Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Love a good historical mystery? Pirates and hidden treasure? Swoon-worthy southern cuisine? Find your heart’s desires in "The Lafitte Affair" by Norman Woolworth.

Curmudgeonly antiques dealer Bruneau Ignatius Abellard is finishing his last bite of Eggs Sardou (poached eggs, spinach and artichokes with Hollandaise sauce) when he gets a call from Detective Thibodaux “Bo” Duplessis of the New Orleans Police. Bo knows his childhood friend loves historical intrigue and amateur sleuthing as much as he loves food.

Bo is investigating a burglary, but because this is a city known for its cemeteries and dark energy (think Anne Rice), the break-in is to a casket in a mausoleum. What was taken or why is the unanswered question. All that’s left with the deteriorating corpse are scraps of paper with mysterious writing, as yet undeciphered.

The casket is that of Jane Placide, an actress who died of yellow fever in 1835. “Quite the celebrity in her day,” says Bru. Bo wants Bru to find out more about her. “Life story. Friends, enemies, love life. What she owned. Who she knew, what she knew,” says Bo.

Although they grew up next door to each other, Bru and Bo’s friendship is an unlikely one. Pudgy, white and shy, Bru helped Bo (athletic, Black and social) with his homework; Bo protected him from schoolyard bullies. Bo got a football scholarship, and Bru a research fellowship at Oxford, but when they reconnect at Bru’s antique shop on Magazine Street, their joking banter takes up where it left off. That Bo’s wife Angie is an excellent Creole cook only cements their renewed friendship.

Forensic science and a cryptographer decipher some words on the scraps of paper from Jane’s casket, and a few stand out: “pirate,” “treasure map” and “Lafitte.”

With the help of a Tulane history professor, Bru learns that Jean and Lafitte were alive at the same time, a time when Louisiana was folding its disparate inhabitants (Native Americans, Spanish, French, Haitian, frontier folk, southern planters, slaves and free Blacks) into America. New Orleans was a “wild, wild West” populated by “schemers and wheeler-dealers.”

Jane most likely knew the power brokers of the day. Lafitte hobnobbed with the upper echelons of New Orleans society but after the Battle of New Orleans, when he aided Andrew Jackson and the American cause, he moved his operations to Texas. Whether Jean and Lafitte knew each other — and whether they loved each other — is what Bru needs to discover. He digs deeper into the privateer’s mystique and finds that facts are in short supply. But who needs facts when Bru has the grand

dames of old New Orleans’ money and their trove of high society gossip and ancestral history to find the story behind the story?

Woolworth smoothly alternates between first-person narration by Bru and Bo, and the ghostly italics of Jane and Lafitte. In between are appearances by supporting characters, some historical, all brought to life by Woolworth’s vivid descriptions. He even throws in some suitable musicians for a suitable soundtrack while you read. Last but not least, there’s humor, and romance. Will Bru and his gal pal overlook each other’s idiosyncrasies and realize how much they care for each other?

All told, the book is a savory jambalaya that tempts you to take another bite and keep turning pages.

For a second helping, Woolworth says he’s “nearing the finish line” of another Bruneau Abellard novel expected to come out next year. It’s tentatively titled "The Bolden Cylinder" and the plot revolves around Buddy Bolden, a New Orleans cornetist and band leader who is sometimes referred to as the first jazz musician for his loud sound and improvisations drawing on ragtime, gospel, marches and rural blues. None of Bolden’s alleged phonograph cylinder recordings from the early 1900s are thought to survive, but his legend is remembered by music greats including Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Dr. John and Nina Simone. Trust Abellard to lead us into another dance.