My favorite books to get to know mysterious New Orleans

Why am I passionate about this?

My love of mysteries began with Nancy Drew books. As I read more mysteries over the years, I finally decided it was time for me to write my own. A setting came to me immediately—New Orleans. I fell in love with the city through the Anne Rice and Julie Smith’s books. To write my cozy mystery series, I read all kinds of books. I read them for pleasure, but to make sure the details are correct in my books, The French Quarter Mysteries. I’m able to enjoy New Orleans through my sleuth, Samantha. It’s the next best thing to being there myself.


I wrote...

The Key to Murder

By Jen Pitts,

Book cover of The Key to Murder

What is my book about?

A mysterious diary. An unusual key. A dead stranger in The French Quarter. Can Sammy find the killer before it’s too late?

Samantha Richardson is thrilled to start her new life in New Orleans. Drawn to the city for its music and history, she’s excited about her future in the city. But Samantha is also hopeful she’ll find her past since she was adopted from Louisiana. Sammy’s first mystery begins with an anonymous diary and a strange key she finds in her apartment. When the diary leads her to a dead body, Sammy needs to put together the clues and find the murderer. Join Sammy as she explores the Big Easy by solving the mysteries of the past and present in this cozy mystery series.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Interview with the Vampire

Jen Pitts Why did I love this book?

I first fell in love with New Orleans by reading Interview with the Vampire in high school.

The city came alive as I read the book and I realized I had to visit. I didn’t step foot into the city until I was twenty-six, but I felt like I already knew the city. Anne Rice’s love for New Orleans came through in her writing.

Her books drew me to New Orleans, but also to become a writer.

By Anne Rice,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Interview with the Vampire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Anne Rice, this sensuously written spellbinding classic remains 'the most successful vampire story since Bram Stoker's Dracula' (The Times)

In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life - the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood.

When Interview with the Vampire was published the Washington Post said it was a 'thrilling, strikingly original work of the imagination . . . sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful, always unforgettable'. Now, more than forty years since its release, Anne…


Book cover of New Orleans Mourning

Jen Pitts Why did I love this book?

My love of New Orleans started with Anne Rice and my love of mysteries began with Nancy Drew books.

So when I found New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith, my obsession with both was satisfied. Skip Langdon is a New Orleans native and police detective.

With wonderful details about the city and its residents, and great mysteries, I read through the series as fast as I could.

By Julie Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked New Orleans Mourning as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In New Orleans, police detective Skip Langdon searches for the killer of Rex, King of Carnival for this year's Mardi Gras, a member of the powerful but tragic St. Amant family


Book cover of A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau

Jen Pitts Why did I love this book?

When several New Orleans tour guides recommended this book, I just had to read it.

On every visit to the city, I take tours about history, architecture, ghosts, and Voodoo. I always learn something new on each tour and I did the same with this book. Carolyn Morrow Long researched the famous Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.

The author not only shared her findings on Laveau but also the fascinating history of the religion and the city.

By Carolyn Morrow Long,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A New Orleans Voudou Priestess as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Legendary for an unusual combination of spiritual power, beauty, charisma, showmanship, intimidation, and shrewd business sense, Marie Leveau also was known for her kindness and charity, nursing yellow fever victims and ministering to condemned prisoners, and her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. In separating verifiable fact from semi-truths and complete fabrication, Carolyn Morrow Long explores the unique social, political, and legal setting in which the lives of Laveau's African and European ancestors became intertwined in nineteenth-century New Orleans.


Book cover of Fear Dat New Orleans: A Guide to the Voodoo, Vampires, Graveyards & Ghosts of the Crescent City

Jen Pitts Why did I love this book?

A unique city such as New Orleans should have unique guidebooks. Fear Dat is just that.

While the book gives the usual tourist information about hotels, restaurants, shops, and tours, it has so much more. Fear Dat is full of stories of the cemeteries, Voodoo, ghosts, vampires, and more.

Whether it’s your first visit or your twentieth, this book will get you ready for a trip to the Crescent City.

By Michael Murphy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fear Dat New Orleans as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fear Dat New Orleans explores the eccentric and often macabre dark corners of America's most unique city. In addition to detailed histories of bizarre burials, ghastly murders, and the greatest concentration of haunted places in America, Fear Dat features a "bone watcher's guide" with useful directions of who's buried where, from Marie Laveau to Ruthie the Duck Girl. You'll also find where to buy the most authentic gris-gris or to get the best psychic reading.

The Huffington Post tagged Michael Murphy's first book Eat Dat, about the city's food culture, the #1 "essential" book to read before coming to New…


Book cover of French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia

Jen Pitts Why did I love this book?

No matter where I visit, I always try to buy a book about the town.

I never come home from a trip to New Orleans with one. It doesn’t matter whether it’s non-fiction or fiction, novels or short stories. French Quarter Fiction is a collection of short stories featuring my favorite part of the city, The French Quarter.

The variety of authors and stories is incredible and features such different views and aspects of this amazing neighborhood.

By Joshua Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked French Quarter Fiction as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Branching across every genre, from mystery and romance to flash fiction and prose poetry, this anthology of works by preeminent writers on the heart of New Orleans features a previously unpublished story by Tennessee Williams, as well as stories by Richard Ford, Ellen Gilchrist, Robert Olen Butler, Andrei Codrescu, Barry Gifford, Poppy Z. Brite, Julie Smith, John Biguenet, Nancy Lemann, and Valerie Martin, among others. The characters in these works find themselves everywhere from Sarajevo on the eve of the First World War to Algiers Point just across the Mississippi River, but their stories are all anchored in the French…


You might also like...

American Flygirl

By Susan Tate Ankeny,

Book cover of American Flygirl

Susan Tate Ankeny Author Of The Girl and the Bombardier: A True Story of Resistance and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied France

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Susan Tate Ankeny left a career in teaching to write the story of her father’s escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 2011, after being led on his path through France by the same Resistance fighters who guided him in 1944, she felt inspired to tell the story of these brave French patriots, especially the 17-year-old- girl who risked her own life to save her father’s. Susan is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés. 

Susan's book list on women during WW2

What is my book about?

The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.

This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States history to earn a pilot's license, and the first female Asian American pilot to fly for the military.

Her achievements, passionate drive, and resistance in the face of oppression as a daughter of Chinese immigrants and a female aviator changed the course of history. Now the remarkable story of a fearless underdog finally surfaces to inspire anyone to reach toward the sky.

American Flygirl

By Susan Tate Ankeny,

What is this book about?

One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.

Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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