Jefferson Parish Library presents four Louisiana authors with new novels to share on Thursday, July 18

Four local authors — Carolyn Levy, Rene Uzee, Cherie Claire and Pam Villagran – talk about their new novels at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 18, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie. The event is free and open to the public.

Carolyn Levy, Regina

Who killed Regina? Did she shoot a bullet through the pillow to make it look like her husband had murdered her? Or did he really do it? Or was it the Mayor? In the sweltering summer of 1984, this was the sensational murder case that gripped New Orleans.

Carolyn Levy was born and raised in New Orleans. She earned a bachelor of arts in French from the University of New Orleans and pursued a master of arts degree at Northeastern University in Boston. She returned to New Orleans and married attorney A. J. Levy. Thereafter she traveled widely and wrote constantly in airports, on airplanes, in hotel lobbies and at her kitchen table. Writing is a pleasure, redrafting is work, but she persists.

Rene Uzee, Yellow Jack

On September 23, 1856, an outbreak of Yellow Fever prompted a Government seizure of the Eustis Beckworth property, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, which was held for 150 years. A cover-up ensued. In 2006, Carl Beckworth inherits his ancestral property, and plans a family reunion. Just days after the Beckworth reunion, some family members become extremely ill, others escape death. Following a full investigation at the Beckworth property, Carl files suit against the United States Government. In February 2007, intense court proceedings begin in New Orleans, revealing: secret meetings, scandals, negligence, murder, and political corruption. Then comes the unexpected twist.

Despite Hurricane Katrina destroying both his home and his hair salon business of 25 years, native New Orleanian René Uzee picked up the pieces and re-established in Baton Rouge. Once diagnosed with Lupus and Leukemia, he beat the odds and today is Lupus- and cancer-free. Now Uzee has again beaten the odds to present his epic novel, Yellow Jack, a story centered around both the catastrophic 1853 New Orleans Yellow Fever epidemic and political corruption.

Cherie Claire, Ghost Trippin’

John Valentine left home for a birding conference and never returned, his family chalking it up to the divorced father’s mid-life crisis. But when a body is found on the old family homestead, his daughter Viola must piece together the clues her father left behind. Along for the ride are her witchy Aunt Mimi, her uptight lawyer sister Portia and her sometimes ex-husband Thibault Boudreaux, otherwise known as TB. What they discover on this crazy ghost trip through Texas will be much more than they anticipated.

Cherie Claire is the award-winning author of several Cajun historical romances and The Cajun Embassy series of contemporary romances and the Viola Valentine paranormal mystery series. She's a Holt Award finalist, a Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award finalist and received the Louisiana Press Women Book of the Year. She also writes non-fiction books under her real name of CheréDastugue Coen.

 

Ann Marie Jameson, Petite Rose

With her fiancè thousands of miles away serving in Korea, Maggie Perot suddenly finds herself in the worst predicament possible. With nowhere to turn, and no money to support herself, what is she going to do? Petite Rose is the third book in the Willow Rose series under Pam Villagran under the pen name of Ann Marie Jameson. The first novel in the series, A Bed of Roses, was published in 2016; the second, titled Belle Rose, was published in 2017.

Pam Villagran was born in New Orleans and has lived in various areas of the state. Her mother's side of the family came from France in the early 1800s and settled in Natchitoches. Her father's family also came from France but they passed through Canada before settling in Cotton Port, Louisiana. Villagran considers herself to be of "Cajun" French heritage. She, like her character, Mary, is the second child of a large family of eight children.