Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: Murder In The Rue Ursulines
SERIES: Chanse MacLeod #4
AUTHOR: Greg Herren
PUBLISHER: Bold Strokes Books
LENGTH: 256 pages
BLURB:
As New Orleans continues to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Chanse MacLeod becomes involved in a high profile case involving a golden couple of Hollywood who have committed themselves to helping New Orleans recover.
REVIEW:
Chanse MacLeod is a New Orleans Private Detective. Still reeling from the death of his lover and the general Post-Katrina PSTD, Chanse is simply doing the best he can to get by. And for now that means he has a job to do. Hired by two famous actors to hunt down a blackmailer, Chanse gets tangled up in a lot more than he bargained for. When a suspect ends up dead, and he becomes a target for not only the police, but the media and probably the killers themselves, Chanse could very well end up losing more than just the fragile peace he has begun to stick back together.
From what a few of the other reviewers have been saying about the books they picked up in this series, I have to say I lucked out quite a bit. While apparently there are some very sad and very bad things going on in previous books, this one was pretty light. Just a good old mystery and a little bit of heart to keep it going.
I am so damn happy about that as well. I am so not in a place that needs more dark and depressing.
I thought this was a good story, even if I have never read any of the previous books. It did a great job of standing up on its own, and giving you enough detail to let you know why certain things are happening–without rehashing everything in minute detail. I really liked that. It meant that I was able to enjoy the story even with the lack of a full backstory.
I did have a problem with some of the actions taken by Chanse, though. I’m torn between understanding that the dude is a PI, and this is a mystery, and my desire to slap some fucking sense into the dude. I have no idea if this is a thing with him or not, but the way he refuses to use some common sense (or see a fucking doctor because last time I checked they did not hand out medical degrees with PI licenses), just rubbed me the wrong way. I just…I just don’t like the kind of MC who goes all He-Man and decides to take on the world with no back-up and against the advise of anyone with sense of self-preservation. It is a huge pet-peeve of mine and even if I enjoyed the story, his decisions sometimes made me want to scream.
Also…the dude was dense as fuck as to who the bad guy was. Like, it was pretty bloody obvious.
And yet…I did enjoy the story. The characters and the setting really grounded this story in real life and made me interested in knowing more about them. Had Chanse been a bit less hard-headed I probably would have rated this higher, but as it stands I do recommend you read this if you have been liking this series, or maybe even if you are looking for a bit of light detective work to keep you entertained.
RATING:
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