Chanse MacLeod

Created by Greg Herren

Big Easy private eye CHANSE MacLEOD is suitably cynical, predictably tough and prone to wisecracks. He knows his way around town and, in a nice change of pace, is gay.

When we first meet him, in 2002’s Murder in the Rue Dauphine, he has a little money in the bank, so he can be at least a little choosy about what cases he accepts, but the threatened outing of a closeted friend of his client takes a nasty turn when the client is murdered. Worse, it looks like it might be a hate crime, which in turn causes a bit of a panic in the LGBT community of New Orleans.

Along the way we’re introduced to Chanse’s best friend Paige, and the intriguingly-named police officer Venus Casanova. Most of the reviews found this a promising, if not exceptional debut, but most gave solid marks for the sharply-drawn New Orleans setting.

But since then, the author, who actually lives in New Orleans (and “has no plans to leave. Ever.”), has carved quite a career for himself. A freelance journalist, personal trainer, book critic and the editor-in-chief of the Lambda Book Report, has followed up Murder in the Rue Dauphine with several sequels, as well as creating another Big Easy eye, former go-go dancer Scotty Bradley, and co-edited Men of the Mean Streets: Gay Noir (2011), arguably the first collection of gay noir.

NOVELS

• Murder in the Rue Dauphine (2002) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Rue St. Ann (2004) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the rue Chartres (2007) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Rue Ursulines (2008) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Garden District (2009) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Irish Channel (2011) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
• Murder in the Arts District (2014) | Buy this book | Kindle it!

COLLECTIONS

• Survivor’s Guilt and Other Stories (2019) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
  A collection of Herren’s stories of Southern Gothic crime, including the first-ever Chanse MacLeod short story.

RELATED LINKS

• 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…
  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.