defined - aggressively greedy, ravenous, plundering, taking by force, subsisting on live prey. New Orleans, 1947 It starts as a wandering daughter case when a sexy widow hires New Orleans Private Eye Lucien Caye to find her twenty-two year old daughter. The date is April 10, 1947, and Helen Croix walks into Caye's office with a picture of her missing daughter, a note her daughter left saying she plans to kill a man and then herself, along with a list of fifty-six names of her daughter's lovers. Helen and Lucien go through the list, eliminating names. The hours after that are spent on the over-sized sofa in his office as they give in to their mutual lust. After, Helen warns Lucien about her daughter, knowing he'll be tempted when he finds the alluring, strawberry-blond, temptress. Madelyn Croix will most likely seduce him. Helen describes her daughter as rapacious. Lucien has to look up the word to discover it means avaricious, greedy, ravenous - subsisting on live prey. On the list of names, Lucien comes across a love-sick lawyer, a photographer specializing in nude pictures of women, a suspicious psychiatrist, a jealous husband. Included in the story is the worst private eye in New Orleans, a mischievous black kitten and a bevy of pretty women more than willing to bed Lucien. Shortly after the love-sick lawyer is murdered, Madelyn Croix comes to Lucien one night with that curvaceous body and Prussian-blue eyes that blinks ever so slowly, precisely, like a falcon and he realizes - rapacious, like a raptor, a bird of prey. Madelyn hires Lucien to protect her. Someone is trying to kill her. This first novel in the Lucien Caye Series precedes ENAMORED (2012), which was nominated for the SHAMUS AWARD by the Private Eye Writers of America for BEST INDIE PRIVATE EYE NOVEL. The collection of Lucien Caye short stories, NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL (2010), features eleven stories, including two award-winning stories: "Too Wise" - awarded The Short Mystery Fiction Society's DERRINGER AWARD for BEST NOVELETTE and "The Heart Has Reasons" - awarded The Private Eye Writers of America's SHAMUS AWARD for Best Short Story. A third novel in the series will be out soon.
About the Author: Born in New Orleans, O'Neil De Noux is a prolific American writer of novels and short stories. Although much of De Noux's fiction falls under the mystery genre (character-drive crime fiction primarily), he has published stories in many disciplines including children's fiction, mainstream fiction, science-fiction, suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, religious, romance, humor and erotica. In 2007, The Private Eye Writers of America awarded its prestigious SHAMUS AWARD for Best Short Story to "The Heart Has Reasons" by O'Neil De Noux. The Shamus Award is given annually recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. "The Heart Has Reasons" features De Noux's private eye Lucien Caye. De Noux is also the 2009 DERRINGER AWARD winner for Best Novelette for "Too Wise" - another Lucien Caye private eye mystery. The Derringer Awards are given annually by the Short Mystery Fiction Society to recognize excellence in the short mystery fiction form. De Noux joined other artists in the art co-op Big Kiss Productions to release SLICK TIME a sexy caper novel, NEW ORLEANS NOCTURNAL is a collection of nine crime stories featuring John Raven Beau. In March 2011, the novel JOHN RAVEN BEAU was named 2011 POLICE BOOK OF THE YEAR by Police-Writers.com, a group that boasts of 1153 state and local law enforcement officials from 485 state and local law enforcement agencies who have written 2504 police books. In January 2012, De Noux published BATTLE KISS a 320,000 word epic of love and war set against the panorama of the Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815. So timely is the book, released as the bicentennial of the War of 1812 arrives, Mr. De Noux received an Artist Services Career Advancement Award from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for his work on BATTLE KISS. Also in 2012, Mr. De Noux's first private eye was published. ENAMORED, a novel of obsession and murder, is set in 1950 New Orleans Another crime novel, BOURBON STREET, set in 1947, was released in 2012, along with the young-adult superhero novel MISTIK. In 2013, O'Neil De Noux was elected Vice-President of the Private Eye Writers of America. Web page is: http: //www.oneildenoux.net On January 1, 2013, the long-awaited new LaStanza New Orleans Police Novel NEW ORLEANS HOMICIDE was published along with the backlist of the five previous novels in the series: #1 GRIM REAPER #2 THE BIG KISS #3 BLUE ORLEANS #4 CRESCENT CITY KILLS #5 THE BIG SHOW #6 NEW ORLEANS HOMICIDE #7 THE BLUE NUDE