Death Drop

by Greg Herren

Overview

"A First-Rate Launch of a Drag Queen Mystery Series We All Need Now More Than Ever!"—Alison Gaylin

Glam artist Jem Richard loved making New Orleans' society mavens feel beautiful—but doesn't like being stiffed. He reluctantly agrees to help with the make-up for the fall fashion show for the House of Mercereau, but demand payment up front after what happened the last time—when designer Marigny Mercereau's check bounced. But no one warned him before he arrives, brushes and make-up palettes in hand, that the models he'll be working on are drag queens! Pressed into service when one of the queens doesn't show Jim wows the crowds and slays his fellow queens with his style and presentation on the runway. But between trips down the runway (and tequila shots for courage), Jim starts noticing bits and pieces of conversations and arguments showing all is not well behind the scenes of the House of Mercereau, and everyone seems to want Marigny dead. When her body is discovered the next morning, Jim finds himself in the sites of a killer! Jim puts on his best Shirley Holmes deerstalker cap and starts tracing the clues to help that handsome police detective—who may or may not be flirting with him—catch the killer before the killer catches Jem.

The Golden Notebook Bookstore has been Woodstock New York's fiercely independent bookstore for over close to fifty years. We launched the Golden Notebook Press in 2023 as a way to publish books and authors we believe in and that we know can sell to wide audience as our store reaches not only our artistic community, but thousands of annual tourists from around the world. We hope to keep books in print that are vital to the artistic and literary needs of our diverse customer base, find new exciting subjects and voices, and promote the Catskills and Hudson Valley region we are so proud to call our home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780967554150
Publisher:	Golden Notebook Press
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Series:	A Killer Queen Mystery
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	545,179
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Greg Herren is a New Orleans-based author and editor. He is co-founder of the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, which takes place in New Orleans every spring. He is the author of thirty-three novels, including the Lambda Literary Award winning Murder in the Rue Chartres, called by the New Orleans Times-Picayune "the most honest depiction of life in post-Katrina New Orleans published thus far." He co-edited Love, Bourbon Street: Reflections on New Orleans which also won the Lambda Literary Award. His young adult novel Sleeping Angel won the Moonbeam Gold Medal for Excellence in Young Adult Mystery/Horror, and Lake Thirteen won the silver. He co-edited Night Shadows: Queer Horror, which was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award.

He has published over fifty short stories in markets as varied as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine to the critically acclaimed anthology New Orleans Noir to various websites, literary magazines and anthologies. His erotica anthology FRATSEX is the all time best selling title for Insightout Books. He has worked as an editor for Bella Books, Harrington Park Press and now Bold Strokes books. 

Editorial Reviews

"Greg Herren takes us on a fabulous ride through the mighty real world of New Orleans high fashion. A design maven ends up dead and when a drag queen in training is implicated by her own make-up bag, it takes a queen to stop a queen! A first-rate launch of a drag queen mystery serie3s we need now more than ever."—Alison Gaylin, Edgar-winning author of "If I Die Tonight" and "The Collective"

"With smart, Tart writing and a pearl-clutching climax, Lambda Literary Award winner Greg Herren launches the sparkling new Killer Queen Mystery series from the Golden Notebook Press. If you like your mysteries served up with a dollop of drama (queen) and one helluva twist (lime, with a tequila chaser)—Death Drop is the book for you!"—Wendy Corsi Staub, New York Times bestselling author

"Makeup artist James "Jem" Richard might honestly believe that Marigny Orloff is committing crimes against fashion with her ill-fitting couture gowns, but that doesn't mean he wanted to kill her. It turns out, however, that someone else did want Marigny dead. This becomes evident when Jem discovers Marigny's body the day after her latest runway show, which featured drag queen models styled by Jem, who was also pressed into service as a last-minute model. Now, in between remembering snatches of conversations he overheard at the fashion show and suddenly becoming the target of Marigny's killer, Jem has no choice but to do some investigating of his own, unless he wants his next death drop to be permanent. Personal dramas play out among the engaging cast of characters concocted by award-winning Herren, author of the "Chanse MacLeod" and "Scotty Bradley" series. Readers who enjoy crime fiction with a vividly evoked setting and an entertaining story frame will find this series launch to be the perfect literary lagniappe."—Library Journal

From the Publisher

10/01/2023

Makeup artist James "Jem" Richard might honestly believe that Marigny Orloff is committing crimes against fashion with her ill-fitting couture gowns, but that doesn't mean he wanted to kill her. It turns out, however, that someone else did want Marigny dead. This becomes evident when Jem discovers Marigny's body the day after her latest runway show, which featured drag queen models styled by Jem, who was also pressed into service as a last-minute model. Now, in between remembering snatches of conversations he overheard at the fashion show and suddenly becoming the target of Marigny's killer, Jem has no choice but to do some investigating of his own, unless he wants his next death drop to be permanent. VERDICT The mystery itself often seems to take a backseat to personal dramas playing out among the engaging cast of characters concocted by award-winning Herren, author of the "Chanse MacLeod" and "Scotty Bradley" series. However, readers who enjoy crime fiction with a vividly evoked setting and an entertaining story frame will find this series launch to be the perfect literary lagniappe.—John Charles

Library Journal