Created by Greg Herren
Former go-go dancer and personal trainer SCOTTY BRADLEY (please don’t call him Milton) is quite the boy around town, juggling assorted lovers (ex-FBI hunk Frank Sobieski and the enigmatic Colin Cioni), a recreational drug habit (Ecstasy, mostly), a family of wingnuts (including hippie parents and an over-achieving elder brother), hit-and-miss psychic abilities and a burgeoning career as New Orleans’ most dashing private eye in a series of generally good-natured romps by Greg Herren.
In fact, with his oddball cases and his propensity for occasionally outlandish capers, Scotty reminds me of nobody so much as a gay version of Richard Prather’s Shell Scott.
The author, Greg Herren, actually lives in New Orleans (and “has no plans to leave. Ever.”). He’s been a freelance journalist, personal trainer, book critic and the editor in chief of the Lambda Book Report. He also writes about another Big Easy eye, Chanse MacLeod.
UNDER OATH
- “… an enjoyable and brave novel. I’m glad Greg Herren has decided not to retire Scotty; I’d hate to see the last of such a likable character… Scotty is a bit of a ditz, and his defensiveness and self-consciousness about it are endearing. Nonetheless, he generally manages to make the best of his many bad situations. Memo to readers: You needn’t share the characters’ beliefs, personalities, politics, sexualities, or attitudes to enjoy a good story. Reading is about broadening your horizons, which doesn’t happen by insisting only on characters exactly like yourself.
— Poppy Z. Briteon Mardi Gras Mambo - Herren’s intensity of feeling for New Orleans burns through on every page of everything he writes, and that’s especially true for Mardi Gras Mambo, which takes place in the lead-up to the big day and involves a wild coterie of gay sleuths, cops, kingpins, local hoods, nightlife mavens, and eccentrics of all stripes and sizes. Herren’s vision of the city is madcap and noir and alive with a special kind of energy that taps into the city’s mainline.”
— Dwyer Murphy, Crime Reads (March 2018)
NOVELS
- Bourbon Street Blues (2003) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Jackson Square Jazz (2004) | Buy this book
- Mardi Gras Mambo (2006) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Vieux Carre Voodoo (2010) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Who Dat Whodunit? (2011) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Baton Rouge Bingo (2013) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Royal Street Reveillon (2019) | Buy this book
- Mississippi River Mischief (2023) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Gregherren.com
The author’s official site. - Down These Mean Streets A Gay Man Must Also Go
Drewey Wayne Gunn looks at the history of the gay P.I. - What Were Once Vices…
Some Notable Gay and Lesbian Eyes - O’Neil De Noux’s Favorites, and Other Big Easy Eyes
Pass a good time, cher...
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
