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Julie Smith is the Edgar-Award winning author of seventeen mystery novels, including Louisiana Hotshot and the forthcoming Louisiana Bigshot, featuring Talba Wallis and Eddie Valentino. Her official website is www.juliesmithauthor.com.
Louisiana Bigshot
Smith has perfect pitch. She can echo the dizzying obfuscations of petty bureaucrats, the rising-threat noises of cops, and the back-and-forth lazy lobbing of friendship. It's great to hear her again, following her African American private eye Talba Wallis around from New Orleans to tiny Clayton, Louisiana, as she confronts and cajoles information on her latest case. Wallis' new friend asks her to run a background check on her fiancé, whom she suspects of cheating on her. Private-eye protocol calls for running a check on the client first. This client, though, comes up empty. The cheating boyfriend comes around two days later, with the news that Wallis' friend has died from an apparent heroin overdose. The trail leads to Clayton, the friend's home, an almost entirely white community, whose members seem to regard the dead woman as a sinner and traitor.
Julie Smith's Summer Reading List
Odd Girl Out
Rachel Simmons
This book takes on the stereotype of girls as the kinder, gentler gender. While girls are not taught to be "violent", Simmons examines the peculiar ways girls have developed to act out anger, frustration and aggression: gossip, the silent treatment, glaring, two-facedness, and backstabbing.
Open Season
by C. J. Box
This mystery debut has garnered a lot of attention for a first time writer. It's set in a small town in Wyoming, and the main character is game warden Joe Pickett, who moves with his family to Twelve Sleeps when he gets the game warden's job, so in additional to the dead poacher he finds he also has to deal with the locals closing ranks against an outsider. Why am I reading it? I have teen-age nieces--also a lot of curiosity.
Silent Joe
by T. Jefferson Parker
Joe Trona is an Orange County deputy who also works as a bodyguard for his adoptive father, politician Will Trona, who is killed before his eyes. Joe vows vengeance and to bring the killer to justice. The trail leads him to the kidnapping of a millionaire's daughter, the murder of two immigrants, a charismatic holy man, and the strange alliance of two LA gangs. As he digs deeper into his "father's" life, Joe finds himself also digging into the murky secrets of his own past. This one just won the Edgar--that would be reason enough to want to read it.
Chariots of the Gods
by Erich von Daniken
Von Daniken first published this work in the early 1970's and his theory that astronauts from outer space visited the Earth at the dawn of civilization caused a firestorm of controversy. von Daniken's proofs consist of descriptions of the gods from ancient texts, drawings, and paintings (in one chapter he wonders if the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as described in the Bible, actually is a description of the use of a nuclear weapon). I'm eager to read this because of some research I'm doing on the Mayans, who(if you believe some people) had regular contact with extraterrestrials.
Dead Midnight
by Marcia Muller
The twenty second Sharon McCone mystery finds the acerbic private eye still trying to cope with the suicide of her brother when she is hired to prove that Roger Kurosawa's suicide was due to being overworked, to the point of being driven to suicide. The world of on-line magazine publishing is the setting for this latest Muller. I'm a BIG fan of Marcia's and always read the new Muller the minute I can get my hands on it. I now see that not only did Publisher's Weekly give this one a star, they said it's her best yet. Talk about a treat!
Oyster
by John Biguenet
The oyster rich bayou country of Louisiana in the 1950's is the setting for this debut novel. The bitter family rivalry between the Petitjeans and the Bruneaus, deeply embedded in their entangled past, leads to tragedy in the present day. An arranged marriage between the Bruneau patriarch and a young Petitjean woman (strictly for money) is the first step in this tragedy of two doomed families. Sounds very Shakespearean, doesn't it? I try to read everything Louisianan, and this one is getting particularly good reviews.
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