Murder in the Garden District


Book Description

The Sheehans are referred to as "Louisiana's Kennedys," a powerful political dynasty with connections in Baton Rouge and Washington. When Warren Sheehan is shot to death in his Garden District mansion, Chanse races to sort out the truth from the many lies surrounding the great family as another hurricane puts New Orleans squarely in its cross hairs.




Murder in the Garden District


Book Description

Detective Chanse MacLeod investigates the murder of a senatorial candidate, whose younger wife is suspected of the crime, and uncovers secrets about the powerful political family that someone would kill to keep quiet.




Garden District Gothic


Book Description

The city of New Orleans was rocked to its very shaky foundations when the body of six-year-old beauty queen Delilah Metoyer was found, strangled, in the carriage house behind her family’s Garden District mansion. The crime was never solved, and the Metoyer family shattered in the aftermath of the crime. Thirty years later, Delilah’s brother asks Scotty to finally find his sister’s killer…putting Scotty and his friends and family into the crosshairs of a vicious killer. A Scotty Bradley Mystery




Maid For Murder


Book Description

In New Orleans' historic Garden District, life is all about attending the right parties, impressing the right people, and making the right amount of money (a lot!) It's an attitude fifty-nine-year-old Charlotte La Rue has never really understood. She leads a quiet, simple, practical life--and it suits her just fine. Business is booming at her housecleaning service, Maid-for-a-Day--and in her down time, she loves reading mystery novels and hanging out with her parakeet, Sweety Boy. Everything's perfect. Well, almost everything. . . Charlotte doesn't mind polishing silver, scrubbing toilets, or dusting bookcases--but she can't stand dealing with her rich clients' dirty laundry. And when it comes to the much-talked-about Dubuisson family, there's an awful lot of it--especially since Jackson Dubuisson was found murdered in his study. Now this exclusive enclave is abuzz with all kinds of gossip--and some very sinister speculation. A chatty socialite keeps hinting that Jackson's extra-marital affair may have been the death of him. His mother-in-law--who's quite possibly senile--has revealed more of the Dubuisson family's secrets than Charlotte ever wanted to know. And then there's his widow, Jeanne. Charlotte refuses to desert her in her time of need--but suspects she may have something to hide. One thing is certain: someone wanted Jackson dead--and that someone is not coming clean. . . Surrounded by possible suspects and hounded by a tenacious police detective, Charlotte wishes she could stick to her own policy of staying out of clients' personal business. Problem is, she's never been able to walk away from a mess. And this is the biggest one she's ever seen. . .




Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.




New Orleans Noir


Book Description

This original anthology of noir fiction set across the Big Easy includes new stories by Ace Atkins, Laura Lippman, Maureen Tan, and more. New Orleans has always the home of the lovable rogue, the poison magnolia, the bent politico, and the heartless con artist. And in post-Katrina times, it’s the same old story—only with a new breed of carpetbagger thrown in. In other words, it’s fertile ground for noir fiction. This sparkling collection of tales, set both before and after the storm, explores the city’s gutted neighborhoods, its outwardly gleaming “sliver by the river,” its still-raunchy French Quarter, and other hoods so far from the Quarter they might as well be on another continent. It also looks back into the city’s darkly colorful, nineteenth century past. New Orleans Noir includes brand-new stories by Ace Atkins, Laura Lippman, Patty Friedmann, Barbara Hambly, Tim McLoughlin, Olympia Vernon, David Fulmer, Jervey Tervalon, James Nolan, Kalamu ya Salaam, Maureen Tan, Thomas Adcock, Jeri Cain Rossi, Christine Wiltz, Greg Herren, Julie Smith, Eric Overmyer, and Ted O’Brien. A portion of the profits from New Orleans Noir will be donated to Katrina KARES, a hurricane relief program sponsored by the New Orleans Institute that awards grants to writers affected by the hurricane.




Shake the Devil Off


Book Description

A charismatic young soldier meets a tragic end in this moving and mesmerizing account of murder and suicide in New Orleans. Brown discovers that this tragedy--like so many others--could have been avoided.




Murder in the Garden


Book Description




Dusted To Death


Book Description

When a big Hollywood movie studio comes to New Orleans and wants to use Bitsy Duhe's gorgeous Victorian house for a shoot, Bitsy consents--as long as Charlotte La Rue, owner of Maid for a Day, agrees to take care of her beloved home during filming. . . Soon Charlotte meets the cast and crew, including Hollywood ingénue Angel Martinique. The movie seems to be going well--until a body is found dead in Angel's dressing room, a bloody letter opener just a few feet away. To Charlotte, there's no shortage of suspects. But when the police zero in on Angel, Charlotte does a little digging into Angel's past, and comes up with a bit more dirt than she bargained for--enough to put her in the crosshairs of danger if she doesn't watch her step. . . "Leaves the reader wanting more." --Romantic Times "This cozy series gets better with each book." --Library Journal




The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film


Book Description

In The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film (2005), scholar Drewey Wayne Gunn examined the history of gay detectives beginning with the first recognized gay novel, The Heart in Exile, which appeared in 1953. In the years since the original edition's publication, hundreds of novels and short stories in this sub-genre have been produced, and Gunn has unearthed many additional representations previously unrecorded. In this new edition, Gunn provides an overview of milestones in the development of gay detectives over the last several decades. Also included in this volume is an annotated list of novels, short stories, plays, graphic novels, comic strips, films, and television series with gay detectives, gay sleuths of secondary importance, and non-sleuthing gay policemen. The most complete listing available--including the only listing of early gay pulp novels, present-day male-to-male romances, and erotic films--this new edition brings the work up to date with publications missed in the first edition, particularly cross-genre mysteries, early pulps, and some hard-to-find volumes. The Gay Male Sleuth in Print and Film: A History and Annotated Bibliography lists all printed works in English (including translations) presently known to include gay detectives (such as amateur sleuths, police detectives, private investigators, and investigative reporters), from the 1929 play Rope until the present day. It includes all films in English, subtitled or dubbed, from the screen version of Rope in 1948 and the launch of the independent film Spy on the Fly in 1966 through the end of 2011. Complete with two appendices--a bibliography of sources and a list of Lambda Literary Awards--and indexes of titles, detectives, and actors, this extensively revised and updated reference will prove invaluable to mystery collectors, researchers, aficionados of the subgenre, and those devoted to GLBTQ studies.