The Mardi Gras Murders by Mark Peters

[Nigel Gordon]

It is strange how you can sense if a novel is going to be worth reading or not from the first chapter. Of course this depends a lot on personal taste, there are a couple of pieces on AD where I have never been able to get past the first chapter whilst other reviewers rave about them. This for me is one where I can't wait to get onto the second chapter.

Mark Peters has set the scene for what I am sure is going to be a great novel in a most effective way. There are no long descriptions of context or place but in some of the best dialogue I have come across he manages to give you a feeling of time, place and history whilst being economical with his use of words and language. That is masterful writing and I cannot wait to see what is to follow.

[The Pecman]

And the link is here:

http://www.awesomedude.com/mark_peters/mgm/

I agree, a good beginning... although, I've never heard an American use the term "hard-arsed." Hard-assed, sure.

[Paul]

I agree, a good beginning... although, I've never heard an American use the term "hard-arsed." Hard-assed, sure.

The story takes place in Sydney, Australia.

We ended up spending almost the entire morning walking the streets of inner Sydney...

[Nigel Gordon]

I agree, a good beginning... although, I've never heard an American use the term "hard-arsed." Hard-assed, sure.

Yes, it appears they speak English in Sydney.

[Merkin]

I too got snookered into thinking this story had a U.S./New Orleans setting at the very outset, just because the title automatically kicked in my chauvinism gene (which we 'Muricans all seem to share). It wasn't until I read that the main character was a 'constable detective' that I began to take notice of my story surroundings. I guess I'm a terrible detective story reader, but this tale has a brilliant beginning and I intend to plow (plough) on until I figure out where it is taking place. Somewhere south of here, I believe.

[DesDownunder]

It's true we speak a bastardisation of English in Australia, but it's still close enough to proper English that our American cousins may have some trouble translating it. As I have said previously, Aussies are inundated with both Hollywood and UK movies and television programs, and that leaves us fairly able to understand both cultures and their variations on English.

(If only we could understand ourselves...)

Story is set in Sydney and New Castle (a large town North of Sydney.)

https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=VLHX1wd2Cgu8wR6jwyh-km8JBWAkEzU4,7zDlAQABXzC0D5ZAW0882uz2VgtLZaBz8NMuBQpQ8uoasYb41rgyGyFekIlnn6dI6uDhpGx9RPbggYNntYJlTXiksa67rX54SdAAi72vG9FCaGcmH6_5TXKJ4I3NKivmdMI6M5viiZGowaWEj6cS-I-gvvTQom2CtewA03dFoIxApwQ6X_Nd-um0bvFBck-G3zAhq2ffzahIA6OBeQ2-a3xF

[The Pecman]

The story takes place in Sydney, Australia.

Then hard-arsed, it is! (Call me crazy, but I like it when the writer tells me in the first three or four paragraphs where the hell the characters are.)

[dude]

Duh... this is a gay-fiction internatinal website, isn't it? ... the gay Mardi Gras is in what city? Sydney, Australia isn't it? The title page shows Sydney Harbor, doesn't it? Duh!

:laugh: :laugh:

[DesDownunder]

G'day, I knew it was Sydney from the character's accent, mate!

[colinian]

I caught on after a while, but in the U.S. (and possibly Canada, too) Mardi Gras is in New Orleans, Louisiana. So, yeah, I was confulsed at first.

Colin

[Nigel Gordon]

I caught on after a while, but in the U.S. (and possibly Canada, too) Mardi Gras is in New Orleans, Louisiana. So, yeah, I was confulsed at first.

Colin

Sorry but in most of the world Mardi Gras is Rio or Sydney.

[colinian]

I might have been confused about the locale of the story at first, but I caught on and it didn't bother me that it was set in Sidney. I don't think it is necessesary to identify the locale up front. The story should put me in that locale as I read it.The Mardi Gras Murders did that for me. It's sort of like the discussion in the Valentines Stories topic about whether a story that doesn't have a gay theme should be so identified up front. IMO, neither is needed.

Colin

[Merkin]

Sidney is in Canada, Colin

[The Pecman]

Mardi Gras goes back to 1699 in New Orleans, so that might have been what threw me.

[colinian]

Sidney is in Canada, Colin

Sidney is also in the USA

Sidney New York

Sidney Nebraska

Sidney Ohio

Colin

[Lugnutz]

Sydney is in Australia.

[colinian]

Sydney is in Australia.

Ah, now I see. A typo. My typo. I humbly apologize to all Sydneysiders and their suburban cohorts.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

Ah, now I see. A typo. My typo. I humbly apologize to all Sydneysiders and their suburban cohorts.

Colin

Besides which, all those 'i' Sidneys don't have weird looking opera houses.

C

[Bruin Fisher]

Having visited Sydney, I'm delighted this story is set there - I can picture the setting easily. And it's shaping up to be a lovely story. Hooray!

[Nigel Gordon]

Well it has been ten months since this story started and I have been gripped by it for the whole ten months. A good novel, well plotted and well written, and definitely worth the wait to get to the final chapter.

[Rutabaga]

Just finished reading this. I expected it to be in Australia consistent with the rest of Mark Peters's work.

The one big piece I was hoping to learn, but did not, was whether there was ever any consequence to Cunningham for covering up the bad guy's misdeeds.

R