A SHORT STORY BY AN EDGAR WINNER Once you read the opening line: “Don’s the name, Diva’s the game,” you know you’re in for a careen through the hood. And not just any hood. This is the Big Easy’s Faubourg Marigny, dawlin,’ where Diva Delish, the world’s most glamorous drag queen detective, presides nightly as bartender at the Marigny Palace. Never one to miss a bet, Diva’s got a little P.I. office set up in the back. When a neighborhood gutterpunk walks into the Palace (what? a gutterpunk with money to hire a P.I.?) Diva’s intrigued enough to take the case, accompanied by her faithful dog, Barkus—who knows a clue when he smells one. Her alter ego comes along too, an unprepossessing chap who goes by the name of “Don.” Originally a radio play, PRIVATE CHICK is a symphony of the sounds and dialects of New Orleans, and pretty much a laugh a line. As the author said in an interview, “If you’re going to write about a drag queen, there’s just no way to slack off on the one-liners.” Julie Smith is the author of the Skip Langdon and Talba Wallis mystery series, also set in New Orleans.