Mardi Gras Mambo
Greg Herren
Kensington, Mar 2006, $14.00, 304 pp.
ISBN 0758208308

In New Orleans, former b-dancer turned private investigator Scotty Bradley returns home at daybreak after a wild night of advance celebrating of Mardi Gras. However, instead of hitting the sack to prepare for Carnival fun with his two boyfriends Frank Sobieski and Colin Cioni, two detectives interrogate Scotty re his being seen in the French Quarter with Russian migr Misha Saltikov, the source of the sleuth's illegal drug usage. Not long after they were seen talking, someone killed Misha.

Though he prefers to stay out of the police investigation, Scotty begins making his own inquiries using underground links that would never talk to a cop. To his shock, Scotty finds his own zany relatives are somehow involved as well some odd Russians who might be Mafioso. At the same time he conducts his investigation, his affairs with Frank and Colin abruptly collapses when the former is abducted and the latter vanishes without a trace leaving Scotty with a second and perhaps third personal case to deal with that is if nothing ties together and so far nothing has.

In his third appearance (see BOURBON STREET BLUES and JACKSON SQUARE JAZZ), Scotty is at his beleaguered best coping poorly with cops suspecting him in a drug deal turned bad and even worse with his lovers gone. The investigation is terrific as the hero pays homage to the city he cherishes while trying to prove his innocence, save his lovers, and celebrate Fat Tuesday. MARDI GRAS MUMBO is a fabulous gay Noir.

Harriet Klausner