Mardi Gras Mambo

I like Greg Herren's writing style. He has a very natural and enjoyable way with dialog. His narrator disappears and you hear only the dialog. That's a great gift for a writer and believe you me not every writer has it. I can usually tell within the first couple of pages of a new novel whether or not I like the writing style. It flows naturally or its choppy and hard to follow. As soon as I read the first page of Mardi Gras Mambo I knew it was going to be a good read.

Scotty Bradley is one unlikely hero but the minute you meet him you not only like him but you want his life. Yes, he's too obsessed with New Orleans (he tells us how much he loves it every other page), his lovers (yes, he has two and they are both hot, hot, hot...) and drugs (if I heard one more description of how incredible it was to be stoned on Ecstasy, I was going to scream) but his obsessions turn out to be as charming as he.

The plot of Mardi Gras Mambo is so full of byzantine (or should I say a Russian Orthodox) twists and character revelations that even Scotty, our intrepid detective, needs a score card to keep track of who's who. I started to get a little confused when all of the revelations started but soon the plot settled down and I started to enjoy the experience.

The biggest problem with the novel is Greg's incessant description of how Scotty and his lovers felt on Ecstasy. The drug itself is an important part of the plot. But he should have given it up after the first couple of descriptions. I didn't want to know how incredible it felt to be on E and dance until your feet blister and night turns to day; what I wanted was more mystery, more who done it! I found myself skipping paragraph to paragraph looking for more of the plot whenever I hit these drug overdoses. But once he got back to writing about the murders and the Russian brothers, I stopped skipping and focused. When he focused his writing, I focused my reading.

Greg Herren has a true gift as a writer. When he hits his stride, you can't stop reading. When Colin (one of two of Scotty's lovers) reveals his past, I was as stunned as Scotty was. I was tearing up so badly, I had to stop reading for a moment. This is the kind of book I love to read; funny, moving, and engaging. Lots of good plot twists and surprises that can stop you in your tracks. Read Mardi Gras Mambo. You'll like it.