Second generation cop O'Neil DeNoux served with the Jefferson
Parish Sheriff's Office for many years, eventually becoming a
decorated detective in the department's homicide and
organized crime units. After leaving law enforcement, he
worked as a college instructor, a PI, a computer graphics
specialist, among other jobs. He's also written some pretty
fine cop novels.
Though DeNoux's personal police experience was in the suburbs
of New Orleans, his books are set in the Big Easy's inner
city. His most frequentlyused series character, NOPD Homicide
Detective Dino LaStanza appears in all of DeNoux' novels, his
only short story collection, and a number of uncollected
short stories that have appeared in publications ranging from
BLUE MURDER to ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. DeNoux has
also written short stories about another NOPD cop, John Raven
Beau, and a couple of historical cop stories, set in the New
Orleans of the 1890s, about a cop named Dugas. He's also
written several PI short stories about a character named
Lucien Caye, and one non-fiction true crimer book, SPECIFIC
INTENT. He also briefly edited a crime fiction magazine,
MYSTERY STREET, which (like most magazines featuring short
crime stories) didn't last long.
DeNoux's personal favorite among his LaStanza novels is his
latest, THE BIG SHOW. LaStanza has also appeared in GRIM
REAPER, which pits LaStanza against a serial killer; THE BIG
KISS, in which the Sicilian-American cop takes on the New
Orleans Mafia; BLUE ORLEANS, about the drug trade; CRESCENT
CITY KILLS, another riff on the serial killer theme; and LA
STANZA, the only hardcover book in the series, which collects
about a dozen short stories about the character.
If anyone has any doubt about whether or not police
procedurals should be counted in the hard-boiled firmament,
check out DeNoux's books. The streets don't come any meaner,
the characters don't come any tougher, and the dialog doesn't
come any more colloquial.
JIM DOHERTY
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