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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mardi Gras Mambo, March 22, 2006
This review is from: Mardi Gras Mambo (Paperback)
At last Greg Herren was able to complete Mardi Gras Mambo even after hurricane Katrina forced his lover & he to leave their beloved New Orleans. MGM was certainly worth the wait.
As I had hoped Scotty, Colin & Frank had established a ménage á trois with Colin & Frank living in the upstairs apartment. Now the new guys are going to experience their first Mardi Gras which no one in his right mind would miss.
The plot begins when Scotty goes to his trusty dealer to get some hits of ecstasy. In spite of ex-Special FBI Agent Frank's concerns, he decides to join them using the party favorite.
They have a great night watching the parades and catching the throws of beads & other goo-gas that are traditional followed by a night of heavy dancing at one of the Quarter's better Gay Dance bars. Unfortunately, when they slowly wend their way home in the usually bedraggled state; they are met by the two officers of the New Orleans finest who inform them that Scotty's dealer had been murdered and he was known to be the last to see the victim.
Unlike one of the other reviewers, I refuse to put in spoilers so I will just say that the plot unwinds with even more twists and turns than Herren usually gives.
I highly recommend that you read this book even though you may not have read the preceding two "Scotty" books, though that would help.
MAY THE GODDESS SMILE UPON YOU!
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining mystery, April 27, 2006
This review is from: Mardi Gras Mambo (Paperback)
Former go-go dancer and personal trainer turned amateur private-eye Scotty Bradley is back in "Mardi Gras Mambo." Again based in New Orleans (as is its author Greg Heren), this third book in the series was delayed due to the author's forced temporary relocation from that city, although the author wisely avoids including the hurricane in the book, since this is very much about the "party hearty" New Orleans that may take some time to come back, but hopefully will.
This time around, Scotty is in the private eye business with his two lovers, former federal agent Frank and the mysterious Colin, both of whom entered his life in the last book. The fourth main character of the book seems to be the drug Ecstasy, which all three of them find to as necessary as a gym-toned body and a hot costume before going out to party in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. When Scotty's Russian-born Ecstasy dealer turns up dead, shortly after he leaves the dealer's apartment, Scotty becomes a suspect and starts an investigation of his own, with Frank's and Colin's help. What they find is a strange story involving a gay porn site, the Russian mob, a suspicious charater watching their apartment, and a three-for-all filling in another story about Scotty's strange family history.
Like the previous ones in the series, this book is not for everyone, but is a highly enjoyable purely escapist novel with a passable (though barely plausible, compared to past books in the series) mystery content to hold one's interest. I like Herren's style, and although I'm sure his depiction of the rampant drug use in New Orleans, especially during Mardi Gras, isn't far from accurate, I wish he would have not made Ecstasy seem as socially acceptable and tolerated as an occasional joint, since it is a message I would not have wanted to send to younger gay readers sure to pick up his novel. I give the book an overall four stars out of five, but was contemplating taking away one star because of the endorsement of that drug.
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fabulous gay Noir, March 3, 2006
This review is from: Mardi Gras Mambo (Paperback)
In New Orleans, former b-dancer turned private investigator Scotty Bradley returns home at daybreak after a wild night of advance celebrating of Mardi Gras. However, instead of hitting the sack to prepare for Carnival fun with his two boyfriends Frank Sobieski and Colin Cioni, two detectives interrogate Scotty re his being seen in the French Quarter with Russian émigré Misha Saltikov, the source of the sleuth's illegal drug usage. Not long after they were seen talking, someone killed Misha.
Though he prefers to stay out of the police investigation, Scotty begins making his own inquiries using underground links that would never talk to a cop. To his shock, Scotty finds his own zany relatives are somehow involved as well some odd Russians who might be Mafioso. At the same time he conducts his investigation, his affairs with Frank and Colin abruptly collapses when the former is abducted and the latter vanishes without a trace leaving Scotty with a second and perhaps third personal case to deal with that is if nothing ties together and so far nothing has.
In his third appearance (see BOURBON STREET BLUES and JACKSON SQUARE JAZZ), Scotty is at his beleaguered best coping poorly with cops suspecting him in a drug deal turned bad and even worse with his lovers gone. The investigation is terrific as the hero pays homage to the city he cherishes while trying to prove his innocence, save his lovers, and celebrate Fat Tuesday. MARDI GRAS MUMBO is a fabulous gay Noir.
Harriet Klausner
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