Julie Smith: Louisiana Hotshot (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
Edgar Award-winner Julie Smith returns to the bewitching streets of New Orleans with the smartest, sassiest, hippest detective ever -- the Baroness Pontalba.

Meet the snazziest P.1. in the land. Not by accident does she roam America's jazziest city, New Orleans. By day she is Talba Wallis: smart, sassy, ebony, and a fledgling detective. By night she is the Baroness Pontalba: poet laureate of the city's smoky rooms, matron saint of her town's exotic and multi-colorful cafe society.

Goaded into a day gig by her pushy mom, she finds herself employed by Eddie Valentino, and Talba is plunged into a world of fame, money, and power run amok, hunting a man who seduces teenage black girls and may be making them disappear. At the same time she is haunted by disturbing near-memories. Her forgotten past only emerges when violence enters her life -- but not, she learns, for the first time.

"Talba is one of Smith's best and boldest heroines, with a supporting entourage that alternates between making you laugh and placing a knife of fear in your spine." -- The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS

"Julie Smith writes like jazz should sound -- cool, complex and penetrating right to the heart." -- Val McDermid

Julie Smith: Louisiana Hotshot. A Talba Wallis Novel. Forge, ISBN: 0765342928 (July, 2002), 344 p., $6.99.

Julie Smith: Louisiana Hotshot (USA 2001)

From the Publisher:
Edgar Award winner Julie Smith returns to the bewitching streets of New Orleans with the smartest, sassiest, hippest detective ever -- the Baroness Pontalba.

Meet the snazziest P.I. in the land. Not by accident does she roam America's jazziest city, New Orleans. By day she is Talba Wallis: smart, sassy, ebony, and a fledgling detective. By night she is the Baroness Pontalba: poet laureate of the city's smoky rooms, matron saint of her town's exotic and multi-colorful café society.

Goaded into a day gig by her pushy mom, she finds herself employed by Eddie Valentino, a crusty old detective who thinks he doesn't like anyone young, female, or black. He also doesn't realize his life is unraveling. Taking up the slack. Talba is plunged into a world of fame, money, and power run amok, hunting a man who seduces teenage black girls and may be making them disappear. At the same time she is haunted by disturbing near-memories, but the more she pursues them, the more the road-blocks go up. Her forgotten past only emerges when violence enters her life -- but not, she learns, for the first time.

Julie Smith: Louisiana Hotshot. Tom Doherty / Forge, ISBN: 0765300583 (May, 2001), 335 p., $24.95.