Southeastern Louisiana University

Southeastern writer pens new police novel

Contact: Rene Abadie

4/18/11

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     HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University police detective O’Neil De Noux has released his eighth novel, a thriller set in pre-Katrina New Orleans.
     “John Raven Beau,” the title of the 72,000-word novel and the name of its primary character, focuses on a desperate search for a killer who is ambushing police officers in the Crescent City. A cop who hunts killers with methodical precision – characteristics innate in the half-Cajun, half-Sioux Beau – he quietly and relentlessly pursues the killer.
     The character Beau has appeared in 18 of DeNoux’s published stories, nine collected in his short story anthology “New Orleans Nocturnal.” This is the first in a series of Beau novels, De Noux said.
     De Noux has authored 15 previously published books and has received two national writing awards: the Derringer Award in 2009 from the Short Mystery Fiction Society and the Shamus Award in 2007 from the Private Eye Writers of America for best short story. He is currently working on a historical epic set during the Battle of New Orleans under a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
     An investigator with Southeastern’s police department since 2006, De Noux has served with the sheriff’s offices in Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes. He has also worked as a private investigator, criminal intelligence analyst and creative writing instructor. He has been writing professionally since 1988.