Julie Smith: New Orleans Mourning (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
FESTIVAL OF MURDER
It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and as the gaudy Rex parade proceeds down St. Charles Avenue, hysterical revelers crowd the street to see the King of Carnival. This year he's the prominent Chauncey St. Amant: upper-crust, yet down-to-earth, he's an ideal Monarch of Mirth.

Until a costumed killer's bullet wipes the smile off his face.

Policewoman Skip Langdon is on the case. Daughter of social-climbing parents, Skip is well acquainted with the St. Amants. What's more, she knows that the glittering dynasty hides more than its share of family skeletons. But nothing could prepare Skip for the web of tangled clues and ancient secrets that would mean danger for her... and doom for the St. Amants.

"The story takes place in the hidden heart of New Orleans, a separate, special world, at once sad and touching... Smith is a gifted writer and she tells her story on many levels, through many dimensions. This is hardly 'just a mystery story.'" -- The Washington Post Book World

Julie Smith: New Orleans Mourning. A Mystery. Ivy Books, ISBN: 0804107386 (February, 1991), 339 p., $3.95.