Cahokia Jazz is a phenomenally inventive counterfactual noir crime thriller set in an alternate version of 1920s America. In Spufford's imagined history, European settlers in America bring with them a far less deadly strain of the smallpox virus meaning that a far larger native American population continue to exist into the 20th Century and form the largest ethnic group (known as the 'takouma') in the fictional midwestern city of Cahokia. Their community, built around a combination of Jesuit and traditional indigenous beliefs, maintains a precarious hold on most civic institutions, and the coexist mostly peacefully alongside the city's white ('takata') and Black ('taklousa') populations.

We only learn the contours of this richly imagined world as the novel progresses: we begin instead with a propulsive whodunnit mystery as detective partners Joe Barrow (mixed-race takouma and taklousa, who grew up in a children's home in Nebraska and is also a skilled jazz pianist) and Phineas Drummond (a shadier takata figure) investigate the murder of a takata clerk on the glass roof of the city's Land Trust building. This initially seems like a ritual killing mired in traditional takouma beliefs, but while Drummond is keen to tie up this case as quickly as possible, Barrow starts to discover more and more details that don't quite add up and point to something much more troubling which could threaten the city's fragile peace as well as Barrow and Drummond's partnership.

The novel unfolds over the course of six days as Barrow asks more questions and becomes further embroiled in the city's murky secrets. It is often a complex and demanding read as we need to orientate ourselves in a totally unfamiliar world at the same time as unravelling a web of intrigue, but I found it to be well worth the effort. Spufford delivers a gripping police drama, full of unexpected twists and cleverly riffing on and subverting many of the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction from the period in which this is set. But it also offers many profound reflections on race, colonisation, power and beliefs, and as with his previous novel, the counterfactual approach allows for a moving meditation on what has been lost. Some of the descriptions of mob violence are particularly chilling and sadly feel very timely in the light of recent events in both the UK and the US. And Barrow is a compelling protagonist about whom we come to care very deeply.

Overall, then, this is a hugely impressive work of fiction whose ambition more than pays off. Many thanks to NetGalley for sending me an ARC to review.

A story in place that could be or not, in the roaring 20s. Speakeasy, gangster, twists, femme fatale and a lot of twists.
An entertaining and fascinating story by a great story teller
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Unfortunately, I was unable to download this book before it was archived and so am leaving this as a review/explanation as I didn't know what else to do after finding a few books I had managed to miss in a section of my account entitled Not Active: Archived, Not Downloaded; so I thought it best to clear it up. I have already bought a copy and will leave a review on places like Amazon, Goodreads, Waterstones, etc, once I've completed it and formed my thoughts on it. Apologies for any inconvenience and thank you for the opportunity.

The term ‘thought experiment’ or alternative history’ can be enough to put me off reading a novel. Generally, it means that the book will be horribly dry or very much one-note: ‘what if Germany had won the Second World War’; ‘what if Martin Luther had become pope’; ‘what if [insert major world event] had not happened?’ But Spufford doesn’t do ‘that’ type of thought experiment: in his last book the alternative history related to specifics of the lives of a few children killed in a bombing raid – what if these few had lived? In Cahokia Jazz, the ‘what if’ is what if America had an entirely different history? This is an enormous canvas which is imaginatively tackled in the form a noir crime novel, and is a great detective novel in its own right.

Spufford is a fantastic writer with a great understanding of plot and character and most importantly, the understanding of what makes a good story. 'Cahokia Jazz' is written with such skill that you can let the story carry you and follow the thought experiment with the author or you can just accept the territory presented to you and just get on board a great detective story.
Either way, you are unlikely to read a more accessible, genuinely cerebral book. But equally, you are not likely to read a better crime novel this year.

Francis Spufford is an excellent writer and I absolutely loved Golden Hill. That great writing is ever present in Cahokia Jazz but it takes more effort to stick with the storyline. It is set in 1920's America in the City of Cahokia.. A city imagined by Spufford, run by The Takouma, an indigenous population. An horrific murder opens the story and introduces the two detectives tasked with solving the crime. Drummond, non Takouma,i s on the take but Barrow is more nuanced as an orphaned Takouma brought up outside Cahokia. As they investigate the layers of this intriguing society are revealed.

British author Francis Spufford travels to America in 1922 for his latest novel, Cahokia Jazz, but it is not an America that readers will know. The alternative world of Cahokia Jazz is one in which smallpox did not decimate the indigenous population of the North America. As a result, when European settlers started to arrive they found an organised and fearsome population. Fast forward to 1922 and the city of Cahokia, across the river from a little village called St Louis is the bustling metropolitan heart of a thriving indigenous culture. But the forces of white exceptionalism and rapacious capitalism that created modern America are still in play and is one that the leaders of Cahokia need to be continually on guard from.
While all of this sounds a little academic, Cahokia Jazz is far from that. Spufford builds his world through the lens of a murder investigation and the eyes of Joe Barrow, a takouma (the local word for the indigenous people) who was brought up in an orphanage and so new to much of his own culture and language. In this respect, Spufford uses classic noir detective characters (battered investigator, corrupt cops, femmes fatale, evil industrialists) and tropes in the way that they are best used – to explore all of the strata of a society. Through his investigation Barrow finds himself going from the centre of the city to its back alleys, exclusive club rooms and major institutions. And as all good noir detectives, he is constantly being beaten up, told off by his superiors and betrayed but also always angling towards solving the case no matter how painful the solution might be for him personally.
Spufford uses the plot and the action of Cahokia Jazz to reflect on more current events and the underlying tensions in America. The initiating event is a grizzly murder made to look like an Aztec sacrifice. Soon the racist currents start to surface and with it the Ku Klux Klan, waiting for an opportunity to challenge the legitimacy of takouma rule but also unhappy with the fact that Cahokia is also a haven for Black Americans (taklousa) also. A major set piece in the centre of the novel is a January 6th style march by a beweaponed crowd, freed by the anonymity of their white pointed hoods. But all through the book, Barrow reflects on the smaller moments of racism and the prejudice that sits beneath the surface of his city.
There are plenty of alternate histories, but some of the most effective are those told using the tropes of crime fiction. Novels that spring to mind include Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union and Robert Harris’s Fatherland. Cahokia Jazz is up there with the best of these. Spufford uses his investigation scaffold to explore and deliver a fully realised world with a vibrant culture full of complex characters. And it is a world that feels so complete that even in his Author’s Note, Spufford is able to reflect on events that happen well after those of the novel in a way that is likely to bring a smile to the faces of readers who get that far.

Francis Spufford's last two novels were both five-star reads for me, so I was more than excited to get my hands on his new one. But I'm afraid to say I didn't get on with it at all.

The action takes place in an alternative version of the US. It's the 1920s, and Cahokia is a booming but violent city, ruled by the takouma population (the Native Americans). A grisly murder sets events in motion and two detectives are assigned to solve the crime. Drummond is corrupt and conniving. Barrow, however, is a decent man: he's an orphaned takouma who can't speak the language. He quickly realises that the homicide he is investigating is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to evil in this troubled place.

There is a lot of exposition in this novel, way too much for my liking. It's very densely plotted, and at the start I found it hard to keep up with what was going on. The characters were difficult to get a handle on - Barrow is the one we are intended to root for yet I even found him tricky to figure out. I just couldn't engage with the story in any way. I get what Spufford is trying to do: imagine what the US would be like if the indigenous population hadn't been virtually wiped out. It's an intriguing concept, but the plot is nowhere near compelling enough for me to recommend this book.

Francis Spufford has written an unusual noir detective story. the novel opens with a gruesome murder. A man is found on the roof of a building with his heart cut out.
Solving the problem falls to Joe Barrow, a mixed race policeman. He leads us through First Nation population, local intrigue, bootlegging, music, Klu Klux Klan and other nefarious lives.
While it might fall short of the utterly fabulous ‘On Golden Hill’ this is a brave, ambitious and readable book.
My thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber Ltd for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Cahokia Jazz is set in an alternate-timeline US history, where 1920's St Louis is a tiny hamlet next to a large Native American-run city called Cahokia. Cahokia is a melting pot of Native Americans (takouma), black African Americans (taklousa) and white European Americans (takata), part of the United States of America but effectively ruled by the hereditary takouma dynasty.

We follow Joe Barrow, a Cahokia cop with mixed ancestry and excellent jazz pianist, as he tries to solve a rooftop murder and prevent the city descending into racial turmoil. This book has everything - a murder mystery, the Ku Klux Klan, speakeasies and political games, even a love story. I bought the audiobook version and thought that the narration was excellent and got me really immersed in the story.

A hugely enjoyable read.

A literary writer venturing into crime fiction for the first time. An alternative history featuring a heavy dose of First American vs African vs Caucasian ethnic struggle written by a white Englishman. A novel over 500 pages. All these are true, and all are reasons to think that Cahokia Jazz might fall flat on its face.

There’s also a lot to get to grips with upfront: two detectives, Native American Barrow and his sharp and wily senior partner Drummond. There’s a gruesome symbolic murder that requires investigation, and there’s the city of Cahokia in an alternative twenties North America, one in which money, religion and politics are all negotiated between the three races.

Spufford’s alternative history - based on the idea that the smallpox which wiped out 95% of the original inhabitants of North America arrived in a less venomous version, leading to a continuing mass population of Native Americans - is dense at first. Though he can’t avoid the narrative dumps completely, on the whole he shapes his narrative so that the reader finds out how and why Cahokia came to be the way it is, as the detectives search for the conspiracy that lies behind the murder of a civil servant.

It’s a mash-up of alternative history and noir thriller that takes time to emerge from the set-up, but once it does Spufford proves that he can not only world-build, he can deliver page-turning action sequences: a violent mass Klansmen rally and a mob shoot-out are both thrilling extended set pieces that dominate the second half of the novel.

Cahokia is a fully-realised city, from its trolley buses to its utility companies (these play a big role). Barrow is our impetuous but always moral guide in a week of investigation that takes him from hereditary civic leaders to speakeasies, slaughterhouses and slums. Though the Fatherland comparisons are apt, to me in its sense of different cities occupying the same urban space it recalls The City and the City, China Mieville’s masterpiece.

At times Spufford’s skill at keeping his various plates spinning is almost too much: there is a sense of a slight overpowering of the story by symbolism at the end. Barrow has to literally choose between getting on that midnight train to Georgia (not actually Georgia), or following up that ‘just one more thing’ about the case. But these are minor gripes. Having given himself a hugely demanding task, this novel brings it off almost entirely successfully.

I wanted to like this book and part of me did.

I enjoyed the writing, the characterisation and descriptions were vivid and easy to imagine, and the 20s detective noir was a refreshing new type of read.

But eventually I found myself bogged down by what Spufford was trying to do with the alternate America. I found the terminology difficult to remember - each ethnic group has a name - takouma - native American, taklousa - African ancestry and takata - European ancestry. Maybe it was just me but it took me ages before I stopped getting these mixed up and going back to the explanation at the front of the book.

I don't think I'm familiar enough with all the political and interracial themes the author was trying to explore in this book and ended up just feeling like I was missing something. This ended up being the wrong book at the wrong time and maybe on a different day I could have persevered as I really was enjoying the plot and writing. But unfortunately I dnfd just under halfway through.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

In ‘Cahokia Jazz’ Francis Spufford has written an extraordinarily unusual noir detective story. Set in a parallel 1920s America, the novel opens with the investigation of a gruesome murder. The body of Fred Hopper is found on the roof of a tall building, heart cut out. Evidence suggests a ritualistic killing. Hopper has been involved with the Klu Klux Klan and mixed up with a bootlegger and so possible reasons for his death soon become complicated.
Spufford’s invented city of Cahokia is itself a central character. Through the character of Joe Barrow, a mixed-race policeman, the author leads us through the city’s streets, immerses us in its folklore and ponders its secret tribal rituals. Meanwhile, the majority First Nations population is still in control …just.
As original as ‘Golden Hill’ if not, to my mind, as instantly immersive, ‘Cahokia Jazz’ is a novel about race, identity and corruption – and so much more. It’s hard to pin down, and that is part of its pleasure.
My thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber Ltd for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I was a big fan of Spufford's Golden Hill – that book still remains among my top favourites! – but enjoyed Light Perpetual less. I'm delighted to report that with Cahokia Jazz, I had the Golden Hill feeling all over again! This book had all the best features of Golden Hill. It transported me to a vividly-imagined 1920s America, and a murder investigation riven by racial tensions, corrupt authorities, and the menacing rise of the KKK. Spufford seamslessly interweaves history with the rhythms of jazz, and I learned a lot about the period as well as finding that special sense of immersion in a book that happens rarely!

wonderful

Unsettling and raw.
A novel about an ancient city that is now a hotbed of anger and disobedience. There's a murder but its more complicated than most and the investigation is a special one.
There's so much I want to say but it's best to go in blind as this is a very unique read.

Fascinating!

Another book that grew on me as it went on. Cahokia Jazz tells the story of Joe Barrow, a cop in the city of Cahokia (which was an Aztec civilisation that died out circa 1400s. The story is set in the 1920s where Joe and his partner, Drummond, are called out to a ritualistic murder on the top of a building.

Everything points to a Takouma (native American) being the perpetrator but as the two investigate it seems that the obvious conclusion may not be entirely correct.

There's a lot in this novel - issues of race, the fact that Cahokia is part of the union states but is run by native Americans leaving a frustrated Klan to try and gain the advantage any way they can. There are some great set pieces - a lockdown before a Klan uprising, a terrifying stand off between the two sides, lots of minor punches to the gut as the two sides clash both trying to get the upper hand and maintain control of a divided city. Remind you of anything?

The novel could have been written about 21st century America, simply substitute different groups but the result is the same.

At its most basic it is a murder mystery with culture wars thrown in. I have to say that the end of the book throws some real curve balls that I did not see coming.

I'd definitely recommend this for fans of historical fiction, anyone who enjoys a murder mystery with a difference or Spufford fans. It's good book and the only bit (and it is a tiny bit) is the sloppy romance stuff (and that's just a personal bugbear).

Thanks to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the advance review copy.

Francis Spufford's Booker longlisted and RSL Encore winning second novel "Light Perpetual" left me with complex feelings.

One on hand it was, for me, a beautifully crafted observance of the subsequent lives of five London based WWII schoolchildren thrown together by circumstance, and with a literally transcendent ending. But by contrast, it's central counterfactual-history conceit seemed largely redundant to me as a reader as the area of novel's world deliberately had no divergence from our own (for the author it both resonated and captured an idea of life being provisional) and I felt would have been far more effectively introduced at the end rather than the start of the book.

This his third novel, was described almost perfectly by him in early 2022 when he was 2/3 through writing it as " a strange noir crime novel, set in 1922, in a different version of American history where there’s a city on the Mississippi largely populated by Native Americans. Gore, Jesuits and jazz".

And in contrast to its predecessor the "branching point" between the world of the novel and ours leads both to a single profound divergence (the existence of the titular Native American City) and is only explained in the afterword where the author starts by saying "It’s a point of honour for stories set in alternative histories that the branching point where the history departed from our own should be identified in the book itself. But I couldn’t do it here – not without giving Detective Barrow a long, plot-stopping conversation with Sister Peggy about immunology."

The story takes place at a potential crisis point in its 20th Century history.

The City. is a mix of (in the indigenous populations language of Anopa) “takouma .. a person native to the continent. .. taklousa .. a person of African ancestry … takata .. a person of European extraction.” but predominantly takouma.

It has hesitantly joined the Union (one diminished from our timeline), but it still effectively ruled by a hereditary quasi-monarchy (one passed down uncle to nephew via the office of the Sun, but with a strong matriarchal offset with an also revered Moon in the same family whose influence is strongest during times of conflict). The Takouma are Jesuit-influenced Catholic but a Catholicism blended with more American (albeit their exact origin is one of the areas revealed in the novel) traditions – the City resplendent with a Pyramid topped Plaza and ball court.

At the book’s opening we are immediately embedded in both the City and the crisis – two local police force detectives –Phin Drummond (takata) and Joe Barrow (takouma in appearance, but an oprhan from Nebraska with no Takouma traditions or language) – are called to investigate a dead body which turns out to be a Takata worker (and Klan member) lured to the top of the tower and ritualistically murdered Aztec-style by the sacred Pyramid.

From there Joe becomes our effective third person point of view character.

Immediate suspicion – fuelled by a slogan painted in the victim’s blood – falls on a Takouma movement pressing for re-independence, and that in turn fuels immediate racial tension in the city including a Klansman march. Drummond has up until now been the senior partner: he and Barrow met in a Great War field hospital in France – helping each other through their injuries and PTSD – and post Armistice Drummond persuaded Barrow to join the Cahokia murder-squad (although with an eye to making as much money as possible – eg from bootlegger backhanders and bribes - and retiring to California). He is determined to find a plausible perpetuator as soon as possible – provided they are Takouma; but Barrow is, to his shock, contacted by both the Sun and the Moon (with whom he seems to have a mutual sexual attraction) and urged to keep an open mind and think more of who might gain from the seemingly staged nature of the killing.

And from there the book sprawls out across the city, as we and Barrow learn more of its non-straightforward history and its complex and tangled present,

Barrow in particular learns that even those with noble causes will go to very ignoble lengths to protect them. Through all of this comes to terms a little more with his own past and tries to forge his own present identity; for those around the Sun and Moon he is quickly identified with a character from an ancient myth – the Thrown Away Boy, but Barrow aches to turn away from the grim reality of politics towards the release he finds in jazz-piano playing, while also feeling an obligation to the Moon in particular, for all he learns of her ruthlessness in her righteous cause.

Overall, this is a fascinating set up – one that in looking at the origin myths of Cahokia and Barrow of course in reality is challenging the origin myths of the USA and its “manifest destiny” built largely on native genocide. The examination itself is far from straightforward – not every reader will I think like the deliberately provocative quasi-beneficial role played by the Jesuits (which draws on a positive interpretation of their missions among the Guarani in Paraguay) but it is never less than learned, and a reader of the book will come away both entertained and educated.

So why not five stars – well the reason is the form in which the tale his hosted and told.

The book is a American-noir detective story complete with cigar chomping cops and corrupt and conniving councilors – and that is simply not the sort of book I enjoy; and its infused with Jazz which is easily my least favourite music form. In my ambiguous response to the use of the clothing and cliches of a (for me unfavoured) genre to carry a wider and ambitious idea - I was reminded of China Miéville and so was fascinated to see him referenced in the Acknowledgments.

But another excellent novel from one the most interesting authors around.

Set in an imaginary city in America during the 1920’s against a backdrop of a society struggling to adapt to change as different cultures collide. The investigation of a murder has huge implications which could result in a battlefield between different factions within the city. Central themes in the book are racial discord, corrupt authorities and the growing power of the Klu Klux Klan.
A true rollercoaster where the real and the fantastic collide sweeping the reader along with the accompaniment of jazz.

Francis Spufford's engages in building a thought provoking alternative American historical fiction set in the 1920s, imagining the ancient indigenous city of Cahokia besides the Mississippi, inhabited by people of all races co-existing together relatively peacefully. However, this stability cannot be taken for granted as the reader becomes immersed in the turbulent week of drama that unfolds. Joe Barrow is a detective on the Murder Squad of CPD, the muscle and follower of his police partner, Phineas. He is an orphan from Barrow, Nebraska, a talented jazz pianist who has played in Chicago, is referred to as a 'redskin', unable to speak the local lingo, the 'Thrown Away Boy', and a war veteran. On a cold and snowy night, he and his partner are called out to the top of the Land Trust building.

Laid out in a theatrical macabre display of sacrifice is the eviscerated body of a recent arrival to the city, Frederick Hopper, a impoverished clerk. It is politically imperative that the police get to the bottom of who is responsible as signs of turmoil kick off, aided by the intense media focus. Armed with a business card from the uncle of the moon, an informal source of power, guaranteed to open doors, Joe becomes a diligent investigator, stepping into the unfamiliar territory of leading an inquiry. He has no choice, his friend and partner, Phin, has become unreliable with his deals, intent on nabbing any perpetrator, guilty or not, wanting to move to California. Joe finds himself captivated by the Moon princess and in pivotal situations he rises to the demands and challenges, as Cahokia descends into mayhem and fear, with the Klan out in numbers on the streets.

Spufford highlights America's deeply engrained problems when it comes to the thorny issue of race, little is as it appears, there are machinations, secrets and smoke and mirrors when it comes to discerning the truth, although understanding who benefits may clarify matters. No-one comes out pure, when it comes to power, few hands are clean, particularly when it comes to the 'greater good'. Joe experiences an epic level of development, and is derailed when he becomes aware of the dark side of the moon. He had wanted to believe, that Cahokia could be a good home, that he fit, but this seens to slip beyond his grasp. It is undeniably an imperfect world, is music all that Joe can count on? A marvellous, atmospheric, beautifully written and gripping read that dares to hope, amidst a background of bleak darkness and the pulsing joy of jazz, that I recommend highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

The story of a long week 101 years ago in an America that never quite was, and more specifically of Joe Barrow, a man torn between two heritages, and also two callings - as the story opens he's dabbling as both a policeman and a pianist. It's hard to say too much about this one without spoiling the expert pace at which Spufford unrolls his tapestry; even if I note my early misgivings about how Cahokia thinks of itself not aligning with what we know of the real Cahokia, and then say that of course that turns out to be deliberate, a point about how living cities don't always remember their past as it happened, but that beyond a certain point it doesn't entirely matter, well, I've already given away a little more than I feel comfortable about. The notion of one of North America's great pre-Columbian cities surviving a little longer than it did here, still standing strong when the settlers arrived, and how that might affect the perpetually vexed question of race in the USA, is a fascinating one - although this being the 2020s, I confess to some trepidation as to how a novel on that theme by a white Brit will be received, regardless of the clear message that if anyone tries to foment racial strife, you should probably begin by asking what they're selling. In taking place in a divergent 20th century America, being framed as a detective story, but having no SF elements beyond the alternate world, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is an obvious point of comparison; I also got echoes of James Ellroy, though with more light in the darkness, or maybe just a greater readiness to forgive humanity's failings. There's perhaps a dash of Earthly Powers too, and at least one nod to The Leopard; exalted company, to be sure, but Cahokia Jazz can hold its head high among them.

(Netgalley ARC)

Original, imaginative, thought provoking, engrossing, engaging and beautifully written with characters who are credible and engaging.

What more is there to ask for from a master at the top of his game. I enjoyed this as much as “Golden Hill” which is praise indeed.