AnEdgar Award-winning tale of murder at Mardi Gras, the (unlikely) dynamic duo of a luddite private eye and a sassy poet/hacker-turned-investigator, a tasty San Francisco cozy chronicling the sometimes killer-competitive bakery biz, and an ex-journalist caught up in the dirtier... and deadlier... side of a P.I.'s puzzling demise. Mysterious bedfellows - and an irresistible collection of the "best of" that celebrated mystery novelist Julie Smith has to offer. Best Case: Murder is an anthology sure to hook readers into all 4 of Smith's page-turning mystery series.
All for a killer price!
NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and civic leader and socialite Chauncy St. Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...
Enter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her - and doom for the St. Amants.
LOUISIANA BIGSHOT
Meet the hottest detective duo in New Orleans--she's Queen Latifah. He's Danny DeVito. Or they would be if this were a movie--in print, they're Talba Wallis and Eddie Valentino. Talba's got the beauty, the brains, the computer savvy, the poetic soul,the youth, the right demographic, and the sass. Eddie's got the detective agency.
And they need every skill and ounce of courage they can summon in this intricate tale of a decades-old conspiracy only now coming home to roost.
SOURDOUGH WARS
TO YOU, ITS JUST A FROZEN LUMP OF DOUGH; TO SOME, IT'S LIFE AND DEATH... Especially to handsome Peter Martinelli, who wants to auction off the fabled sourdough starter from his family's famous bakery. But who'd buy a frozen hunk of flour and water? Only, it turns out, every bakery in San Francisco, a national food conglomerate, and an upstart ringer with a mysterious backer.
Someone would even kill for it. And does.
Enter lawyer sleuth Rebecca Schwartz, whose client is her own partner, glamorous Chris Nicholson, Martinelli's main squeeze before the ill-starred auction.
TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE
Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist ... and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: he'd detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasn't much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.
But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul's own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul's got a feeling that's just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?
Editor's note: This is not a collection of firsts in series. It's an anthology in the old fashioned sense--themed books aimed to give the reader a variety of styles and genres. But not to worry--none of these series need be read in sequence. For those to whom this is important, there are indeed two firsts--NEW ORLEANS MOURNING and TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE (by the author's alter ego).
Genre: Mystery
All for a killer price!
NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and civic leader and socialite Chauncy St. Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...
Enter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her - and doom for the St. Amants.
LOUISIANA BIGSHOT
Meet the hottest detective duo in New Orleans--she's Queen Latifah. He's Danny DeVito. Or they would be if this were a movie--in print, they're Talba Wallis and Eddie Valentino. Talba's got the beauty, the brains, the computer savvy, the poetic soul,the youth, the right demographic, and the sass. Eddie's got the detective agency.
And they need every skill and ounce of courage they can summon in this intricate tale of a decades-old conspiracy only now coming home to roost.
SOURDOUGH WARS
TO YOU, ITS JUST A FROZEN LUMP OF DOUGH; TO SOME, IT'S LIFE AND DEATH... Especially to handsome Peter Martinelli, who wants to auction off the fabled sourdough starter from his family's famous bakery. But who'd buy a frozen hunk of flour and water? Only, it turns out, every bakery in San Francisco, a national food conglomerate, and an upstart ringer with a mysterious backer.
Someone would even kill for it. And does.
Enter lawyer sleuth Rebecca Schwartz, whose client is her own partner, glamorous Chris Nicholson, Martinelli's main squeeze before the ill-starred auction.
TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE
Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist ... and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: he'd detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasn't much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.
But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul's own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul's got a feeling that's just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?
Editor's note: This is not a collection of firsts in series. It's an anthology in the old fashioned sense--themed books aimed to give the reader a variety of styles and genres. But not to worry--none of these series need be read in sequence. For those to whom this is important, there are indeed two firsts--NEW ORLEANS MOURNING and TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE (by the author's alter ego).
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Julie Smith's Best Case: Murder