Introduction to the 8th Printing of
Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion

by Don Davis
Author of Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion

Welcome, dear reader, to the eighth triumphant printing of Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion. Due to the immense success my book has enjoyed since its release, I have been asked, and subsequently begged, then finally paid ungodly amounts of money to write a few words for the handful of people who have not yet read it, thus justifying this eighth printing.

I refer to you of course, dear reader, who hold this book in your hands. You, who have finally decided to find out for yourself why everyone can't stop talking about Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad — the passion of one, the "rappelling down buildings" vice squad tactics of the other.

This eighth printing is also a gift to those of my readers who have worn out their last seven editions. Here you go. Feel free to read this one to scraps as you have the others, you lucky devils.

As I write this, Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion has won every award the romance novel industry has to offer. It has sold more copies than Rebecca Lockhart's Court Order to Seduce and Diane Westlake's To Tame an Outlaw Scoundrel combined. And the question I am asked so often — at book signings, during interviews with respected magazines, over dinner with Hollywood starlets, even in the middle of post-dinner intercourse with same — is "How? How on Earth could this book be so successful?" Their questions flatter me, even if the tenor of their voices could, to a casual listener, be mistaken for incredulity or even outright disbelief. And as I am busy signing, answering questions, eating or walloping away at the time, I usually decline to answer, either laughing or making a sex face depending on the locale.

How could this book be so successful? The answer is surprisingly uncomplicated: Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion is a work of love. The love between a man and a woman? If only it were that simple. The love between a man and several anonymous women at once? I sincerely wish it were that complex. No, the truth lies somewhere in between, as all great novels do: the love between a man and his great novel. The man? Me. The novel? Mine, and this one.

Do not let the immense and heartfelt praise already heaped upon this work dissuade you from mailing me your own. I assure you I will add it to the large pile collecting on the floor of my study. If it toadies up accordingly, I will even bronze it and put it on the wall with the other good ones.

Among the stellar reviews currently glittering on my wall is one by The New York Times, honoring me with the title "a poor man's Erica Jong." The article goes on to explain that "poor" in this context refers not to the financial status of my readers but rather their moral and spiritual quality. As I enjoy the works of Erica Jong, I choose to interpret this review as glowing - into the bronzer. You'll note that this eighth printing even includes a pull quote from the review ("Davis is a poor man's Erica Jong!") on its dust jacket, just below the pull quote "Unexceptional!" by The New York Book Review. (I interpreted this to mean that, in the view of The New York Book Review, there was nothing to take exception to in Duke Thibodeaux. A perfectionist by nature, I was flattered beyond measure.)

There have been other reviews of Duke Thibodeaux, of course — reviews by small, petty, envious men that I won't get into here. There was a time when I would have sullied the pages of this introduction by suggesting that these sad men were merely jealous of the literary notice my novels have obtained, while their books rot on the shelf unread and untouched. I would doubtless also have hinted broadly that these same men conduct any number of depraved clandestine acts in obscure leather bars, fellating anonymous men for whatever happens to be in their pockets at the time. Change, bus fare, a comb — the contents would matter to them as little as the act would sate their lust. Luckily I will not reduce myself to their level — in any event, these suggestions were covered many times over in my press release ("My Critics Fellate Anonymous Men in Obscure Leather Bars", Sept. 2001).

Dear reader, you are about to undertake an odyssey, and I envy you the emotions you will experience in the next several hours, for the duration of Duke Thibodeaux's sprawling double-spaced 106 pages. Here is the tale of lustily swaggering Detective Duke Thibodeaux of the C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad, and his tempestuous relationship with the sultry, bosom-heaving Desdemona LaTroix. Has this story somehow combined all the elements needed to resonate with the world as something pure and true? I think so.

One thing I am told often by my readers is the number of questions Duke Thibodeaux raises. I have since reread the novel and, indeed, questions are posed almost immediately and don't stop until the very last page. Can Desdemona be trusted? Can Duke trust himself? Will Duke unravel the mystery of the Black Pearl of the Orient? Or succumb to Desdemona's passion? What about all those veiled threats to Duke from Bayou kingpin Fat Jimmy Boulangerie? What of their passion?

Also: Is Duke getting too close to the truth? What about CA.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Captain Cadeaux? What will he decide is more important: that Duke Thibodeaux is the best damn cop he has? Or that he's a loose cannon ready to go off? What about the acronym C.A.J.U.N.? What does it stand for? Judging from the hundreds of letters I receive each year, readers are eager, often disturbingly so, to have these questions answered. In fact, most of the letter writers are angry that I did not answer any of them in the book itself.

To ask whether or not my novel closes its plot threads satisfactorily is to, I think, miss the point. Millions have entered the world of Duke Thibodeaux, giving themselves over to his adventures, feeling firsthand the seductive power that throbs through the sweltering lagoons and moist streets of the Bayou. Duke Thibodeaux contains moments of suspense so taut with mysteriousness you will not be able to put the book down. At other times, Duke Thibodeaux holds such passion within its pages that you will not be able to put the book down fast enough, so eager will you be to touch yourself. And yes — in places — Duke Thibodeaux is so scary you will fart ghosts.

Yet despite my copious praise for my book, I admit I do not honestly know why it has become the best selling romance novel of all time. Why? I am as perplexed as the many people who ask me. Why do millions upon millions of men and women read and reread Duke Thibodeaux: C.A.J.U.N. Heat Vice Squad Passion like some holy artifact? What is it that so attracts them?

I do not have the answer. All I can do is leave you to judge for yourself.

Don Davis
New Orleans, Louisiana, 2003

Other Novels By Don Davis

Tex Quickmount:
Low Intentions on the High Plains

Sven Skynswärd:
Viking Necking on the Throbbing Seas

Lily Vermillion:
By a Rogue Seduced, By a Harlot Betrayed

Dirk Samson:
To Die For a Kiss, Three Fingers For Passion

Table of Contents

Black Pearl: The Jilting of Baron von Fassbinder
3

Waiting For Sex
14

A Bayou Heart Dreams of Sex
21

Forbidden Sex
29

To Tempt With Sex
32

Only Sex Need Apply
41

Duke's Desire for Sex
49

Sex
52

She Smelled of Sex
63

A Fraud Exposed (For Sex)
70

A Change of Sex
86

Duke's Kind of Sex
93

Epilogue: Sex Against All Odds
100