Girls, I just finished reading the book above, and, if you have any intention of reading it, don't go any further, because I am going to touch upon points that could otherwise ruin the story for you. If you already have read it, then hop aboard, loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the surface, "Murder In The Rue Ursulines," like the other two Chanse MacLeod mysteries I have read--"Murder In The Rue Daphine" and "Vieux Carre Voodoo"--is just another well-done yarn, concerning New Orleans in the French Quarter.
But there are a number of factors that give this story special interest. For starters, the Hollywood couple at the center of the story, Freddy Bliss and his wife, Jillian, are clearly modeled after Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!!!!!!!! (Brangelina; only here they are called Frillian!!!) I believe the real life couple did buy some property in the Big Easy--in the Garden District. And even though they themselves are referenced in the book, I still think Herren modeled Frillian after them.
The other is that the subplot, which took place a good twelve years before the story the reader is engaged in, is more interesting than the present, but figures in on it prominently.
It begins with Freddy Bliss receiving a spate of hateful emails--"I know what you really are," etc., and Chanse is hired to find out who is sending them. He narrows things down to a computer out of Glynnis Parris' home--an actress who happens to be Bliss' ex-wife, and who, by coincidence, happens to be in NOLA at the same time, filming a movie.
But before Chanse can proceed further, Glynnis ends up dead. And he sees someone looking suspiciously like Freddy sneaking out the house on what turns to be not only the day of, but the time shortly after, the murder.
Things look bad for Freddy, made only worse by his Control Queen wife Jillian, who turns out to be such a bitch, I am sorry she was not killed off!!!!!! (Shades of Angelina, darlings!!!!!!!!!) But it isn't until Chanse latches on to this hacker genius, Jephthah, that he learns of Freddy' s past, and the interesting subplot comes to the fore.
Twelve years before, Freddy Bliss was a student at Emporia State University, in Kansas, named Frederick Bliss Osborne. He was a member of a fraternity, good looking, and could have any girl he chose. One evening, there is a party, and Frederick meets Karen Zorn, a student at the school. She is smitten with Freddy, they get drunk, tumble into bed....and Freddy awakens the next morning, regretting the whole thing. But Karen awakens hearing wedding bells pealing madly for them both..... only Freddy doesn't. And before you can say "Fatal Attraction," Karen is following him all over campus, buying gifts, professing love....you know, the usual. Well, eventually Freddy has it out with her, and tries to set her straight. She retaliates by turning on him, and accusing him of rape that night they were together. It goes before a hearing board, but, much to Karen's consternation, the charge is dismissed. After that, Karen drops out of school, and mysteriously vanishes. Could she have been murdered, too, with the body not turning up???
You know what, sweeties, I figured it out. Glynnis Parris had a personal assistant, a young, reliable woman named Rosemary Martin, whom she treated like the hired help...even though Rosemary was. Rosemary, Jay and some others on her staff are the only ones with access to Glynnis' computer, and, at first, Chanse eliminates all the workers as suspects.
Until he gets hold of the Karen Zorn story. And learns that, over the years, while Karen has "vanished", almost every person involved in her rape scandal has been killed--the college dean, and his wife, and Brad and Tim, two of Freddy's former frat buddies. It does not take Chanse long to realize Karen Zorn is still alive, she has killed these people, and Freddy's life is in danger, even more danger than being married to that bitch, Jillian!!!!!!!! Divorce can always take care of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It did not take me long to figure out that Rosemary Martin, Glynnis' personal assistant, and Karen Zorn, are one and the same. This after Chanse talks to Irene Zorn, her white trash mom, who trash talks her daughter, yet still wants to see her, after a two year estrangement. She tells how Karen humiliated all of them by accusing the boy of a rape she did not commit. I have to admit at this point I was feeling sorry for Karen--I though she wanted to escape from her white trash mom, who seemed abusive, but once I made the connection to the other killings, I realized Karen was the one who was being abusive. White trash Mom was telling the truth!!!!!!
Things get nasty from here. A young go-go dancer, Joey, who had been befriended by Rosemary, for the purpose of doing her grunge work for pay, is killed by her; he happened to be a chance witness to the murder, wants to shake Rosemary down for money, but she shakes him down even more, by shooting him. Then she kidnaps Chanse's reporter friend, Paige, and holds her captive, till Chanse shows up and tries to reason with the clearly deranged Karen. I guess it was a kind of "Fatal Attraction;" as Glenn Close said, of her character in that, eventually these personalities implode, self-destruct, and kill themselves. And that is what Karen ultimately does, simply because, when she immersed herself in the New Orleans celeb community, and ran into Freddy by chance, he had no idea who she was. He had forgotten all about her....and she did not like THAT!!!!!!!!!! So, she killed the competition, and then killed herself.
It was such fun, darlings!!!!!!!! Fast moving, and action packed. My only regret is never learning whether Freddy ultimately got rid of that no-good Jillian. Though the impression I got, at the end, is that he soon will.
I just love the Chanse MacLeod mysteries, partly because I have been to New Orleans, and can accurately picture in my mind the places Herren writes about. For those who have not been, his atmosphere is so accurately rendered, you will know where everything is, once you get there!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But murder in the French Quarter????????? No thanks, darlings!!!!!!!!! I will simply stick with coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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