The agnostic, ten-years-sober son of a Baptist minister, B. Sammy Singleton has an opinion about everything. A transplant from New York City by way of Paducah, Kentucky, and New Haven, Connecticut, he also has a guidebook to New Orleans coffee shops to write. But when his best friend, Catfish—reluctant heir to the Beaucoeur sugarcane fortune and a one-time antiques dealer—is arrested for grave robbing and then goes missing, events spin out of control.

Narrated by Sammy in the days before a hurricane changes the city forever, The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans: Part 1 blends satire, mystery, and historical fiction as it explores the “sacrament” of coffee drinking, living sober, New Orleans’ civil rights history, and the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in America. The French Quarter and Faubourgs Marigny and Tremé inhabit the novel every bit as vividly as the offbeat characters Sammy encounters in his adopted hometown, which, as Sammy says, “took him in, no questions asked.”

Though not always the most tuned in when it comes to himself, Sammy is a keen observer who takes readers on an antic journey that is often hilarious. But as Sammy becomes increasingly anxious about Catfish’s well-being, he begins to excavate buried truths about himself and about what the tragedy-bound Catfish calls the American Holocaust. Whether you call New Orleans home or have never even visited, with B. Sammy Singleton as your guide you’ll gain intimate new insights into a city many truly love, but few truly know.