Customer Reviews

Murder in the Rue Dauphine: A Mystery

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This review is for the Alyson Publications trade paperback first edition, January 2002.

Chanse MacLeod was a New Orleans cop for a couple years, but in the narrative present, he is a private detective without much experience. The story begins when Mike Hansen hires Chanse on behalf of Mike's wealthy, in-the-closet partner who is being blackmailed. But before Chanse can get the particulars, Mike is murdered. Although Chanse "doesn't do murders," he eventually untangles a conspiracy and solves the case.

The plot is murder mystery light. There are no convoluted twists, embedded clues or clever deductions. Indeed, this story is mostly a look inside the New Orleans' gay community where muscles bulge, stomachs ripple and all shirts are one size too small. Of the twenty-nine named males in this book, twenty-five are gay. The seven named females, however, appear to be straight.

Greg Herren tends to write in short, choppy sentences, which although not annoying, I did wish for some rhythm and variety. And there are some startling inconsistencies. Chanse leaves the airport at 7:00 AM and drives straight to the gym, then goes home and tosses his gym bag on the bed, happy that he had turned on the air conditioner that morning. Later he bemoans the unpacked suitcases on his bed. Paul, Chanse's partner, leaves a phone message that he will call from Dallas that night, but later we learn his last flight that night ends in Chicago. Interesting that one-half of all three inconsistencies occurs on page 14.

Although I am hopelessly heterosexual, I found the story interesting. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, I visit there frequently, and it is perhaps useful to have an apparently authoritative insight into Big Easy Gay.

I bought Murder in the Rue Dauphine, because I had recently visited New Orleans and thought it would be fun to read something set there. I looked forward to recognizing places I had gone while there. I am also a big mystery fan and was hoping for a fun new author.

I was not disappointed in the setting of the book coming alive. Mr. Herren does a very good job of taking the reader to New Orleans. Chanse is a pretty fun character, if a little too "gay perfect," at times. I really liked his "Grace," Paige. I felt he was a bit too steroetypical with his villian, though. The plot, while predictable at times, was fun enough to keep me interested and, in the end, I was surprised at who the actual killer was.

My biggest problem was with the editing. It seems Mr. Herren, who edits other people's work for anthologies, didn't edit his own. For instance, Chanse and another character are talking about Paul, Chanse's maybe boyfriend, and Herren refers to one of the characters talking as Paul. There are other such instances of the editor not paying attention here and there that, while distracting, didn't take away from the book as a whole. Also, while I am sure it is just one of Mr. Herren's fetishes, from what I saw when there,not every hot guy in New Orleans walks around in "white tank tops a size too small."

Over all a pleasant little mystery and I would probably pick up another if this becomes a series.

Great Characters, Greaeat Plot, Great Atmosphere. Mr Herren takes us for a Romp through the city of New Orleans, and along the way we experience, bullets, break ins and bad driving. What a fun ride!

Chanse, one of my new favorite detectives, is a world wise cynic- and while he falls into the stereotypical "hard boiled" detective catagory, I am sure that more will be revealed about his nature in future books ( I am hoping for a series) Best friend Paige is a scream, and one does not know what to expect from olice officer Venus.

It is a largely character driven novel, rich in detail ... in fact the City of New Orleans becomes a character itself.

This book is well written, clips along at a good pace, and is devilishly funny.

I cant wait for more from Mr Herren

The Book Report: Chanse MacLeod, former LSU football star, New Orleans policeman, and present-day private detective, gets a client in the most appealing possible way for a gay male mystery: His hottie hirer picks him out, and up, at the gym. Hunky Mike Hansen is, wait for it, in love with a rich, married, closeted doctor who is being blackmailed. Mike arranges to meet Chanse at Mike's home, after getting the incriminating blackmail tape from Dr. Delicious McWallet. (We don't find out his real name until well into the book.) Chanse, worn out from the workout and still sad over his peripatetic lover's departure for another multi-day trip as a flight attendant, oversleeps and is an hour late for their meeting. Darn good thing, too, since if he'd been on time, he'd've seen Mike being murdered.

Discovering the body, reporting the murder to his former colleagues at NOPD, and then trying to stay out of the circus that ensues is the meat of this short first mystery in a series by author and anthologist Herren. Gold diggers, horny creeps, jaded reporters, single-minded do-gooders, whores and whoremongers jig and caper through Herren's pre-Katrina French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. MacLeod's laconic page presence still allows for character development, since we're in first person. What solves the mystery is an attempted murder that, for a wonder, vivifies the term "feed 'em to the fishes." The resolution is in no way a surprise, but the way it arrives is fun.

My Review: I'm not sure Chanse would give my fat carcass the time of day, muscle queen that he is, but I don't mind hitchhiking on his betank-topped muscular shoulder. The book is a fantasy, and it's not played for realism, but it's got some good character bases for a long-legged series: gruff black lady cop, honest and forthright, whom everyone erroneously assumes to be a lesbian; Chanse's hag, reporter Paige Tourneur, is appealingly damaged and quite obviously hangin' with his hunky self out of self-protection, so fertile ground for fun developments; Chanse's lover the air mattress (gay male slang for stewards), who commits the Unpardonable Sin of saying "I love you" to Chanse not once, oh no we can ignore that, but TWICE! Chanse's attack of the fantods led me to the mirror to see if maybe Herren had a camera in there...and leads Chanse to the brink of an affair with a most, most inappropriate man.

Enjoyable fluff, this. I wish the author's editor had made him do a few of the obvious development tricks, delving just a wee bit deeper into the recurring characters' pasts, but all in all this is a good and solid effort. It lacks suspense to an almost fatal degree as a mystery, but it makes up for it in blithe and quick-witted writing. Book 2, [Murder in the Rue St. Ann], awaits on the nightstand. It's only 1am, I can fit in 50pp or so, can't I?

I recall reading this in the space of a day. Sometimes that makes me feel guilty - writers work for months on a novel and then I tear through it - but when the book is good, the mystery catches me, and I'm intrigued... sorry, it won't make it through the day.

Chanse MacLeod is a PI living in New Orleans, and he gets a pretty straightforward case: someone blackmailing a closeted fella for a lot of cash on the threat of outing him to his very rich family. The fella's boyfriend hires Chanse, and turns up dead shortly thereafter, with a hate-crime slur written in the victim's blood.

But while the city simmers toward a boiling point as activists clamour for action against the hate crimes, and Chanse keeps getting brushes with bullets and hate-mongers, something doesn't seem right, and Chanse is pretty sure things aren't as they seem.

The mystery to the tale was solid - I had a good time figuring it out, and the characters (especially the supporting cast around Chanse - his cop friend, his reporter friend) weren't just two dimensional add-ons: it was nice to meet a crime reporter who railed against her fear of crime, and a gay cop being frustrated for being thought of as gay first, and a cop second. Chanse's predilection for guys in shirts "one size too small" and his vague unease at the thought that maybe - just maybe - he's falling in love with his current three-month lover gave me a few wry smiles.

Having since had a chance to go to New Orleans a few times (and even meet the author!) I can say this book quite literally "brought me there."

I had read a lot of good things about "Murder in the Rue Dauphine" and was looking forward to reading it. Perhaps that's why I'm so disappointed. If you find something by chance and it turns out to be bad, no problem. If you await something eagerly and it turns out not to be good, then it doubles the bad.

This book is bad, doubled.

It appears that author Greg Herren was determined not to ignore any cliche of gay fiction lest one of them gets its feelings hurt, nearly so every character is trim, works out, parties all night, and cheats on his lover. Those who are not are homely, pathetic trolls with whom no self-respecting man would tryst.

Herren attempts to combine a hard-boiled style with the wisecracking of newer detectives and standard gay fiction, which doesn't work as well as you'd hope. A lot of the exposition falls flat and the dialog is clumsy, though realistic, as though Herren had simply spent an evening in bars taking notes. When will writes learn that this doesn't work?

The "mystery" of the initial murder is so simplistic as to be laughable. The deeper complications involving gay-bashing and male escorts rely far too much on coincidence than detective work.

New Orleans, a city that should make a fantastic backdrop for any novel, does not make an appearance. Instead, Herren trots out a list of tourist sites.

Overall, I'd give it a miss.

This book takes you to the heart of New Orleans and introduces Chanse MacLeod, a gay former college athlete and New Orleans cop turned private investigator. His detective work is basically business security jobs with an occasional personal investigation. However, as he says repeatedly throughout the book, "he does not do murders." That does not keep him from getting personally involved with one that occurs, as the title states, on the Rue Dauphine.

The action begins at the Bodytech Gym where he meets Mike Hansen, a super stud gymbot with to-die-for dimples. Mike has a problem. His wealthy, closeted and married lover is being blackmailed, and he would like Chanse to investigate. The $50,000 he is offered to find the blackmailer is too good to refuse; and Chanse takes the case.

Unfortunately, before he can start looking for the blackmailer he discovers Mike murdered in an apparent hate crime. And even though "he doesn't do murders" he continues his investigation, which reveals that just about everyone in gay New Orleans disliked Mike. To make matters worse, his investigation is soon complicated by shootings, muggings, male prostitutes, pro- and anti-gay rights demonstrations and his own questions about his relationship with his current lover Paul.

The plot of the book is very tight with two solid main characters; Chanse and Paige Tourneur, his best friend and crime reporter. And despite their atrocious names (really, a page-turner), I would like to read about them in future adventures. Hopefully, Greg Herren has plans to continue this as a series. He is really a very good writer, and I think there is a lot of potential for his work crossing over to a more widespread readership. He's got my total indorsement!

Great mystery set in an exciting environment. Most books set in New Orleans absorb the atmosphere as another character, but with that said, the only drawback were the other characters. The secondary human characters in the gay ghetto blend into each other - I found it hard to keep track of the possible murderers. But overall, I recommend it.

This is the first book in the series that Greg Herren created for Murder in the Rue. I have read his other series completely and now have started this one. He is one of the best of giving readers an entertaining, easy and enjoyable read.

This book series centers around PI, Chanse MacLeod. Chanse was a former New Orleans cop that left the force because he could not handle "MURDERS". Throughout the book he kept saying, "I don't do murders". It was funny because everytime he said it he dove deeper in to the case.

Chanse had a chance encounter with someone at the gym after leaving his new steward boyfriend at the airport for a long trip. The guy at the gym wanted to hire Chanse to find out who was blackmailing his boyfriend. When he went to meet with the guy at his house Chanse found him MURDERED. Chanse continued to track the leads to clear his own name of murder.

This is a great book to curl up with on a winter weekend or to read on the beach for the summer. Can not wait until the next book arrives from Amazon.

I read the first fifty or so pages, and then I just skipped to the end. There were so many ... mystery cliches that I just got intensely bored. Too bad the book didn't live up to the catchy cover.