Last of the Red Hot Poppas

The Governor of Louisiana is found dead one morning with lipstick smeared on his thigh. The regal First Lady strives to keep her composure as a young attorney delves into the muck of local politics, searching for answers. This novel travels through a corrupt and vibrant culture—to a brothel in the swamps, to Angola Prison, to a secluded mortuary and back to a dramatic funeral at the capitol—and lurking beneath the intrigue is the lasting damage caused by oil brokers, pumping their toxic poisons deep into the earth.

About the Author

Jason Berry is renowned for his pioneering investigative reporting on the crisis in the Catholic Church. Lead Us Not Into Temptation (1992) exposed a national pattern of predatory priests. Vows of Silence (2004), written with Gerald Renner, prompted a Vatican investigation and the demotion of one of the most powerful priests in Rome. Mr. Berry directed an award-winning film documentary based on that book.

Jason Berry is also a cultural chronicler of New Orleans, in such books as Up from the Cradle of Jazz, a grand history of popular music reissued in 2009 by UL Press. Earl Long in Purgatory, also published by UL Press, won a 2002 Big Easy Award for Best Original Work of Theatre, the year Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities named the writer Humanist of the Year. He received Guggenheim, LEH, and Alicia Patterson fellowships for research over many years embedded in City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 (2018)—the subject of his latest documentary film.

Last of the Red Hot Poppas, first published in 2006, reflects the author’s view of Louisiana as a stage of the human comedy. www.JasonBerryAuthor.com

Praise for Last of the Red Hot Poppas

"Last of the Red Hot Poppas will make you laugh and it will make you think rather more deeply than will make you comfortable, and in these wildly disjointed times that means this novel is not only a richly enjoyable read but an essential one."

—Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“Right-wing flag enthusiasts, big oil power brokers, luckless inheritors of environmental degradation, professional gamblers, sexual profligates, ACLU lawyers, and political hit men: Last of the Red Hot Poppas has all of these and more. Jason Berry, quintessential Louisiana insider and witty chronicler of what passes for morality in the halls of power, has concocted a tantalizing mix of comic misdemeanors and serious criminal activity.”

—Valerie Martin, author of Property

“Both wildly entertaining and deadly serious, Last of the Red Hot Poppas is a fabulous read . . . nobody understands Louisiana politics (and its larger-than-life characters) better than Jason Berry. I couldn’t put this one down.”

—Lee Smith, author of On Agate Hill and The Last Girls

© 2024 Jason Berry

Paperback | 6" x 9" | ISBN: 97819595691215