Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans - Gary Krist

Written by Gary Krist
Read by Robertson Dean
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Release date: December 11, 2014
Duration: 10:49:56

This engaging work covers the brief and exciting history of Storyville, an 18-block area of New Orleans where the city’s brothels, bars, and nightclubs thrived in the early 20th century with the tacit approval of city leaders.

It re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans’ thirty-years war against itself, pitting the city’s elite “better half” against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city’s Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides. Surrounding him are the stories of flamboyant prostitutes, crusading moral reformers, dissolute jazzmen, ruthless Mafiosi, venal politicians, and one extremely violent serial killer, all battling for primacy in a wild and wicked city unlike any other in the world.

PW—
This well-researched book captures an exciting chapter in the history of Louisiana’s most vibrant city. During the late Victorian era, New Orleans reformers hoped to confine the city’s notorious vices to one officially sanctioned district, Storyville, in order to protect the wealthier neighborhoods from seediness. Brothers, saloons, and jazz halls filled the lively, violent neighborhood, from which larger-than-life figures emerged, such as Tom Anderson, the “major of Storyville,” jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton, and the “Axeman of New Orleans,” a serial killer with a penchant for grocers. Narrator Dean excels in delivering this rich look at the birth of New Orleans and the struggle over its morality. His voice, a deep clear baritone, delivers the countless stories of shootings, seductions, and crime lords with enough solemnity to underscore the historical evolution of the city, but inflects the perfect touch of wryness while relaying the scandalous events and outrageous characters. An entertaining, educational listen.

As a contrast, AudioFile says”… sadly, a rather dull performance by narrator Robertson Dean. Nothing in Dean’s voice reflects the liveliness of the book’s subject: raucous New Orleans at the turn of the twentieth century. Dean reads straightforwardly–and there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but it sure falls short of expectations for this look at a city that has, with varying degrees of success, resisted moral crusaders for well over a hundred years. The New Orleans of the book is vigorous and dynamic; Dean’s narration is not.”