Mark Twain called it The Gilded Age, those years after the Civil War to the end of the 19th Century. It was a time of great prosperity and great poverty, a time of great opportunities and social unrest. Not a golden time but an era covered in a golden shell – gilded.

On a dark night in Noressex, New York, Police Detective Mike Labruzzo comes to the aid of Matthew Den Helder, the injured son of the wealthy Den Helder family. This brief interaction leads to a series of encounters between the son of immigrants and one of the founding families of Noressex during the tumultuous Gilded Age. This epic historical novel follows the Den Helders – Matthew and his twin sister Elspeth and their sister Alicia through a pivotal summer in their lives as Mike Labruzzo struggles with the death of his wife and raising his 4-year old daughter while working the mean streets in a tough urban environment.

As Elspeth works hard to become an artist, a painter, Alicia meanders listlessly from party to soiree and Matthew stumbles from one accident to another in his unsuccessful pursuit of girls – Detective Labruzzo and his police squad pursue hardened criminals trying to organize into a modern American Mafia. Through chases and shootings, thefts and extortions, fraud cases, strikes and riots and an horrific explosion set off by anarchists, Labruzzo and the Den Helders cross paths often, as if they are drawn together like iron to a magnet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in New Orleans, O’Neil De Noux writes novels and short stories with 43 books published, over 400 short story sales and a screenplay produced in 2000. Much of De Noux’s writing is character-driven crime fiction, although he has written in many disciplines including historical fiction, children’s fiction, mainstream fiction, mystery, science-fiction, suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, religious, romance, erotica and humor.

Mr. De Noux is a retired police officer, a former homicide detective. His writing has garnered a number of awards including the UNITED KINGDOM SHORT STORY PRIZE, the SHAMUS AWARD twice (given annually by the Private Eye Writers of America to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction), the DERRINGER AWARD (given annually by the Short Mystery Fiction Society to recognize excellence in short mystery fiction) and POLICE BOOK of the YEAR (awarded by PoliceWriters.com). Two of his stories have been featured in the BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES annual anthology (2003 and 2013).

In 2012, O’Neil De Noux received an Artist Services Career Advancement Award from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for BATTLE KISS, a 320,000-word epic novel of the Battle of New Orleans. He received the 2015 Literary Artist of the Year President’s Award from the St. Tammany Parish Art’s Council, St. Tammany Parish, LA.

He is a past Vice-President of the Private Eye Writers of America.

For additional O’Neil De Noux material, go to: oneildenoux.com