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suze_1624's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this murder-mystery.
New Orleans in early 2000's and the living is not pretty!! This is a look at NO at a level under the glitzy surface (and I'm sure there are worse levels!).
The gay community is bitchy, everyone knows each other, secrets are wide known. Chanse is an ex cop turned PI - which is lucky as he is smoking marijuana a lot! Despite his best intentions he gets tangled up with murder and the bitchy gets worse! Either the victim was a nice guy or the worst hussler of them all, everyone has a view. There are plenty of red herrings and plot twists so that I only saw the protagonist just before Chanse, but the why's stayed hidden for longer.
I enjoyed Chanse's friend Paige - wonderfully rebellious! Chanse's own love life was very much off page as his new lover Paul was away working.
Enjoyed it, will get the next one.
New Orleans in early 2000's and the living is not pretty!! This is a look at NO at a level under the glitzy surface (and I'm sure there are worse levels!).
The gay community is bitchy, everyone knows each other, secrets are wide known. Chanse is an ex cop turned PI - which is lucky as he is smoking marijuana a lot! Despite his best intentions he gets tangled up with murder and the bitchy gets worse! Either the victim was a nice guy or the worst hussler of them all, everyone has a view. There are plenty of red herrings and plot twists so that I only saw the protagonist just before Chanse, but the why's stayed hidden for longer.
I enjoyed Chanse's friend Paige - wonderfully rebellious! Chanse's own love life was very much off page as his new lover Paul was away working.
Enjoyed it, will get the next one.
sireno8's review
4.0
Satisfying detective story with gay New Orleans twist. I liked the detective's outsider on the inside parview and his backstory is interesting and believable without being maudlin--as are his musings on the plights and pleasures of the modern gay male. Lots of local color and sexiness and I loved the escallation of the action and intrigue. His world and its denizens are one I look forward to revisiting soon.
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
First novel. Set in New Orleans, we follow Chanse MacLeod, private detective, ex cop. The plot is paper thin, the setting in New Orleans is well done, the characters are interesting but needed to be flesh out a lot more. We don't really care about Chanse or his absent new boyfriend Paul, the bad guys are mostly cardboard villains. This book needed a good editor. The ideas are there, the characters are there but there are a lot of mystery cliches and the fact that the detective is gay doesn't add anything to the mystery part of the story and it's underdeveloped in the character parts of the book. Will try the author again as this was his first book.
claudia_is_reading's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this story. The mystery was very well plotted and yes, I fell for ALL the red herrings *laughs* But the mystery also serves as a conduit for Chanse to challenge some of his views on romantic relationships, and what is what he really wants from one.
There is also a fantastic view of New Orleans in the '80s, which, as Chanse puts it,
I enjoyed the characters, too. Chanse is interesting and I'm looking forward to knowing more about him, and the same can be said for his friend Paige Tourneur, journalist extraordinaire and Venus Casanova, an African-American police officer hard as nails.
What I didn't like was the narration. Women voices were cartoonish, as some of the male ones were. And the sound effects... let's just say that anytime Chanse was to listen to his messages I jumped in my seat at the hideous beeping.
But I'll be back for more with this series, I really, really liked it.
There is also a fantastic view of New Orleans in the '80s, which, as Chanse puts it,
'The thing about New Orleans that outsiders never grasp is that it’s just a small town. Everyone knows everyone. If you don’t know someone, you’ve heard more about them than you care to. My landlady once told me, “This town is about a block long, and everyone’s on a damn party line.”
I enjoyed the characters, too. Chanse is interesting and I'm looking forward to knowing more about him, and the same can be said for his friend Paige Tourneur, journalist extraordinaire and Venus Casanova, an African-American police officer hard as nails.
What I didn't like was the narration. Women voices were cartoonish, as some of the male ones were. And the sound effects... let's just say that anytime Chanse was to listen to his messages I jumped in my seat at the hideous beeping.
But I'll be back for more with this series, I really, really liked it.
apostrophen's review against another edition
5.0
The idea of #ThrowBookThursday was a hashtag I bumped into on a virtual book club, and I love it. Instead of a Throwback Thursday photograph, you post a book you loved from back when. You all know how I feel about book reviews and bringing attention to missed gems, so…
(review from April, 2006):
I read 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."
(review from April, 2006):
I read 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."
expendablemudge's review against another edition
3.0
Rating: 3.5* of five
In honor of LGBT Pride2016, I'm reposting my review of MURDER IN THE RUE DAUPHINE at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. This is the book in which Greg Herren gives Chanse MacLeod his 1st case. I'm reading the series all over again. Love revisiting familiar friends.
In honor of LGBT Pride2016, I'm reposting my review of MURDER IN THE RUE DAUPHINE at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. This is the book in which Greg Herren gives Chanse MacLeod his 1st case. I'm reading the series all over again. Love revisiting familiar friends.
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