Crescent City Requiem centers around an investigator and amateur blues musician who accepts an unusual assignment that requires him to locate a supposedly haunted recording. Where did the idea behind his novel come from?

The legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul at the Crossroads has an interesting background. Instead of trading his soul for fame, Johnson spent a year practicing guitar, often in a local graveyard for privacy. That gave me the initial idea. While in New Orleans, I took a “voodoo tour,” and the guide mentioned the Gates of Guinee – seven gates to the voodoo underworld. The rest of the story tumbled into place during a bout with insomnia.

Music is often portrayed as healing, but here it becomes something dangerous. What interested you about exploring its darker possibilities?

The light and dark side of most art is there…if you look. The best example I can give involves Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. You’ve likely read the poem, but reread it with this additional context – the poet was afraid of the dark. Same poem, completely different reading experience. Music can be healing. It can also be transgressive. With the blues? Almost always both.

How do personal relationships deepen the psychological horror in the novel?

The real stakes in most stories involves relationships. My novel examines the idea that sin echoes generationally. That means that human interaction is fraught with potential damage. That’s a horrifying idea, because the thing we need most (beyond air, food and water) is each other.

What’s next for you as a writer, and are there other corners of music history or folklore you’d like to explore?

Crescent City Requiem is the first book in a series. Some characters will carry on and some won’t. The setting will remain the same. Luckily for me, New Orleans is a gold mine of music, folklore, culture…and darkness.

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