Scotty Bradley Mysteries No. 8 - Royal Street Reveillon

Scotty Bradley and his very non-traditional family are back for an eighth book in this mystery series by Greg Herren. I am so glad that this series has continued, as I honestly never thought it would make it this far. Herren's Chanse McLeod series has had seven books, and now the Scotty Bradley series has surpassed it (even though I found the Chanse McLeod books first).  Where McLeod is a more traditional gay detective, Bradley is a think-outside-of-the-box, fly-by-the-seat-of-your pants detective with a rather unusual family - two husbands, a live-in nephew, and parents who are open to just about anything and will do everything they need to in order to protect their family...

Royal Street Reveillon finds Colin gone, off on a mission he can't talk about, and Frank is doing a show in Montgomery - leaving Scotty to care for his nephew, Taylor. And what better way to keep a young man busy than to take him to the grand premier of Grand Dames: New Orleans! I have to give Herren credit for his continuity here, as he builds this mystery around the reality television show that was mentioned in the previous book - a bunch of rich women in a particular city who snipe, gripe, and basically backstab one another every chance they get. (Real Housewives, per chance?) For Taylor, it turns out to be a fantastic night, as the creator/producer of the show only has eyes for him - and invites him back to his hotel room to prove it!  For Scotty, though, murder turns out to be on his menu for the evening....

First, he returns home to discover Colin standing over a man that he has clearly just murdered. After helping him clean up the evidence and dispose of the body, Scotty gets a phone call. From Taylor. Saying he doesn't feel so good, he woke up in Eric's suite naked, and, oh, yeah, Eric is dead.  Tis the season to the jolly, right?

Herren offers up a well-plotted murder mystery with lots of suspects, lots of motives, and a lot of red herrings (which frustrate me, but at the same time, add to my enjoyment of the book, as it keeps me from guessing the murderer's identity way too soon).  I will admit, I did guess the killer pretty early on in the story, but not for the reasons I first thought, and not because of any particular action or words of this person - rather, with as many mysteries as I have read over the years, I've come to the realization that 9 times out of 10, the killer is someone who keeps to the background and seems innocent enough without any real involvement - but who is ultimately revealed to have connections to all the victims.  Such is the case here.  However, Herren did have me wavering from time to time, thinking perhaps I was on the wrong track, offering up one after another potential suspects who had more than enough to hide.

On top of all that, throw in the whole Colin and Russian terrorists subplot, the car accident that wasn't really an accident, and Taylor's kidnapping - well, it's easy to see that there is quite a lot going on in this book.  NOPD officers Venus and Blaine are on the case (cases?), and at every turn they tell Scotty and Frank to keep out of their investigations. But when not only their lives, but Taylor's life, are on the line, how can they stay out of it?  Plus, let's face it - a gay man will have an easier job getting information out of upper-class, uppity rich divas than a police officer any day of the week.

The only problem I have with the book is the same problem I had with the last one - Herren has a habit of repeating himself - often! His descriptions of characters and their backgrounds are repeated in detail several times throughout the story - and after two or three times, it leads one to wonder if he either has forgotten he already provided all of those details, or if it is simply padding to fill out the book to a certain page count.  As with the last mystery, it wasn't enough to really ruin my reading of the book, but it was enough to be noticeable and distract me from the story.  Hopefully, in future books, he will shy away from the repetition.

And speaking of future books - when are we going to see a team up between Scotty Bradley and Chanse McLeod???

RATING:  8 highly sophisticated Russian tracking devices out of 10 for keeping the New Orleans mysteries coming and keeping the readers on their toes in trying to solve the mystery!