Cahokia Jazz

I was totally unfamiliar with author Francis Spufford, but I liked this book--if not particularly the ending--I will seek out his other alternate history novel, Golden Hill. Cahokia is the name given to the area along the Mississippi River across from present day St. Louis. Over 80 mounds still remain and further excavations suggested the centralized trading center near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missori and Illinois rivers extended much further out the the main population center. Cahokia was the name of the nearest indigenous tribe when the area was "discovered" by French explorers, in the 17th C, but there is evidence of settlement going back to 600 BCE. The height of the culture was around 1200. "Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico"; it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Spufford's approach is to imagine a history in which native Americans were not all decimated by disease and warfare but, in part, thrived and were strong enough to negotiate a semi-independant status as a city-state within the United States. The city is still a major transit point to the west with trains going to each coast and heavy industrialization with all it's accompanying ills. This is set in the 1920's and the jazz age flourishes here as well with speakeasies, bootleg liquor and rampant corruption. Still the original inhabitants are the governing body and maintain many of their own beliefs, rituals and monuments--most of which have been integrated into a quasi-Catholic religious structure. As in the actual Cahokia, the residents are multi-cultural--primarily American Indian, Black and White--living more or less peacefully although living a largely segregated existence in different parts of the city. Characteristically, if there is money and power to be had, the Whites are scheming to take control and drive out the natives. 

This is the background when Cahokia detective Joe Barrow, a large man of indiscriminate Native origins, and his partner, Phineas Drummond, a seriously bent white cop who served in the Great War with Joe, are called to the scene of a murder atop the Land Trust building downtown. The victim, who turns out to have been a clerk working in the building, is eviscerated in a ritual way that suggests some connection to old Aztec rituals.  The two detectives have very different motives for wanting to close the case. Drummond wants the case closed regardlessof whether or not the actual perpetrators are fitted up for the crime. Joe moves away from the "mentoring" of his partner and pursues the truth, fronting munitions traffickers, a powerful bootlegger, the Native power brokers and the KKK. He fears that if Native Americans are scapegoated as the killers, the Whites will use this as the rationale to overthrow the government.

The world building and the weaving of actual history into the story line are first rate. The setting and feel of the era are richly evoked. And the characters are believably developed with the most significant evolution being for Joe Barrow himself.  Kirkus further elucidates these elements: "Spufford has cleverly thought through all the Risk-board elements of this setup, from Cahokia’s industries, to the intersection of Native folkways and Catholicism, to the city’s various ethnic enclaves... But at heart the novel is a straightforward, smart noir, with Joe torn among his police duties, his sideline as a talented piano player at a local club, an erratic white detective partner, a budding romance, and his own grim upbringing in an orphanage. ... but Joe is an original invention, steeped in complex history—a “Mississippian fusion” of European, American, and Native ideas—and torn over what do for himself, his city, and his culture. A richly entertaining take on the crime story, and a country that might’ve been. 

Reviews have been glowing with Library Journal concluding that "Spufford has written an astounding homage to noir mysteries. A poignant drama-filled novel that his fans and readers of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian will thoroughly enjoy." Publishers Weekly concurs, saying "This richly imagined and densely plotted story refreshes the crime genre and acts as a fun house mirror reflection of contemporary attitudes toward race—all set to a thumping jazz age soundtrack." And Booklist praises, "Spufford... riffs on familiar hard-boiled types (the corrupt cop, the femme fatale) and keeps the plot brisk and violent. But the tune Spufford plays is nothing less than history of an alternative North America, and with his exuberant world building he invites us to consider the notes not played. ...The outcome, suggests Spufford, might be a society just as diverse and dissonant as our own."