Murder In The Rue Chartres

Chanse MacLeod #3

by Greg Herren

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, private detective Chanse MacLeod returns to a different, shattered New Orleans in an attempt to rebuild his own life. He soon discovers that Iris Verlaine, his last client before the storm, was murdered the very night she hired him to find her long-missing father. Compelled to solve the murder amidst a devastated city, Chanse finds himself immersed in the Verlaine family's deadly web of intrigue and secrets, one where money - and bodies - are tainted with blood.

Genres: Mystery, M M Romance, LGBT, Gay Fiction, Queer, M M Contemporary, Gay

258 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Greg Herren is a New Orleans-based author and editor. Former editor of Lambda Book Report, he is also a co-founder of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, which takes place in New Orleans every May. He is the author of ten novels, including the Lambda Literary Award winning Murder in the Rue Chartres, called by the New Orleans Times-Picayune “the most honest depiction of life in post-Katrina New Orleans published thus far.” He co-edited Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections on New Orleans, which also won the Lambda Literary Award. He has published over fifty short stories in markets as varied as Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine to the critically acclaimed anthology New Orleans Noir to various websites, literary magazines, and anthologies. His erotica anthology FRATSEX is the all time best selling title for Insightoutbooks. Under his pseudonym Todd Gregory, he published the bestselling erotic novel Every Frat Boy Wants It and the erotic anthologies His Underwear and Rough Trade (to be released by Bold Strokes Books in 2009).

A long-time resident of New Orleans, Greg was a fitness columnist and book reviewer for Window Media for over four years, publishing in the LGBT newspapers IMPACT News, Southern Voice, and Houston Voice. He served a term on the Board of Directors for the National Stonewall Democrats, and served on the founding committee of the Louisiana Stonewall Democrats. He is currently employed as a public health researcher for the NO/AIDS Task Force.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

WINNER OF THE 20th Lambda Literary Award—BEST GAY MYSTERY!

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder In The Rue Chartres (Chanse MacLeod #3) is by far, Greg Herren's best book I've read. And that's saying something because I adore the Scotty Bradley Mysteries so much, I have held back from reading the Chanse MacLeod series too quickly so I can savor my Herren fixation. Chanse Book 3 delves into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in a way I've never read before in fiction. The reader experiences all the trauma, all the internalized PTSD and despair as Chanse returns to New Orleans wondering if he can truly continue to call the city his home. And just when you wonder if the mystery will simply be a vehicle for post-Katrina NOLA, Herren links one of New Orleans most horrific crimes to the murders Chanse investigates. I am in awe.

8/11/2022: a second read and I am in awe of this book. Amazing detail about post-Katrina in New Orleans. Sophisticated murder mystery and a historical tie-in that will blow your mind.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in New Oreans, gay private investigator, Chanse MacLeod returns to his beloved cities as soon as citizens are allowed back after Hurricane Katrina. Trouble is, the client that hired him to find her father was murdered just before the storm. Now, Chanse has the retainer - but no client, and he's facing the depression and anxiety of a one grand city struggling to get beyond the shock of the worse hurricane to hit the region in centuries.

I enjoyed Greg Herren's simple but cleaver approach to wrap the the reader into a good mystery, with the backstory of Hurricane Katrina. It's clear Mr Herren loves New Orleans and he shares his pain of the devastation and dispair through the eyes of Chanse - but this insight adds a layer of emotion to the novel that keeps a mystery from becoming dull; soon - the reader finds himself immersed in the mysterious murder of his client - but the action really begins to heat up with the brother of the client asks Chanse to continue and he too, finds turns up dead.

I never saw the twist coming! Mr. Herren had me all the way to the final chapters without figuring out the shocking twist that pulls everything together - with a closure that both believable and rewarding. I recommend this book to any mystery lover!

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent series continues and here we see Chanse trying to put his life together after his loss and in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

It is a really excellent, thrilling mystery with a woman who is murdered a few days before the flood and just after asking Chanse to find the father she has never seen.

So why was she killed?

As Chanse solves the mystery we see a ruined New Orleans slowly trying to resurrect from the devastation of Katrina. It made the story so interesting, heartbreaking and real. It immerses the reader in the recovery efforts and the way in which the hurricane devastated and changed people's lives. Not only has Greg Herren managed to write another great mystery but he responds to the destruction of his beloved city by giving us real life experience of the hurricane aftermath but as seen by a fictional character. In a way we have two stories in one, finding the murderer and trying to find life again after the hurricane

Or perhaps Greg Herren has written three stories in one because he also draws us into the history of New Orleans as we discover what happened in the past and we are told the terrible story of the Upstairs Lounge fire and the murder of 32 LGBT people. The author weaves this real tragedy into the story and we get to see how this affects the present and the murders that take place.

All of this made it such a rich and powerful reading experience. Not only did I get to enjoy a great mystery, I was also taken to New Orleans after the hurricane and I was able to experience the terrible impact of the hurricane and it made me reflect on the uncertainty of life and the need to live with gratitude. And then I learned about the Upstairs Lounge fire and the terrible violence that can be done when hatred is left to fester and grow. I was so pleased to hear about the documentary that is being developed to tell the story of this loss of life and it has encouraged me in my own work for justice.

So all round with this book I had a truly amazing reading experience and it is an excellent mystery series.

Greg Herren is such an excellent writer. I keep using the word excellent but I cant describe him in any other way. Once I start his novels I want to sit down and consume them in one go. I am glad I still have a few more to read in this series and some stand alone novels and I look forward to following both his Scotty and his Chanse series for some time to come. They are gritty, realistic and keep you guessing to the very end!

I think for me this particular story is the most thrilling in the Chanse series especially at the end when all the disparate pieces begin to fall into place. I could feel my heart beating in my chest as the story rose to a crescendo and the mystery was solved!!

This book was a 2008 LAMDA winner in the mystery category. I am not surprised because it more than deserved it.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Really well done!

I hope the author keeps these coming!

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book by Greg Herren I've ever read, and I picked it up to learn more about post-Katrina New Orleans. (I visited New Orleans more than fifteen years ago and loved it, so I was fascinated to know what it might be like to an insider. The author himself survived Katrina and has moved back.) It was pretty well-written overall, except for one major mistake in the first couple of chapters: his client is killed after hiring him but somehow leaves him a message two days later and fires him. The fact that she fired him is brought up twice and then never again; the fact that she died the same day she hired him is mentioned several times and in fact has to be true within the story's bounds to make a lot of the plot work. So obviously something got mixed up in the writing process, and Alyson (the publisher) never got a decent editor to read through the ms. Argh. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

[Daniel Mitton · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Originally Reviewed for Love Bytes Same Sex Book Reviews.)

I posted on Facebook last night after I finished reading book two in this series, Murder in the Rue St. Ann, that I didn’t think I liked Greg Herren any longer. The end of that book was really sad, and after reading the Author’s Comments at the end of that book, I knew why the storyline had to end there, but I was still sad.

So later last night, around 11pm or so, I started immediately into this current installment. In Murder in the Rue Chartres, Mr. Herren, himself a full time resident of New Orleans, pulls us into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It was obviously written by a New Orleans resident, and you could feel the author’s own pain coming through in the storyline. You could also feel his anger and frustration with the horrendous lack of response that occurred after Katrina from FEMA, our then President and other government agencies. It doesn’t read as a complaining novel though, or a poor me novel. It reads as true life depiction of the after effects of the hurricane and disastrous flood. The book justly received the Lambda Literary Award in my opinion.

Chanse has returned to New Orleans after the storm and is trying to get back to his life. He has returned to an eerily empty city and huge devastation, and his friends who seem to be shells of their former selves. All are drinking heavily and walking in a shadow.

Days before the storm, Chanse was approached by Iris Verlaine, a socialite from the Garden District who hired Chanse to find her father who had been missing for 30 years. She had cancelled her contract the next day, but was then found shot dead in her own home. The official cause a botched burglary, but Chanse doesn’t believe it. Her purse was left, as was everything else of value in the house.

Now that he has returned, Chanse goes to the Verlaine mansion to return the check. But things go from strange to downright weird. Iris’ brother hires Chanse to find their missing dad, as a way of honoring his dead sister.

Chanse is off on the hunt. Along the way he will discover just how odd the Verlaine family is. Mr. Herren did a fantastic job of telling this story from a first person viewpoint. I really have enjoyed getting to know Chanse through the three books so far. He isn’t always a nice person. Sometimes he is a total a-hole. But in the end, you really come to care about him, even with some of the stupid decisions he makes along the way!

There were some twists in this book that I didn’t see coming. I’ll be honest, I expected Katrina and the storm’s aftermath. I never expected the story to have ties to the worst gay mass killing in US history. The real life arson at the Upstairs Lounge has never really been solved, and I think Greg might have taken a little license with a few of the facts, but he did a great job with it. If you’ve ever read any of the articles on that arson and the loss of life that occurred when the patrons literally burned to death trying to get out of the bar, or even worse seen the picture of the poor man’s burned corpse fused between the window bars, you will understand that was quite an emotional part of the book for me to read as a gay man. I don’t cry easy, but I cry every time I remember that photo, and this story made me remember it, so yes I cried again.

All in all, I have to say that Mr. Herren continues to tear me up with these stories. I’m hoping the next one is sunshine and light. Yeah right…who am I kidding? I know it won’t be, but you can best damn believe I’ll be reading it next!

I very highly recommend this book, and the two previous which I’ve also read. Both of those were reviewed over the last couple weeks by my fellow reviewers. We will be bringing you the other four books in the series over the next four Fridays. Each of these books could be read as a standalone. While there are some references to events in previous books, they are covered in such a way that you get the facts and aren’t left with questions.

[Jeffrey Ricker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The thing I like most about Greg Herren's Chanse MacLeod mysteries is how the city of New Orleans itself is a character as much as any of the people who populate the novels. That's especially true of MURDER IN THE RUE CHARTRES, set in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina where a seemingly random murder in the days before the devastating storm proves to be (as you'd expect) much more than it appears. Add to that the storm of emotions and grief that each character has over what's been allowed to happen to their beloved city and you get a deeply felt story as well as a satisfying mystery that kept me guessing at every turn. Through his main character, Greg also conveys his love for a city at its most broken, but never defeated.

And I would say all of this even if Greg wasn't a friend of mine. :)

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because it was written by one of my former New Orleans neighbors whom I often find myself missing. This was his first post-Katrina book and within the first twenty pages, I cried and laughed in his descriptions of going back into the city - I knew and could picture these scenes so well - not to mention his descriptions of the Avenue Pub, my own local haunt (well, my husband's) while I lived there.



This is a cute story. It's an easy weekend read, not an American classic. Although I enjoyed it and plan to read more of Greg's work, I do not recommend this book for everyone - the lead character is gay and while it is far from graphic, sex is an issue mentioned more than once. If you're looking for a fun murder/detective mystery, it is worth picking up.

[James Garman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chanse McLeod used to be a policeman but is now a PI. When he returns to the city after Katrina, he tries to return the check that his last client, Iris Verliane wrote him when she hired him but then 2 days later fired him. However, it turns out that Iris' brother, Joshua, wants him to continue the investigation which was about what happened to their father.

Their father disappears something like 32 years prior and before it is over, both Iris and her brother Joshua are dead. It turns out that the disappearance was connected to an old crime that didn't get fully investigated before.

In addition, Chanse and his group of friends are having to work their way through their feelings about the city of New Orleans and the disaster it has just gone through. And for Chanse, how he is going to resolve his own angst about his past.

A great mystery about what, in my opinion, is one of the, if not THE, best cities in the southern United States, the city I call home.

[Avid Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant depiction of life in New Orleans , post Katrina. Particularly good at expressing the emotions of love, anger, depression and PTSD symptoms suffered by the inhabitants who lived through it. Plus a good murder mystery and a light at the end of the tunnel for Chance - and his grief and sepáis. Currently motoring through this series - I love it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strong sequel in the Chanse MacLeod series, with the killer undiscovered until the next-to-last chapter. Chhanse finally comes to terms with the death of his lover and resolves to despite Hurricane Karina's damage to the city.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Could not stop reading it. I picked it up because I thought it was set in Paris, but it is set in New Orleans. I liked it.

[Suze · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I liked this one the best so far.
Maybe now that Paul is not in the story ( and I was sad at that development), Chanse’s vacillating in a relationship wasn’t obvious so didn’t annoy me! Chanse does grow through this book- the devastation of Katrina and the aftermath also devastes Chanse and he has to learn to deal with lots of things in his personal life. If you read this as a standalone, then this will come over as big time navel gazing but having followed Chanse into three books, it is a big character shift - lets see where he goes!
Mystery wise, the outcome was never going to be good for Michael - I do enjoy when fact is mixed in and I did spend time reading about the Upstairs Lounge fire and reading the names of the victims.
Characterwise, Cathy was the poor soul who was victimised the most and longest - still not sure I fully believe Percy’s version!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Chanse McCleod series is becoming my own favorite literary mystery gay mental mini series. Herren's love for New Orleans is evident in all his books but it's even more apparent in this novel--his first installment after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. That national tragedy permeates everyone and everything in the story but, more importantly, gives the reader an insider's view to the city's spirit after the event. As usual, Herren's landscape is populated his intriguing heroes and villians and our protagonist is wrestling another personal demon. And I wish the mystery itself had a few more twists near the end but I'm not complaining. Herren's New Orleans like the real one is always an great place to be.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up to 100 pages of an insight to the disastrous effects of hurricane Katrina, on the city of New Orleans, it’s people, the problems they face of going home or having no home to go back to, and the outrageous lack of support from our government to help it’s own, that no one can truly understand, unless they witnessed it in person, not on TV.
Chanse is deputized by the police department to investigate a burglary, and uncovers some deep, dark, horrible secrets of a very proud, prominent and powerful family from the Garden District, and also the truth behind one of New Orleans’ hate crime 30 years after it was swept under the rug.
I really liked this book, and am looking forward to the next MacLeod book G. Herren has coming out!

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best of all the Chance mysteries. I really liked the way that Gregg incorporated all his feelings after Hurricane Katrina as they were the same pretty much that all of us in New Orleans had. I would recommend this book to anyone touched by the hurricane or anyone who wants to know about the honesty of feelings after the hurricane. I am glad that Gregg won a Lambda award for this book. It is well deserved

[Katherine Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in less than a week, granted one of those days I was trapped on an airplane which afforded me ample reading time. It's unlike me to get through a book so quickly. It is not a challenging read. The story itself isn't all that compelling, but the emotional portrayal of life immediately post Katrina for New Orleanians was moving. I wasn't as connected to the human anguish as I am now because of this book.

[J.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the best book I've read so far by Herren. I'm not sure how early in his career the MacLeod series started but I could tell a difference in the writing of this book. Like an earlier reviewer mentioned, there are quite a few editing mistakes that need to be corrected but that didn't distract me or cause a lower rating. Part of the reason this book struck a cord with me was because I just recently stood on the corner of Iberville and Chartres Streets gazing up at the second floor.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third book in a series about Chanse MacLeod, a gay private eye in New Orleans. This one starts soon after Hurricane Katrina as Chanse returns after evacuating.

The murder mystery is good, lots of twists that I didn't see coming. What I didn't like so much were the characters. With a couple of exceptions they were emotionally a mess, and that grated after a while.

[Leigh Ann Wallace]

I always expect a good story and characters from Greg Herren, but this was a particularly good addition to the series. It's set when Chanse goes back to New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. The way he writes about how the city changed, what its people went through, not just during the storm, but after -- it really made me feel it.

[Cheri · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an interesting take on New Orleans post Katrina .It was written from the point of view of someone with a non-traditional relationship and was well written.It is the first book I have read by Greg Herren but I will certainly investigate more of his works.

[Dan Beliveau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in an on-going series, but the setting of post-Katrina, and the background of his previous books really made this one feel *right*. The ending was poetic and smart and made me think about where I want to go and who I want to be. Job well done!

[Josh]

Supposedly his best work -- I'm looking forward to reading it.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting barely post-Katrina New Orleans setting, but the mystery wasn't very mysterious, and the forays into emotional healing were a little tedious.

[Gerry Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lively and very New Orleans
Delightful readiing captures NOLA and the culture that embraces all.

[Drianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chanse investigates a murder in the aftermath of Katrina. Well-written (although very sad); the mystery is so-so.

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the characters and storyline are interesting, the author spends too much time obsessing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The story moves slowly and is rather dry.

[Joe Cosentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific romantic mystery with the heart of New Orleans.