Created by George Ogan
JOHNNY BORDELON is a New Orleans-based P.I., a former cop with the NOPD, a painter by vocation, who lives in converted stable on Rampart Street. He is described as being six feet tall and being of French-Cajun descent, born and raised in rural New Iberia parrish (these days the haunt of another, more renowned Louisiana detective, James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux).
Told in a non-graphic first person narrative, the three novels are fast-paced, ambitiously-plotted and well written, filled with interesting dabs of local color and history. There are violent encounters, a bit of romance, and touches of humorous banter as Bordelon deals with the Mob, inner city pimps, crooked politicos, a garrote-wielding killer known as “the Frenchman”, and a neo-Nazi band of thugs plotting from deep within the mysterious Everglades.
Johnny appeared in a series of three paperback originals, written in the early eighties, by George Ogan. All three books were copyrighted 1981 and were published by the old Raven House Mystery imprint from Worldwide, and all adorned with the imprint’s ticky-tacky yellow covers. For the completists out there, they were numbers 5, 10, and 55 in the line.
Told in a non-graphic first person narrative, all three are fast-paced, ambitiously-plotted and well written, filled with interesting dabs of local color and history. There are violent encounters, a bit of romance, and touches of humorous banter as Bordelon deals with the Mob, inner city pimps, crooked politicos, a garrote-wielding killer known as “the Frenchman”, and a neo-Nazi band of thugs plotting from deep within the mysterious Everglades.
All in all, quite satisfying fare (bland titles notwithstanding). More in the series would have been welcome.
NOVELS
- To Kill A Judge (1981) | Buy this book
- Murder In The Wind (1981) | Buy this book
- Murder By Proxy (1981)| Buy this book
RELATED LINKS
- O’Neil De Noux’s Favorites and Other Big Easy Eyes
A collectiuon of New Orleans and Louisiana eyes.
