Description:

Louisiana Lament is the THIRD book in the Talba Wallis mystery series by Edgar-winning author Julie Smith.

"From biker bar to college campus, the chase is on ... readers will remain hooked until the killer's comeuppance in the clever conclusion." -Publisher's Weekly

"Vibrant. " -Booklist on Louisiana Lament

"It's Stephanie Plum with Tabasco, dawlin'." -The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS

Nobody knew who she really was … but her parties were to die for!

They’d be Queen Latifah and Danny DeVito if this were a movie. In Louisiana Lament, they’re P.I.s Talba Wallis and Eddie Valentino—Talba's young, African-American, computer-brilliant, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and a noted poet by night; Eddie's pushing seventy, white, hopelessly tech-challenged, and pretty much burned out. Somehow, they make it work—with Talba’s tech-and-street smarts, and Eddie's old-school hard-earned savvy, they even complement each other.

One stormy day Talba gets an emergency call from Janessa, the sister she barely knows, and arrives to find a body floating in a swimming pool—the mortal husk of Allyson Brown, known in New Orleans literary circles as the Girl Gatsby. Like Gatsby, Allyson was one of those mysterious rich people who move to town, give amazing parties, and seem made of moonbeams.

Investigating, Talba finds the reality behind the Gatsby glamour. Allyson was a con artist who neglected her children, ignored her bills, and lied like a rug. But she wasn’t the only bad actor on the local literary scene. Fellow poet Rashad leads Talba a merry chase, leaving a trail of clues in the form of poetry, while novelists engage in fisticuffs, unseemly preening, and unforgivable arrogance.

Before it’s all over, Talba finds out just how seamy, petty, and downright murderous her fellow literati can be.

From Booklist

Edgar Award-winning Smith writes two mystery series set in the New Orleans era starring female sleuths, Talba Wallis and Skip Langdon, respectively. Her latest in the Wallis series takes on the dog-eat-dog world of New Orleans society as it wraps itself around the southern literary scene. A call from Wallis' half sister, Janessa (whom Wallis discovered in a previous mystery), catapults the multitalented PI, computer expert, and poet into a double-homicide investigation. A mother and daughter are found murdered in their stately home: the mother is floating in the swimming pool, a bullet in her head; the daughter has died from multiple stab wounds. The mother is known as a modern-day female Gatsby. She came from nowhere, hosted elaborate parties, and now has ended up dead in her pool. Driving Wallis' interest in the case is the fact that her sister, a painter of decorative murals at the house, is a prime suspect. Wallis ranges throughout the state in the course of her investigation, giving the reader great lashings of Louisiana atmosphere. Vibrant. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Vibrant."
--Booklist on Louisiana Lament

"If you haven't read Smith before, this is the time to start. If you're a fan, you're in for yet another treat."
--Marcia Muller, bestselling author of Dead Midnight

"Can't wait for the next Evanovich? Check out Louisiana Hotshot. It's Stephanie Plum with Tabasco, dawlin'."
--The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS

"Smith has launched Talba Wallis on a welcome series of her own. Wallis is fine fun to get to know . . . a consistently interesting and likable woman of depth and complexity."
--The Washington Post

Vibrant. (Booklist )