Tenderless Night — O'Neil De Noux

An original, never before published short story set in 1948. A woman is murdered in her home shortly after her husband takes out a large insurance policy. Her husband is an assistant district attorney and the cops quickly catch the killer (a hobo); but the insurance company is suspicious and hires New Orleans Private-Eye Lucien Caye to look into the matter. It turns out even the police are suspicious of their easy solution of the case, which puts Caye between the police, the DA's office and the truth.

Lucien Caye is the main character of O'Neil De Noux's collection NEW ORLEANS CONFIDENTIAL, eleven stories including “Too Wise” �" winner of The Short Mystery Fiction Society's DERRINGER Award for Best Novelette and “The Heart Has Reasons” �" winner of The Private Eye Writers of America's SHAMUS Award for Best Short Story.

O'Neil De Noux's previous books include the LaStanza series of New Orleans Police novels, GRIM REAPER, THE BIG KISS, BLUE ORLEANS, CRESCENT CITY KILLS, THE BIG SHOW and LaSTANZA: NEW ORLEANS POLICE STORIES, as well as the sexy caper novel SLICK TIME, the John Raven Beau short story collection NEW ORLEANS NOCTURNAL; the erotic thriller MAFIA APHRODITE; a collection of erotic detective stories NEW ORLEANS IRRESISTIBLE; the double volume HOLLOW POINT & THE MYSTERY OF ROCHELLE MARAIS and the collection NEW ORLEANS MYSTERIES.

In 2010, De Noux released a how-to book, A SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING AND SELLING FICTION.