Another wild story somewhat in the vein of Cimarron, this one concerns two fortune huntersa belle whose relatives had been run out of town and a gambler from Texas who meet in New Orleans to set the local gentry in an uproar. (This part sent me scurrying for my Creole-Cajun cookbooks.) Bribed to leave town they set sights on Saratoga and the robber barons of the late 1860s. Here they converge with separate get rich quick schemes that target the railroad barons of the era. Well-written (what else could you expect) and loaded with intrigue and name dropping, it will keep your attention to the very end. (You might want a French-Cajun dictionary handy through.) The authors prediction at the end, while ideal, is misplaced; the robber barons and corrupt government returned in force in the 1980s and are now stronger than ever.

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