Tony Fennelly: The Hippie in the Wall (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
When workmen discover a corpse dating back twenty years stuffed in the wall of a topless bar in New Orleans's French Quarter, it raises any number of questions. Questions like who is this person, how did he get there, and who is responsible. With no clues to go on and a mysterious corpse on his hands, Lt. Frank Washington of the Homocide Division turns to an unlikely source for help - Margo Fortier.

Margo Fortier is a woman with a past. While now a prominent member of New Orleans society - due to her marriage of convenience to the quietly gay scion of an old respected family - and a society/gossip columnist for the local paper, twenty years ago she was known as Cherry, a topless dancer at the bar in which the corpse was uncovered. Margo, driven by the twin desires of protecting her own precarious positions and uncovering a good story that will finally get her off the gossip beat, agrees to help the police try to identify the corpse.

Armed with questions and a reconstructed photo of the deceased, Margo tracks down the other former employees of the bar in a quest that takes her through all levels of New Orleans society, from the mainstream wealthy to the eccentric fringe, and uncovers a deadly conspiracy that endangers not only her position but her life.

Tony Fennelly: The Hippie in the Wall. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312104758 (May, 1994), 229 p., $19.95.