Theres another novel, 1929 by Frederick Turner.

Another refugee from the remaindered bin. As you say the Berton might have been from an earlier period. Like Hudson Lake , it has Bix sharing a mistress with Machine Gun Jack McGurn.

I wasn't keen on the Sudhalter - it all seemed a bit Norman Rockwell.
Sort of revisionist in the way that Robert Louis Stevenson's widow tried to canonise RLS after death.

I know a lot of musicians whose parents gave them a hard time for following their bent, however i think the extent of the pile up disaster surprised a lot of people at the time. And no one seems to be able and willing to coordinate all the facts.

Those able to access the facts are unwilling to unravel the mystery, and those willing and anxious to solve the mystery don't seem to be able to access the facts.