'Unsolved mysteries, murderers on the loose, and the seamy side of the big city: It’s a juicy recipe for a story.a ton of lurid color and character.vivid and thoughtful.' 'New Orleans' venal turn-of-the-century past has gotten a book worthy of the rich material in Gary Krist's Empire of Sin.Krist is masterful at presenting the material, is meticulous about sourcing.' You can almost hear Sidney Bechet’s clarinet and Louis Armstrong’s cornet floating through the pages.' Empire of Sin is packed with enough color, atmosphere and decadence to fill years of miniseries. 'Nobody writes about decadence and disaster like Gary Krist.Krist, a superb writer of fiction as well as popular history, has re-created a time and place that we’ll never see again. “Gary Krist presents a thrilling tableau.” 'xpertly described.a fascinating and colourful saga that, in the skilful hands of Krist, reads almost like a E L Doctorow novel and invites us all to take a trip 'way down yonder'.' He tears through diaries and old newspapers, bringing fleshy life to what might otherwise dissolve into sepia.” “n Gary Krist’s well-researched account of New Orleans’ turn-of-the-century underworld, there is no mistaking his affection for the ribald and rowdy.Krist is an enthusiastic raconteur of the forgotten.

“While there have been many fine books and articles written about New Orleans’ Storyville era… Gary Krist’s “Empire of Sin” is certainly one of the most well-researched and well-written, a true-life tale of a sui generis American city that reads like a historical thriller… The book’s subtitle, A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans, sums up Krist’s story well - it’s a book both lurid and scholarly, and thoroughly entertaining.” Empire of Sin isn't simply the story of how New Orleans came to be, but rather how New Orleans came to learn to fight.” Krist's expansive exploration of the decadeslong battle for New Orleans' soul in the end celebrates New Orleans' character, its essence: the city's long history of defiance and resilience its ability to pivot in the midst of disaster. It's a backdrop as lush and intricate as a Mardi Gras Ball tableaux vivant - a raucous living portrait.Krist finesses this - lifting data and record to poetry - by procuring specific, redolent details from centuries-old documents…and from them the swirl of frontier New Orleans slides into view. The book itself is a masterful sleight-of-hand…Moving between parallel narratives, Krist simultaneously - and elegantly - layers more than 30 years of sharply drawn Crescent City social history. “Wide-reaching, vividly drawn… Empire of Sin is Krist's meticulously researched, mesmerizing account of New Orleans' outsized vice wars. Karen Abbot, author of Sin in the Second City and Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy

Krist guides us through a deliciously ribald time in Crescent City history, from the end of the Gilded Age to the dawn of Prohibition, when the city’s elite battled its prodigious and flamboyant underworld.' ' Empire of Sin had me at the subtitle-who could resist a tale that promises sex, jazz and murder in New Orleans?-and the (true) narrative brilliantly delivers. He has written the authoritative account of a raucous American experiment.” Krist’s talent as a storyteller and strength as a researcher. The remainder of Storyville’s tale…provides ample fodder for Mr. He also allows his characters and sources plenty of opportunity to speak, with the result a delightful conversation. “rander in scope and scale…an absorbing history with a body count…Politics, vice and culture are inextricable elements of the whole, and he covers them all with equal skill and devotion… Mr. Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review And his interwoven storylines, intentional or not, evoke a piece of jazz.” I can attest, as a native of New Orleans, that in Empire of Sin has captured the flavors and class nuances of the town.

' well-reported and colorful tale of jazz, sex, crime, and corruption. Library Journal’s Top 10 Best Books of 2014

Washington Post's Top 10 Best Books of 2014

Empire of sin gary krist