“Empire of Sin” by Gary Krist – The Vortex of Corruption

The city of New Orleans is one with a rather tumultuous history, and upon a closer review it becomes apparent that the many events that took place and the people at their center are true fodder for literature.

Gary Krist most certainly saw the potential in that, and in his book Empire of Sin decided to focus on a very specific, three-decade period, the 1890s to the 1920s, arguably the most criminally-active time in the city's history.

To explain Krists' approach to the whole ordeal, the book is divided into four different parts, and each one offers a wealth of information on the social and economical happenings of the period, basically providing all the context needed and taking the opportunity to depict a rather unique and lively at the pinnacle of its candidature to be named as the next Gomorrah.

Each chapter in the book focuses on a specific case (murder cases aplenty for blood aficionados), and though some of them are vaguely related to each other, the only real similarity they all bear is that they fell in the hands of a rather infamous chief of police, Tom Anderson.

And so, in addition to novelizing some of the more interesting crimes which took place in that period – while preserving the accuracy of the facts of course – Krist also made the book about Tom Anderson's reign at the top of the police hierarchy, and his disgraceful downfall as he brought himself down deeper and deeper into the heart of the city's corruption, along with his colleagues, in increasingly vain attempts to fight crime.

One of the premier strengths of this novel is just how well it brings New Orleans to life, or more precisely, how deep it goes in describing the omnipresent decadence and debauchery, the seedy alleyways and the everlasting concurrence between different crime groups.

Jazz also takes a center stage in each of the chapters, somewhat due to the fact that it was played in the saloons in the poorer areas where many of the crimes took place, and manages to give this book a rather unique and retro feel, one that makes you want to suit up in a fedora, a trench coat and chain-smoke cigarettes all evening long while staring out your venetian blinds.

As far as the factual and informative aspect of it goes, it actually does feel like you're a fly on the wall to Anderson's investigations, with the crime tales being weaved together as if they came straight out of a noir novel, but never to the detriment of bringing to us, the readers, all the known facts about those cases.

At the end of it, you'll be a lot more informed than you ever expected to be about the city of New Orleans and many of its shadier inhabitants, to the point where you could say, if you sounds confident and convincing enough that is, that you actually visited the era through your time machine.

And so, all in all, Empire of Sin is a very interesting look at a cloudy, murky, bloody and explosive era in a city history won't soon forget. Perfectly combining entertainment and true stories, this is a great read for those who like true crimes and/or want to know from the inside out what transpired in New Orleans throughout the years.

---

Gary Krist Gary Krist is an American writer whose line of work has led him to dabble in literary criticism, travel journalism, fiction as well as non-fiction. Some of his better-known works include the novels Bad Chemistry and Chaos Theory, and it ought to be mentioned that he is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Stephen Crane Award, a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal as well as the Sue Kaufman Prize.