FROM JAZZ PIANIST, MEDIA HOST, LAWYER, AND PROFESSOR TO
NOVELIST, MICHAEL H. RUBIN DEBUTS ‘THE COTTONCREST CURSE’
Historical thriller combines southern lore with murder and mystery in what
political strategist James Carville calls a ‘powerful epic’
BATON ROUGE, La. – Garnering praise from New York Times best-selling authors and prominent
political strategist James Carville, “The Cottoncrest Curse” (September 10, 2014, LSU Press) is an
historically accurate, page-turning thriller from the multifaceted jazz pianist, media host, lawyer, law
professor, and now debut novelist Michael H. Rubin.
“The Cottoncrest Curse” is set across multiple generations and tells a compelling and complex family
story centered on itinerant peddler Jake Gold.
The bodies of an elderly colonel and his young wife are discovered on the staircase of their stately
Louisiana plantation home. Within the sheltered walls of the Cottoncrest plantation, Augustine and
Rebecca Chastaine have met their deaths under the same air of mystery as the colonel’s father, who
committed suicide at the end of the Civil War. Locals whisper about the curse of Cottoncrest
Plantation, but Sheriff Raifer Jackson knows that even a specter needs a mortal accomplice and rules
the apparent murder/suicide a double homicide – with Jake as the prime suspect.
Assisted by his overzealous deputy, a grizzled Civil War physician, and the racist Knights of the White
Camellia, the sheriff directs a manhunt through a village of former slaves, the swamps of Cajun country and
the bordellos of New Orleans. But Jake’s chameleon-like abilities enable him to elude his pursuers. As a
peddler who has built relationships by trading fabric, needles, dry goods and especially razor-sharp knives
in exchange for fur, Jake knows the back roads of the small towns that dot the Mississippi River Delta, and
Jake has many secrets to conceal, not the least of which is that he is a Jewish immigrant from Czarist
Russia. Jake must stay one step ahead of his pursuers while trying to keep one final promise before
more lives are lost and he loses the chance to clear his name.
“The Cottoncrest Curse” takes readers on the bold journey of Jake’s flight within an epic sweep of
treachery and family rivalry ranging from the Civil War to the civil rights era as the impact of the 1893
murders ripples through the 20th century and violence besets the owners of Cottoncrest into the 1960s.
“Michael Rubin proves himself to be an exceptional storyteller in his novel, ‘The Cottoncrest Curse,’”
says Carville, who knows Louisiana intimately. “The powerful epic is expertly composed in both its
historical content and beautifully constructed scenery. I highly recommend picking up this book to
catch a glimpse into life and conflict during the height of the Old South.”
Rubin hits the road this fall to discuss and sign copies of “The Cottoncrest Curse” on his cross-country
book tour. As a nationally known legal ethicist and humorist, he has given more than 375 major
presentations throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“Michael Rubin proves himself to be an exceptional storyteller in his novel, ‘The Cottoncrest Curse.’
The powerful epic is expertly composed in both its historical content and beautifully constructed
scenery. I highly recommend picking up this book to catch a glimpse into life and conflict during the
height of the Old South.”
– James Carville, political strategist and commentator
“In ‘The Cottoncrest Curse,’ Michael Rubin takes his readers on a compelling multigenerational
journey that begins with the Civil War and ends in the present day. A textured story of plantation
owners, the descendants of slaves, small-town Louisiana law enforcement, and Jewish merchants who
live in and around a stately Louisiana plantation, ‘The Cottoncrest Curse’ is impeccably researched,
deftly plotted, and flawlessly executed…Michael Rubin is a gifted and masterful storyteller. Highly
recommended.”
– Sheldon Siegel, New York Times best-selling author of the Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez novels
“Michael Rubin’s debut novel, ‘The Cottoncrest Curse,’ introduces us to a fresh new voice that
weaves talented prose and tack-sharp detail into an intriguing story set in Louisiana’s bayou
country. In a historically accurate whodunit that spans multiple generations, Rubin adroitly tackles
cultural diversity, racial tension and the dangers of keeping hidden truths while moving the plot toward
a satisfying, well-crafted conclusion.”
– Alan Jacobson, national bestselling author of “Spectrum”
In this heart-racing thriller, a series of gruesome deaths ignite feuds that burn a path from the cotton fields to the
courthouse steps, from the moss-draped bayous of Cajun country to the bordellos of 19th century New Orleans,
from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era and across the Jim Crow decades to the Freedom Marches of the 1960s.
At the heart of the story is the apparent suicide of elderly Civil War Col. Augustine Chastaine who, two decades
after the end of the Civil War, viciously slit the throat of his wife and then shot himself. Sheriff Raifer Jackson,
however, believes that this may be a double homicide, and suspicion falls upon Jake Gold, an itinerant peddler
with many secrets to conceal, not the least of which is that he is a Jewish immigrant in the post-Reconstruction
South, where racial, religious and ethnic prejudice abounds.
Jake must stay one step ahead of the law, as well as the racist Knights of the White Camellia, as he interacts with
blacks and whites, former slaves, Cajuns, crusty white field hands, and free men of color as he tries to keep one
final promise before more lives are lost and he loses the opportunity to clear his name.
Q&A with Michael H. Rubin
You’ve been a successful attorney for years; what inspired you take on the new challenge of
writing a thriller deeply rooted in Southern history?
As a Louisiana native and history buff, I’ve always been fascinated by Louisiana’s unique multicultural
society, from the early French and Spanish settlers who displaced and later oppressed the native
population to the 18th and 19th centuries’ freemen of color, the reprehensible slave trade, the numerous
immigrant groups, and those who came south during America’s expansion. I sought to create a
compelling story that ties the past to the present and deals with an evolving sense of what constitutes
“justice.”
How did you develop the main character of Jake Gold, the chameleon-like peddler who becomes
the subject of a massive manhunt?
My great-grandfather, a Russian immigrant who began his career as an itinerant peddler in the Deep
South and who had encounters with marauding bands of white supremacists, was the inspiration for
Jake. Although the setting is historically accurate, Jake and his adventures are purely fictional.
What is it about a southern plantation, usually romanticized in fiction, that drew you for the
setting of the book?
Both before the Civil War and during and after Reconstruction, plantations were the crucibles for
interactions between blacks and whites, between the educated and the unschooled, between southern
“aristocracy” and the merchant class, between those whose livelihood was tied to the land and those
whose only interest was commerce, and between those who enforced laws (both just and unjust) and
those whose power emanated from guns and violence. All of these came together on Louisiana
plantations and form the basis for the novel.
Why were you interested in making cultural diversity, racial tension, and the search for the truth
the novel’s underlying themes?
Truth and identity are intertwined. “The Cottoncrest Curse” is concerned with three universal
questions. Can we really know every significant aspect of our family’s history? How are our
relationships affected by our preconceived stereotypes and by our own sense of identity? And, do we
have an obligation to tell the unvarnished truth if it helps some but injures others?
What kind of research went into writing “The Cottoncrest Curse?”
A great deal of historical research underpins the entire book, ranging from events in the Civil War, the
plantation system in the 1890s, the intricacies of sugar-cane agriculture, the background of the famous
case of Plessy v. Ferguson (the “separate-but-equal” litigation that arose in Louisiana), which was
overturned by the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, and the Freedom Riders of the 1960s.
My Review:
This is a great book about family secrets and how there is always somebody that knows what happened. I really enjoyed the mystery of how people kept dying at this cursed house. I did not know what Jenny really did except towards the end, and I never would have guessed it. I was in awe of the author that he was able to write a story tat took place in basically three different eras, He also did a great job depicting life of the characters that lived in those times. From The Great Depression to segregation laws to the KKK to present day, this author took me through history. My favorite part was the beginning during the tour. It was really cool to hear from a tour guide, and then to read about the people that made that place famous, as they were making it famous. I am giving this book a 5/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
hmmm, was this a family secret? ?
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