| The Knight of New Orleans
The Knight of New Orleans is a novel following Creole chess player Paul Morphy on his tour of nineteenth century New Orleans, New York, Paris, London and back again. 
Morphy conquered the world but found his relationships with family, friends and the girl he pursued a little trickier than the sixty-four square madhouse. Above is Paul Morphy's house, 90 Royal Street, with its port-hole windows. Today it is 417 Royal Street between St. Louis and Conti Streets. Born at 1113 Chartres Street, Paul soon moves to Royal Street, where he grows up under the tutelage of his father Alonzo Morphy and his Uncle Ernest, after they discover his talent. Paul's exceptional ability alters the Morphy family, as he is projected towards the possibility of fame: he takes on the chess players of Europe, in the mid-nineteenth century, the best in the world. 
Click on the house to read about Morphy's family
New Orleans is divided by race, gender and social position, power shared unequally between politician and public, black and white, Creole and American, men and women. The Morphys cross from the upper to the lower class. The Morphys cross from the upper to the lower class. They attend the opera and play chess on Sundays against visiting champions of the royal game. So too they trade in slaves with pirates, duel, drink and wandering into the red light district. So long as secrets remain, all will be well. Paul's infatuation with la belle Clara Young opens the possibility of social transgression.
But for how long? Paul must take a respectable career, and Clara must consider her future. Dark clouds gather over the forgotten Crescent City, and the country itself. Mardi Gras must end one day, as every game has an end. Yet uniting divided people holds more fantastical promise, it seems, in New Orleans than anywhere else... 
Above is a Creole corner house with wrought iron balconies. The photograph was taken at the turn of the 20th century.
The Big Easy The Knight of New Orleans takes place at a time when prostitution in the Big Easy was legally sanctioned. In the 1850s chess matches were fought as duels, with seconds, monetary stakes and gambling. Before modern chess competition but not before Mardi Gras, funerals, hurricanes, slavery, Civil War Union soldiers lining Bourbon Street, or real passage d'armes fought for love and honor...a chess player caught the national mood, a gentleman with a calm passion for the royal game, but an obsession for an 'unsuitable' woman.
| | The Murderess and the Hangman 
The Murderess and the Hangman is a story of murder with a twist. It is told from both sides of the scaffold. In 1879 William Marwood, 'gentleman hangman' for London and Middlesex, hanged 'callous murderess' Kate Webster. Her crime? The axe-murder of her landlady, Mrs Julia Thomas, in the leafy suburb of Richmond, London.  But is everything as clear as it seems? Certainly she is guilty, as we are told the story from both Kate's and Marwood's points of view. But when you set what Marwood does for a living against Kate's struggle in life, is there any room for forgiveness, understanding, redemption even? And what of the hangman who coolly moves from one execution to the next?
Marwood was a professional hangman, Kate a thief attracted by the tales he tells of his past hangings - hardly the most usual of romances! Both Marwood and Kate were really people, and he really did hang her for the crime. But there is no evidence they actually knew each other. I would therefore term my novel speculative fiction, faction, or a fantasy built on fact. In addition to these characters, I wanted to explore the nature of the victim, Mrs Julia Thomas, as well as the police detectives - the new officers of the Bow Street Runners - here Inspector Gil Sequin and Nimrod Jones, as they pursue Kate across London, England itself, and eventually Ireland - in order to bring her back to Marwood's gentle arms.
A common hangman or "Jack Ketch" blames his tools. S'blood and death. England must have its justice, and as any good Jack Ketch would say: "Toe the line, swing for us, and do the dance of death!"
This image  shows the top of the Old Bailey Criminal Court where Kate Webster famously went on trial for the murder of Mrs Julia Thomas.
In 1879 murder was executed with blood and laughter. The noose hangs above our heads, all our lives. Matt Fullerty is currently writing The Murderess and the Hangman.
| | American X Trilogy:
American Con Artist (Part I)
American Sophomore (Part II) American Author (Part III)
American Con Artist
American Sophomore
American Sophomore is a biographical novella about James Hogue, the runner, conman and prisoner – partly inspired by Geoffrey Wolff’s biography The Duke of Deception (1979), articles I read in The New Yorker in recent years and my own experience as a marathon runner.
Told in the first person, we learn directly about this real-life conman who tricked his way into Princeton University under a false identity. The remarkable thing about Hogue was that he was talented as a runner. But his expectations for himself were so high that he kept on desiring his life to reach higher levels of perfection. This compulsion led to Hogue assuming various false identities and casting himself frequently as younger than he was – all to reach a pinnacle of physical and intellectual self-esteem. I will aim to begin Hogue’s story while I continue work on The Murderess and the Hangman.
The novel is entitled American Sophomore because of Hogue’s penchant for returning to schools (again and again) in order to fulfill his running fantasy. We all want second chances…especially in American lives.
American Author
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