New Orleans jumps off the page and grabs readers by the throat in author George Sanchez’s A SNOWBALL IN SUMMER, the latest volume of his Chaussier mystery series. Readers unfamiliar with Sanchez’s novels featuring actor/sleuth Jeff Chaussier are about to meet a colorful cast of NOLA natives. The mystery plot of the story is moved through conversations between the novel’s quirky characters.
Jeff Chaussier is kept off-stage in A SNOWBALL IN SUMMER. He’s in Nebraska, producing one of his plays and (weakly) fighting off the sexual advances of his lead actress. Instead, Jeff’s lusty wife, Bryna Chaussier, takes over the narrative, “pokin’ and proddin'” into a mystery that sees their friend Bennie framed for murder. The only thing keeping Bryna from being as good a detective as her husband is her guilt and regret over her checkered past. She feels lost and diminished without her husband, but she’s just as good — if not better — at uncovering the truth. Bennie is the victim of an old family grudge that hides a shocking secret. Bryna’s children are off on vacation, too, compounding her loneliness. She is so love-lost without Jeff that she sees happy, horny couples everywhere she looks. (There is so much hanky-panky and double entendre that parts of this novel feel like an old Mae West film). She can’t call Jeff out for being unfaithful since her record is also tarnished. But Bryna isn’t about to let her man go without a fight, which sets up the next volume of the Chaussier saga.
A SNOWBALL IN SUMMER excels at capturing the cultural melting pot of New Orleans. The French Quarter plays a starring role, along with the oppressive heat of the bayou. The Chaussiers proudly hail from the city’s Irish Channel. Bennie’s famous for making muffulettas — a sandwich brought to New Orleans by Italian immigrants. A “snowball” is a kind of flavored ice unique to New Orleans (what some in the Northeast call “Italian ice”). It’s also a metaphor for an exhilarating-yet-ephemeral moment. It’s refreshing, but it doesn’t last long. Ultimately, A SNOWBALL IN SUMMER is about love’s redemptive power and family’s importance. Bryna and Jeff may be the Nick and Nora Charles (as written by Dashiell Hammett in The Thin Man series) “for people with beer budgets and champagne dreams,” but they have a rare foundation built on non-judgemental trust. Bryna and Jeff aren’t perfect, but they make each other better, finding beauty and acceptance in the dysfunctional Chaussier clan.
Dirty jokes and Southern slang propels A SNOWBALL IN SUMMER, George Sanchez’s enjoyable New Orleans-set murder mystery.
~Rob Errera for IndieReader