{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260414T102527Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0306810123?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0306810123","authors":["Chris Wiltz","Christine Wiltz"],"book_id":"9780306810121","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780306810121","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780306810121.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","description":"The incredible life of French Quarter legend Norma Wallace -- and a portrait of an era in New Orleans history rife with charm and decadence (\"Wonderful. . . admirably recreates a slice of a life otherwise devoured by time\" -- Michael Lewis, New York Times Book Review ) In 1916, at age fifteen, Norma Wallace arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape-recorded her memories-the scandalous stories of a powerful woman who had the city's politicians in her pocket and whose lovers included the twenty-five-year-old boy next door, whom she married when she was sixty-four. Combining those tapes with original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles not just Norma's rise and fall but also the social history of New Orleans, thick with the vice and corruption that flourished there-and, like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Philistines at the Hedgerow, resurrects a vanished secret world.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780306810121","publication_date":"20010313","publisher":"Grand Central Publishing","slug":"the-last-madam","subtitle":"A Life in the New Orleans Underworld","title":"The Last Madam"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036120","confidence_band":"low","label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.6938,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"FIC027460","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Gilded-Age Romance","score":0.6868,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"FIC049040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black Historical Fiction","score":0.6859,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036120","confidence_band":"low","label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.6938,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"FIC027460","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Gilded-Age Romance","score":0.6868,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"FIC049040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Black Historical Fiction","score":0.6859,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO006000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Lives in History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036120","confidence_band":"high","label":"Southern U.S. History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS058000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Women's History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Southern U.S. History","score":0.6938,"slug":"southern-u-s-history"},{"label":"Gilded-Age Romance","score":0.6868,"slug":"gilded-age-romance"},{"label":"Black Historical Fiction","score":0.6859,"slug":"black-historical-fiction"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Southern U.S. History","Good for readers interested in book club","Good for readers who enjoy Southern U.S. History and Gilded-Age Romance."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Rick Bragg","Random House Audio"],"book_id":"9780375724442","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780375724442.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":14.4853,"title":"Ava's Man","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780375724442"},{"authors":["Ben Raines"],"book_id":"9781982136161","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982136161.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":12.6428,"title":"The Last Slave Ship","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982136161"},{"authors":["Christopher Knowlton"],"book_id":"9781982128388","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982128388.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":12.5909,"title":"Bubble in the Sun","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982128388"},{"authors":["Alexis Okeowo"],"book_id":"9781250206220","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250206220.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":12.1032,"title":"Blessings and Disasters","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250206220"},{"authors":["Diane C. 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