Me and the Devil Blues

About the Book

In Me and the Devil Blues, Walter Ellis brings us a ghost story, a passionate romance, and a unique look into our musical and historical past. This fast-paced novel, in the tradition of Larry McMurtry and Toni Morrison, combines comedy and pathos with just a touch of the supernatural. Robert Foster is down on his luck. He wants to be a Blues musician, and he wants the beautiful Beatrice White, the prettiest girl in Memphis. Both seem beyond his grasp. Robert is disowned by his supposed father and driven into the Depression-era Mississippi Delta. There he meets the talented, funny, and alcoholic Charlie Patton and the mysterious and evil Matthew Foster.

Robert sells his soul to the Devil for Beatrice and for fame but finds neither to be what he expected. There is a surprising twist in the last chapter that will shock the reader into an entirely new dimension. Me and the Devil Blues is a blend of fact and fiction and features several real people as characters including Louis Armstrong, Chester Burnet, "The Howling Wolf," and the cranky and irascible Rice Miller, also known as Sonny Boy Williamson.

What does it mean to sell your soul? In an episode, near the center of the novel, Robert dreams that he makes a deal with his real father, the evil Matthew Foster, for the woman that he loves and for the fame that he craves. Robert then achieves fame, makes some popular records, and returns home to Memphis a hero. Beatrice White, who is living with Todd Young, a bootlegger and dope pusher, drops Todd and comes to live with Robert. Only gradually does Robert come to undestand Beatrice's secret, a secret that will drive her to the brink of suicide and him to the brink of madness.

About the Author

Walter Ellis lives in Grand Forks and teaches at the University of North Dakota. He is an expert in ancient history and has published two well-received biographies, Alcibiades, and Ptolemy of Egypt (Routledge, 1989 and 193). He was born in Birmingham, Alabama but received his Ph.D. from UCLA. He has taught at Loyola Marymount University, UCLA, and Pepperdine. Ellis published his first novel, Prince of Darkness, in England, a novel that Pulitzer Prize winning author Larry McMurtry called "an excellent read." Ellis has written three other novels. The Terminator's Wife is a contemporary satire about love, rebellion, scholarship and reincarnation. The Athenian, a historical novel, is set in fifth century Athens. Gatsby and Daisy, both prequel and sequel, is an exciting new continuation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's American classic.