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Gay New Orleans private detective, ex-cop Chanse MacLeod doesn't do murders, yet he finds himself in the middle of a homicide inquiry. MacLeod goes to the gym early one summer morning and finds handsome young Mike Hansen also working out. Mike and Chanse go to breakfast where Mike hires the PI to find out who is blackmailing Hansen's closeted, rich, society boyfriend. They agree to meet at Mike's apartment but MacLeod oversleeps and arrives to find the Coca -Cola delivery man shot dead with one bullet to the chest and FAGGOTS DIE written on the wall. Gay rights activist Jarrett Phillips arrives just after the police have secured the scene and starts declaring that it is a hate crime which the NOPD won't investigate properly because they hate gays. He tries to turn the murder into a crusade to further his political ambitions, but Venus Casanova, the policewoman in charge of the case refuses to allow Phillips to interfere. MacLeod is questioned by Venus and then allowed to leave while she questions Glen Chandler, Mike's upstairs neighbor. Chanse had been raised in a double-wide in East Texas but he was able to go to college on a football scholarship. Some of his fraternity brothers began to question his sexuality, when, after 2 or 3 years, he still had no girlfriend, but he met Paige Tourneur, who became his beard, and even now, is his best friend. Paige eggs him on a bit to continue investigating, since she's a reporter and would like a scoop. It's hard to believe that this is a first novel. Herren is a writer and editor and his expertise shows. His protagonists care about each other. Gay New Orleans is brought to life in a series of vignettes flashing back to the club scene, the art world, and the everyday workaday world, and it's refreshing to see male bodies used as objects of sexual desire for a change. My only quibble with the book is the overly cute names of the characters...Paige Tourneur, a journalist and novelist indeed.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, February 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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