From Amazon.com
New Orleans police detective Skip Langdon is a tall, slightly overweight but still tough and resourceful cop who readers have come to know and love ever since
New Orleans Mourning won an Edgar as Best First Mystery. The first time she meets Talba Wallis, Langdon has this impression: "A young, pretty African-American woman with gorgeous hair, large of butt and bust, stuffed into black jeans and a white T-shirt." But Talba is a lot more than meets the eye; she's a gifted poet known as the Baroness de Pontalba and a computer expert who gets involved in a couple of cases on which Skip is working. In particular, the disappearance of Russell Fortier, an oil company executive and husband of a city councilwoman. Talba did some computer searching in Fortier's office for a suddenly deceased private eye, and she may have a scoop on the case. But reporter Jane Storey, back in print after an unhappy foray into television news, is also in the Fortier investigation. In fact, she's being fed facts about Fortier by a mysterious source.
In a city exploding with mystery series, Smith can still find something fresh to say, as in this comment about the cottage Talba shares with her mother: "They lived in the Ninth Ward between Desire and Piety, a metaphor she couldn't figure out how to use." Other Skip Langdon books available in paperback: The Axeman's Jazz, Crescent City Kill, House of Blues, Jazz Funeral, Kindness of Strangers, New Orleans Beat. --Dick Adler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The latest in Smith's series of Skip Langdon mysteries (following Crescent City Kill, 1997) gets a fresh infusion of life from a richly realized and memorable character, a young African American woman named Talba Willis, who is a poet and aspiring PI. Skip is a policewoman who had been assigned to Homicide in lushly described New Orleans, but the squad has been broken up and assigned to the city's various districts. Skip is working in a fairly upscale neighborhood when she is sent to investigate a missing persons case. Russell Fortier, an executive at United Oil Company and the husband of city councilwoman Bebe Fortier, has vanished. He may have just walked away from his marriage. Or he could have been kidnapped, even killed. Also hot on the case are Jane Storey, a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and Talba, otherwise known as The Baroness de Pontalba. Skip, Talba and Jane are caught up in an investigation that is being choreographed by a mysterious tipster who is feeding them information. But what is the tipster's own agenda? The probe into Russell's disappearance heats up even more when Talba's employer, PI Gene Allred, is found dead. Smith crams a full cast and plenty of plot twists into her complicated story, in which the New Orleans atmosphere and Talba, with her fierce wise poetry, shine brightest. The Baroness could have her own series any time.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
