THE MONTMARTRE BLUES

Rendez-vous Eighteenth has been considered “crime fiction.” I’m not sure I agree with this.  I’m leaning more toward classifying, if you must, Jake Lamar’s novels as “social commentary”.

You see, Ricky Jenks, the protagonist, has escaped psychotic girlfriends, humiliation and betrayal in the United States to find a new life in Paris. He has chosen the world of the 18^th arrondissement among the whores, pimps, transvestites, immigrants and tourists of the Pigalle and Montmartre, in his bloodstained walk up apartment building.

He’s finally found peace of mind in his routine as an expat musician in a crèperie in Montmartre, and the companionship of his ‘big haired’, ball busting Muslim girlfriend, Fatimah, who will only marry a Muslim man.

Dramatically upsetting his uneventful but satisfying life of bohemian freedom and independence is the arrival of his cousin Cash, a world- renowned orthopaedic surgeon, and his ban of Eastern European mobster friends. 

Cash has arrived to commission Ricky to try and find his wife, Serena (aka Little Lonnie John)  who has fled the country to hide out in Paris after having attempted to murder him in their luxurious home with a kitchen carving knife.

In the Eighteenth arrondisement, we meet the ex-singer and fried chicken restaurant owner, Marva, the enigmatic members of the Million Man Diners group, Detective La Mouche, le flic de Montmartre and a host of other characters vying for parts in the most hysterical and fun expat novel I have ever read.

author, Jake Lamar

It’s sequel is entitled, The Ghosts of Saint Michel.