Eclipse Alley

Storyville #6

by David Fulmer

The latest title in the award winning and critically acclaimed Valentin St. Cyr Mystery series. In the darkness of a May night in 1916, two "sporting girls" walking home through New Orleans' Storyville district come upon a body that's been hideously ravaged. And so begins Eclipse Alley, the sixth mystery in the acclaimed Valentin St. Cyr series by David Fulmer. Valentin, the Creole detective who has spent the previous ten years working the scarlet streets, is drawn into a maze of lies, corruption, and madness, as dark a labyrinth as he navigated in the previous five award-winning and critically-acclaimed mysteries. "The sense of place is so palpable you can almost hear the music. Fulmer's writing is crisp and nuanced. Valentin is a hero for whom it's easy to cheer." -- The Detroit Free Press "St. Cyr is a great character, and the fascinating city and its larger-than-life denizens intrigue." -- Publishers Weekly

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery

320 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2017

About the author

David Fulmer has been a writer and producer for over twenty-five years.

Series:
* Valentin St. Cyr Mystery
* Eddie Cero Mystery

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Fulmer's Valentin St. Cyr novels for the milieu of early 20th century New Orleans. The solutions to the mysteries are fairly ordinary, but the settings are the thing. Eclipse Alley is a worthy successor to his earlier New Orleans novels.

[Kelly Blomme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. I will say that they need a better editor. Weird sentence and paragraph breaks, misspelled words, and some punctuation mistakes. I know it seems petty, but it bothers me. I still love the stories though. Such a great series.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good addition to the Storyville series. As always, the story is a adequate mystery wrapped in a truly well written historical novel, so, if your primary interest is the detective story, buyer beware. The District (as Storyville was more commonly known at that time) is continuing its slow decline since its glory days at the beginning of the Century, with Tom Anderson (The King of Storyville) retired and a shadow of his former self, leaving his former empire to be nibbled be reformers on one side and petty criminals on the other. Another major change from previous books of the series is that St. Cyr's rival and would-be nemesis, police Captain Picot, is no longer in the picture, so the creole detective's relationships with the New Orleans police is, if not exactly friendly, much improved. ECLIPSE ALLEY continues Fulmer's trend in reducing the use of real historical figures as characters - at this point in the series, only Anderson and madame Lulu White appear, and only as secondary characters. 3.5 stars.

[Ree · Rating 4 out of 5]

the story and history of Storyville or the Red Light District of New Orleans was very interesting. the characters seemed pretty authentic from that time period also. I very much enjoyed this book.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really hadn't planned on reading the rest of this series without a break for something else, given that I prefer variety in my reading, but these are rather addictive and fast reads, even with the awful typesetting and proofreading of these later volumes from a second publisher.

In this one, set in 1916, private detective Valentin St. Cyr investigates after a prominent, wealthy man is found dead, his body mutilated, in a dark and notorious alley in Storyville, New Orleans' red-light district. Clues are hard to find, but when a priest is murdered a day later, the hunt is on to find a cunning serial killer.

There are a couple of loose ends left dangling, ones I hope will be tied up by the end of the next and final book in the series.

[Bess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the St. Cyr series but I thought “The Fall” was the last one - imagine my happy surprise! Bought and read in less than 2 weeks. (I usually buy and then let them sit there, calling me - but I had to get to it right away!)

[Ronn · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Fulmer's novels of Storyville do more to dramatically evoke a sense of that time and place than any others that I have read. Thank the gods that I have one more waiting to be read. But after that, I dont know what I'm going to do!

[Kathy Dalton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typos and grammatical errors were very distracting

[Chida C · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you, like me, love books set in the yesteryear of New Orleans, during a time when sanctioned decadence and debauchery ruled the day, then you will enjoy this book. The mystery itself will likely not astonish you, but following detective Valentin St. Cyr and the eclectic cast of characters on their quest to untangle the truth is an enjoyable ride.

Like some others said, there are too many typos and editorial flaws to go unnoticed, but not enough to take away from the enjoyment of the book. This is just a warning to not let it distract you.

Kudos to this author for taking the already intriguing world of Storyville and utilizing it as the backdrop for his murder mystery series. This is a vibrant work of fiction, with some real life characters mixed in—who you can read about further when the mystery is done. I tend to like historical fiction so having some characters based on real life people was a win for me.

Total: 3.5 out of 5

I will be reading more books from this series.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a respectable businessman turns up dead in an alley in Storyville, the red light district of turn of the century New Orleans, there are questions. The characters are people who could only exist in New Orleans, and Fulmer draws detailed portraits of them all.
The mystery and murderer are surprises, not typical but burst out at the end instead of building to a conclusion. The end is ambiguous and reflects real life, with less than perfect situations . It will either please or irritate the readrr.