Reviews
Praise for The Bolden Cylinder
Norman Woolworth delivers another beautifully crafted, well-researched story featuring unlikely hero Bruneau Abellard—antiques-dealer, lover of the finer things in life, and accidental
detective. What a pleasure it is to once again spend time with this growing cast of colorful, eccentric characters that includes New Orleans itself, which Woolworth masterfully evokes in a plot steeped in the city’s rich musical tradition.
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Laura Buchwald - The Coat Check Girl and the upcoming The Book of Reservations
In his latest novel, The Bolden Cylinder, Norman Woolworth delivers a perfect blend of New Orleans culture, jazz history, unique characters, and intertwined mysteries. Bruneau Abellard, New Orleans antique store owner, finds a hidden compartment in a newly acquired piece of furniture that contains a relic of the earliest days of phonographs and recorded music—a “Edison Cylinder.” When it looks like the cylinder may contain a heretofore unknown recording by jazz legend Charles “Buddy” Bolden, the cylinder disappears in a house fire. The owner of the house goes missing. Authorities discover a dead body in the walls. And that’s just the beginning. Join Bruneau as he works to unravel the mystery behind the so-called “Bolden Cylinder”—and the secrets of the people he encounters along the way. You won’t be disappointed​
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Michael Rigg – Voices of the Elysian Fields, A Jonathan Gray, M. D. Mystery
As in his series starter The Lafitte Affair (2024), Woolworth populates his richly atmospheric New Orleans setting with a gallery of colorful, eccentric, and formidable characters…An entertaining follow-up with vivid characters and a rich sense of place​
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Kirkus Reviews
​I was excited to read The Bolden Cylinder because of its promise of jazz and its New Orleans setting—two of my favorite things. What I got was so much more: a richly layered mystery involving arson, unrequited love, and a fifty-year-old disappearance that ties the past and present together in unexpected ways…I couldn’t put The Bolden Cylinder down. This fast-paced novel is more than a mystery—it’s jazz history, secrets, friendship, and New Orleans.
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Underrated Reviews