The Last Madam: A Life In The New Orleans Underworld

...I've ever read. I was completely enthralled by the low-life socialites who were pious, self-rightous and just as guilty as Norma of giving in to sins of the flesh. The writer has expressed vividly the details of New Orleans during the mid-century of the 1900's. I laughed, I sat in amazement...this is the story of a woman who was bigger than life, truly. Until the day she realized that she was not, actually, bigger than life. Life caught up to her and she was lost. Tragic and fitting. The memory of Norma Wallace and her life was definitely worth the entire day I spent enthralled reliving all her stories.

This intriguing book is a wonderful study of a woman, who, treated harshly as a youth in New Orleans, grew to be a powerful madam in the underworld of the Big Easy. She outsmarted cops and judges, eluding arrest for most of her career. Wiltz does a great job capturing the mystique of New Orleans with its cast of fascinating crooks, creeps, entertainers, and public figures who sought pleasure as well as anonymity in her famous brothel.

A fabulous book with wonderful descriptions of New Orleans. Norma is, of course, legendary, so it was a privilege to finally learn the details of her fascinating life. It kept me on my toes the entire time I was reading it. How amazing that you can know how everything turns out at the end and still not be able to put it down until you're finished.

I was a young investigative reporter living in the French Quarter in the era Christine Wiltz writes about, and I saw it all -- the political payoffs, the crooked cops, the upscale whores and the spavined sluts, the overstuffed and pompous city fathers, the pimps and touts and junkies. What a rich mix it was! Wiltz, a native Orleanian, put the odor of pralines and boiled crawfish and "buster" crabs back in my nostrils for the first time in 50 years. She's caught the era perfectly, and with considerable writing skill. "The Last Madame" is as authentic as an open grave in the St. Louis Cemetery.