Napoleon's Curse

Murder and mystery abound in the Crescent City Set in the French Quarter of present-day New Orleans, art historian Michael Bennington is hired by one of that city's prominent denizens to search for the whereabouts of a priceless artifact-purported to be a rare jewel-curiously missing from the city's historical museum. Bennington dives into the task with an uncanny passion-his specialty is 19th century jewels-and ends up taking a virtual roller coaster ride through the city's fascinating historical past, uncovers both real and purported-if not positively bizarre-local legends, descends into the city's eclectic gay underground and even encounters a quasi-religious, homoerotic Roman Catholic cult. All while a series of unexplained murders are taking place. Nothing make senses, though, until Bennington stumbles onto an unbelievable connection to the city's European past that leads him to the murderer and to the mystery's end.