The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford is a quickly unspooling, cinematic mystery set in the fictional city of Cahokia, during the 1920’s. (The real Cahokia had vanished by 1200 C.E., leaving behind only mounds of grass-covered dirt in Illinois, near the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.) The population of author Spufford’s Cahokia is divided among takouma (Native Americans), takatas (of European extraction) and, to a lesser extent, taklousa (African Americans).

Spufford starts the story with the discovery of a dead body on the roof of an office building in the financial district. The body (a takata- of European descent) has had his throat cut and his body disfigured in a very gory way with a mysterious symbol written in blood. The two detectives in charge of the case are Phineas Drummond, a morally compromised, hardened cop (takata), and rookie Joe Barrow, (a takouma-taklousa mix), brought up in an orphanage. Barrow, who emerges as this thriller’s protagonist, often serves as interlocutor between and among different constituent groups. Initially reticent, he comes to assert his own point of view, informed by his growing realization that power doesn’t necessarily equate to good and evil is not confined to a single faction.

Author Spufford portrays a Cahokia in which indigenous people (takouma), despite being disdained by whites (and targeted by the local Ku Klux Klan), actually wield a significant amount of community clout. But whites hold the financial power, the banks, the utilities and valuable real estate. The Catholic Church, whose Jesuits had converted many indigenous people (deemed “savages”), also figures prominently.  The murder was intentionally ordered to stir fears of white people and instigate citywide chaos, which plays out over the week covered by the narrative.

There are other killings, romances, riots and numerous plot twists throughout, as well as colorful characters, smokey speakeasies, lurking dangers and jazz clubs. Barrow himself is a gifted jazz pianist and ponders throughout the book whether to remain a cop or to make music a career. As in a film noir, he is drawn to a powerful, seductive woman, who is not quite what she seems.

The book was among top books of 2023 on NY Times, NPR, New Yorker and other lists. For this reader, it is sometimes difficult to remember who’s on first, but the suspense builds from the opening chapter to the very last page. There is a lot of very painterly writing and layers of Indian symbols and Catholic myths. Book clubs will have a field day decoding all the layers of meaning.  That, in itself, combined with an appealing protagonist and intriguing narrative twists, makes Cahokia Jazz a compelling read.