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The �raunchy, hilarious, and thrilling� true story of the incomparable Norma Wallace, proprietor of a notorious 1920s New Orleans brothel (NPR). Norma Wallace grew up fast. In 1916, at fifteen years old, she went to work as a streetwalker in New Orleans� French Quarter. By the 1920s, she was a �landlady��or, more precisely, the madam of what became one of the city�s most lavish brothels. It was frequented by politicians, movie stars, gangsters, and even the notoriously corrupt police force. But Wallace acquired more than just repeat customers. There were friends, lovers . . . and also enemies. Wallace�s romantic interests ran the gamut from a bootlegger who shot her during a fight to a famed bandleader to the boy next door, thirty-nine years her junior, who became her fifth husband. She knew all of the Crescent City�s dirty little secrets, and used them to protect her own interests�she never got so much as a traffic ticket, until the early 1960s, when District Attorney Jim Garrison decided to clean up vice and corruption. After a jail stay, Wallace went legitimate as successfully as she had gone criminal, with a lucrative restaurant business�but it was love that would undo her in the end. The Last Madam combines original research with Wallace�s personal memoirs, bringing to life an era in New Orleans history rife with charm and decadence, resurrecting �a secret world, like those uncovered by Luc Sante and James Ellroy� (Publishers Weekly). It reveals the colorful, unforgettable woman who reigned as an underworld queen and �capture[s] perfectly the essential, earthy complexity of the most fascinating city on this continent� (Robert Olen Butler).