Forgotten Books: The Lafitte Case by Ray Peters

Yesterday we looked at some of the legends surrounding the death of Jean Lafitte, including one that says he was buried in the present-day town of Lafitte, Louisiana, next to Napoleon Bonaparte and John Paul Jones. Pretty goofy, right?

Maybe so, but that legend inspired Ray Peters to write a mystery novel that makes it seem almost believable. The Lafitte Case (1997), takes place in three different time periods. We have an attorney who, in 1923, becomes obsessed with proving the legend true. We have that same attorney's grandson in 1993, presenting his grandfather's research to the scholars of The Lafitte Society. And we have flashbacks to the 18th and 19th Centuries, where we meet not one but two Jean Lafittes, and see how it all might have come about.

Yes, part of the theory as presented in the novel is that the man known to history as Jean Lafitte was actually two different people, which helps account for the some of the contradictory legends. It all adds up to an intriguing and entertaining mystery.

And hopefully, you might also be amused by my new pirate yarn, "The Judgment of Jean Lafitte," appearing in the new eBook anthology ACTION: Pulse Pounding Tales Vol. 1, available HERE. And hey, if you don't like my tale, the book features 36 others, totalling 140,000 words, so you're bound to find something that gets your pulse pounding.

Forgotten Books are collected this week at Sweet Freedom.