BAD GIRL BLUES

Burned-out photographer Andy Derain leaves New York City for his New Orleans home, searching for an easier lifestyle, but finds himself embroiled in a seedy string of murders--and targeted as the next victim

Writing as Dancer, a Chicago Tribune columnist who covers Washington society events sinks his latest mystery with needless name-dropping, a surfeit of incidental detail and too many precious characters. Andy Derain, a handsome, ruggedly dissolute photographer, flees fame in New York to reclaim his roots in New Orleans. His fashion-model lover, Candy, who occasionally escapes from her billionaire husband to slum with Andy, is with him in his French Quarter apartment when a male prostitute is knifed to death under the window. Andy, in the buff, chases the killer while Candy runs off, fearful of publicity. Andy's address is found in the dead boy's pocket. A second man dies, and Andy begins to wonder whether Candy's powerful husband is involved. Everyone Andy encounters is colorful, witty or mysterious--and unbelievable. Packed with pointless asides on photography and catty put-downs of tourists, Dancer offers a dull mystery in trendy, bodice-ripper prose. BOMC and QPB alternate.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The pseudonymous Dancer's first novel pits former Gotham fashion photographer Andr‚ Derain, now taking stills for a Hollywood movie as he smells the roses in New Orleans, against whoever killed Albert Ferrier, the male prostitute knifed outside Andy's place (with Andy's address in his pocket) while Andy was inside disporting himself with fading model Candice Browley. A series of accidents on the movie shoot point to sabotage, but Andy soon realizes he's stuck in something much deeper, caught between two all-powerful men: Candy's oilman husband, Ben Browley, pulling who-knows-what strings back in Texas, and white supremacist Senator Henry Boone. At the same time, he's torn among his loyalties to five fascinating women: Boone's predatory PR agent Katie Kollwitz, fading Oscar-winning actress Paris Moran, ingenue Emily Shaw (an especially sweet interlude here), his matter-of-fact prostitute landlady Bleusette Lescaut, and of course Candy. Red Harvest in the Big Easy. Too much of a good thing, maybe- -Andy sure gets beaten up and seduced a lot--but a welcome debut, filled with people who will live much longer in your memory than they do in this book. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Michael Kilian, writing here as Rex Dancer, has established himself in the last several years as a first-rate writer of political and historical novels as well as of mysteries (e.g., The Last Virginia Gentlemen, LJ 6/1/ 92). Bad Girl Blues, set in sultry New Orleans, is his best effort yet. Main character Andy Derain, a burnt-out New York photographer, finds a dead body in the courtyard of his French Quarter shop. Strange that his former love Candice, now married to powerful Texan Ben Browley, should be with him at the time! Believable characterization of even minimal characters, excellent writing with touches of humor built beautifully into the dialog, well-paced plot development, and doses of violence and sex that are never overdone but add to the storyline-all make this an essential purchase for mystery collections. Hopefully, Dancer will join James Lee Burke and Julie Smith and write more New Orleans-based murders.
Alice DiNizo, Raritan, N.J. P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.