1916: Norma Wallace, age 15, arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape-recorded her memories - the scandalous stories of a powerful woman with the city's politicians in her pocket and whose lovers included the 25 year old boy-next-door, whom she married at age 64. With those tapes and original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles Norma's rise and fall with the social history of New Orleans. Thick with the vice and corruption that flourished there, Wiltz resurrects a vanished secret world.
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Christine Wiltz, a native of New Orleans, is the author of five novels, including The Killing Circle, A Diamond Before You Die, and The Emerald Lizard, all set in New Orleans and featuring Irish Channel detective Neal Rafferty. She has written for the New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous other publications. She has been a writer in residence and adjunct professor at both Tulane and Loyola Universities.
Donna Postel, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is absolutely passionate about audiobooks and has narrated close to fifty titles across multiple genres, from memoir and biography to literary fiction, romance, mystery, and suspense. She uses her innate curiosity, talent, and decades of experience on stage and in the recording studio to bring books to life. When she’s not in the studio, she can be found down at the barn cleaning up after and occasionally riding horses.