Customer Reviews

Murder in the Rue Chartres: A Chanse MacLeod Mystery (An Alyson Mystery)

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4 star:		(1)
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Greg has written a first hand account of New Orleans during and after Katrina wrapped in an excellent mystery. It's very moving and makes one totally feel for the people of New Orleans and the failure of Bush and his Republican administration in this disaster. Anyone who votes Republican in the next election is asking for the same in the future.

Directly after Katrina wounds New Orleans you see through the eyes of Chance how it felt to return. Also you find the town in need of Chance's skills to help solve some missing person cases and old forgotten cases. Greg has a talent of pulling me and not letting me go even after the story is over. This is a great exciting read that you need on your summer book list.

A pot-smoking gay private eye returns to New Orleans post-Katrina to resume a missing persons investigation only to find that his client has been murdered. Is his original assignment the cause? An intriguing mystery which may have roots in a true forty year old unsolved hate crime coupled with descriptions of the hurricane-battered city make this an exceptional read. Highly recommended for all. (If you become curious about the historic event mentioned here, the 'net offers a lot of info; original national televised newscasts are available on YouTube.)

Six weeks after the devastation Hurricane Katrina brought to his adopted hometown, New Orleans, private investigator Chanse MacLeod returns to try to resume his life there. Being one of the lucky ones, his apartment came through the storm relatively unscathed, but he is stunned and shocked by the surreal visions of what is left of the city and its formerly vibrant and joyful inhabitants.

Right before he left, he had been hired by Iris Verlaine, heir to a family shipbuilding empire, to find her missing father. While Ms. Verlaine subsequently canceled his contract before the storm, he still held her retainer check which he wanted to return to her. When he found out that she had apparently been murdered the same night that she called, he felt a need to look into that (and the missing father) to find closure at a time when very little in his own life seemed to make sense. Aided by Iris' brother Joshua, who rehired Chanse, and by his friends in the police department, Venus and Blaine, as well as his best friend, journalist Paige, Chanse uncovers a murder plot that encoumpases an unsolved arson at a gay bar, the unethical director of a nursing home, as well as how much greed and bigotry can tear apart a well-respected New Orleans family. In my opinion, it is Herren's best mystery novel to date, complete with fully-developed realistic characters pushing their personal agendas beyond any recognition of right or wrong.

But this is more than just a mystery novel. "Murder in the Rue Chartres" is also a love story ... showing the dedication of the residents of New Orleans to the spirit of their city, and the unfortunate emotional, psychological and substance abuse problems brought on post-Katrina ... not just from the devastation from the storm but by the well-publicized lack of proper action by the federal government in preparing the city for the hurricane as well as its criminally-deficient lack of assistance in cleaning up afterwards. It is clear that, more than any of his other works, the emotions expressed here are from deep in Greg Heren's heart, and I have not read a more honest and riveting account of post-Katrina New Orleans anywhere else. An exceptional book, which everyone should read, in my opinion. Five big BOLD stars out of five.

Character-driven, as well as plot-driven, against the backdrop of the immediate aftermath of Katrina by an author who is a native. Sue Grafton fans will appreciate the first person voice, style, and good pacing, but Herren's pen, to me, is much more heart-felt with just enough of a satisfying philosophical touch. This is my first experience with Mr. Herren and he is right up there in the Big Leagues of Walter Mosley and Grafton. Oh, and before I forget, the story was REALLY good with a very noir feel.

The Book Report: There is no escape from the past. It supports us, if we're lucky; it drags us down from otherwise attainable heights, if we're not. This third installment of Herren's Chanse MacLeod mysteries reinforces this sad, inescapable lesson in a harsh and cruel and painful way, only for once it's not Chanse that does most of the suffering. Hired to look into a 32-year-old disappearance by the daughter of a vanished father, Chanse ends up fired before he can so much as cash the check...and then his client turns up dead. Odd, that...and her in the throes of planning her wedding? Something smells fishy to Chanse, who returns her retainer check in person to the dead woman's older brother. Surprise there: Chanse now has a much larger retainer check and a new client who wants the same job done. In short order, Chanse meets the patriarch of this singularly unlucky clan; loses his new client to what he is morally sure is murder; breaks up with his rebound guy, a nice-but... that he met in the last book; has a quickie with an old friend, newly single; and learns that his hag/best friend is leaving post-Katrina New Orleans. To finish her book, she says.

Rest assured, though: The right people end up in the right places and Chanse, for a wonder, actually unthaws his cryogenically preserved, battered, bruised, and broken heart, resolving to live his life and not simply exist in it because he's not dead yet.

My Review: New Orleans post-Katrina is a grim backdrop for this outing. I suspect in many ways anyone who has written about New Orleans since 2005 has written out of a sense of atonement, or expiation, or making things right, because after all they're alive and so very many aren't any more. Chanse comes home from a stay in Dallas to find that he's lost nothing in the storm or the flood; his friend Venus lost everything, for example, as did so many. The hero of a mystery series needs obstacles to make him more interesting that simply a crime-solving computer. The obstacles here, well, they're pretty grisly...driving around and seeing those horrible, horrible "X"s showing where bodies were found...refrigerators abandoned as far from homes as possible so they won't add to the mold problems, and adorned with anti-government slogans...well, this leads Chanse to a minor breakdown. No duh.

I am not, at heart, a New Orleanian. I got out of the car in 1975 and said, "Jesus, what a dump." Nothing in all the time since has made me think anything different. I don't miss going there, and wish our friends from there would come here to visit. But the city is one of the world's most popular destinations, and it's got a certain raffish charm that shines through in these books. I still don't want to go there. But I like the Chanse MacLeod character's development and growth, and I like the secondary characters like Paige, his hag, and Venus, the tall and elegant lady detective; who knows, maybe Herren has let us see a glimmer of hope for Chanse to have a shot at boyfriendly bliss!

Kinda doubt it, though. Remember what happened to "Moonlighting" when Cybill Shepard and Bruce Willis finally got it on?

In Greg Herren's latest mystery, his characters are involved both in the central motivating event of the book and in finding their bearings after Katrina. He unravels the mystery-element of the story with finesse and describes adjustments to the aftermath of the hurricane with insight and compassion. Another Winner!

Private Investigator Chanse MacLeod has finally gone home to his beloved New Orleans, but though he has seen the news clips as the mass destruction of Katrina, he is still stunned with what happened to the city. Not long after returning he learns that his last client Iris Verlaine before the Hurricane was murdered on the same night she had hired him.

Chanse feels obligated to accomplish Iris' assignment to find her long time missing father. He also feels obsessed to find out who killed Iris. However, not only is the city different; his late client's family oozes charm that makes the detective feel welcome and therefore wary.

Chanse is terrific as he sees the horror of Katrina in many ways while traveling the city. Little thinks like street signs and known landmarks are gone. The two mysteries are cleverly designed to bring out post Katrina New Orleans in a way few tales have been bale to do. To fully comprehend Chanse's shock compare MURDER IN THE RUE CHARTRES to his previous Big Easy cases (see MURDER IN THE RUE DAUPHINE and MURDER IN THE RUE ST. ANN).

Harriet Klausner