AJulie Smith is an American mystery writer, the author of 19 novels and several short stories. She won the 1991 Edgar Award for Best Novel for her sixth book, New Orleans Mourning.
Julie tops today’s Buffet with two books from her “Skip Langdon” series, Jazz Funeral and Mean Woman Blues.
Julie was born in Annapolis, Maryland, grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Mississippi. She then worked as a journalist for 16 years, beginning as a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. She then moved on to the San Francisco Chronicle, where she became the first woman hired for the newsroom since World War II. She quit the Chronicle in 1979 to form a freelance writing and editing firm called Invisible Ink with several other aspiring fiction writers, including Marcia Muller, and sold her first novel, Death Turns a Trick, in 1982.
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Jazz Funeral (Skip Langdon #3)
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Julie Smith
Everybody loved easygoing Ham Brocato, producer of the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. So how did he end up stabbed to death in his kitchen on the eve of the fest?
New Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon acquires a ready-made suspect list from the victim’s live-in lover, feisty and swiftly rising star Ti-Belle Thiebaud, and sets out to solve the murder. To complicate the case, the victim’s sixteen-year-old blues musician sister has disappeared, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn’t the murderer, she’s in mortal danger from the person who is.
Skip doesn’t miss much as she probes the victim’s tangled relationships, including Ariel Bruge, Ham’s assistant, apparently a woman scorned; his father George, enmeshed with family members in a bitter disagreement over the family’s lucrative Po’ Boy chain; and Patty, the distraught stepmother.
With her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her gay landlord, Jimmy Dee, to assist her, Skip trails an elusive killer through a sweltering early summer in the steamy Big Easy, a lively blend of big city and gossipy small town, in a tale of southern kinships gone awry.
Mean Woman Blues (Skip Langdon Mystery #9)
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Julie Smith
The most dangerous man in the world is trying to kill her…
That would be the Rev. Errol Jacomine, crazy as a fox that just ate a loon, and more dangerous than a cell full of serial killers. She’s Detective Skip Langdon, the New Orleans cop who’s twice smashed his criminal endeavors, yet each time he’s managed to slip away. Now he’s mad. In both senses of the word. And he has the connections to have her killed–or worse, those she loves.
After one near-miss and several nasty threats, Skip is driven by fear that she’ll lose the people dearest to her. Despite finding herself disgraced in her own home town (seems Jacomine knows how to frame as well as kill), she goes on the hunt for the kind of maniac with a gift for conning people and the extreme makeover to make it work.
But by now Jacomine’s madness has escalated to the point that he’s finally gone too far with too many people. Before it’s over, more than one person’s stalking him, and some are women feeling as mean as their quarry. If Langdon doesn’t get there first, there’ll be a bloodbath. If she does, only one person will walk away—and Jacomine’s as lucky as he’s ruthless.
The Ultimate Gift: A Novel
Christian Fiction
Author: Jim Stovall
What would you do to inherit a million dollars? Would you be willing to change your life? Jason Stevens is about to find out in Jim Stovall’s The Ultimate Gift.
Red Stevens has died, and the older members of his family receive their millions with greedy anticipation. But a different fate awaits young Jason, whom Stevens, his great-uncle, believes may be the last vestige of hope in the family.
A Pitch for Justice
Sports Psychology
Author: Harold Kasselman
Phillies’ rookie pitcher Tim Charles anguishes over his manager’s order to retaliate against a Mets’ batter for the team’s honor. He throws a high inside pitch that crashes off the batter’s head, but no one can foresee the unthinkable consequences.
Tim becomes the target of a grand jury investigation for murder when an avenging widow pressures officials to prosecute. A baseball feud between the Mets and the Phillies ignites into a shocking and suspenseful criminal drama played out in the courts.
Cades Cove: The Curse of Allie Mae
Genre Fiction > Horror > Ghosts
Author: Aiden James
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Buried deep in a ravine in the picturesque Smoky Mountains is a very dark secret. David Hobbs, vacationing with his wife Miriam, inadvertently stumbles upon a small cloth ‘keepsake’ bag and a broken tooth. A human tooth. Miriam begs David to hand the bag and tooth over to park officials, but he ignores his wife’s pleas and secretly keeps the ‘harmless’ items. The action opens a doorway that had been closed for nearly a hundred years and unleashes hell on earth, or at least hell in the lives of David and Miriam.
Following the brutal murder of his best friend in Denver, and an aborted attack on his oldest son, David desperately seeks to understand why a mysterious teenage girl has chosen to terrorize him and the males closest to him. To prevent further devastation to his family and end the wanton bloodshed, he returns to the enchanted hills of eastern Tennessee, where a terrible truth awaits discovery…one that forces him to face the consequences for the unpaid sins of his ancestors.
Haunting Refrain (The McGuire Women)
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Ellis Vidler
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Photographer Kate McGuire hopes for a little fun in her life when she joins a parapsychology experiment–visions of murder aren’t part of the plan. Then her eccentric friend Venice, a complication all by herself, leaks the story to a reporter, and Kate’s life turns upside down. The police don’t take her seriously, but the murderer does.
Kate’s distrust of the press causes her to clash with the one person who can help her—the skeptical reporter who got her into trouble in the first place. Now it’s up to Kate to find the killer before anyone else dies.
The Throne
Literature & Fiction > African American > Urban
Author: Cole Hart, Tina Nance
For years, Falisa Walker stood in the shadows of her husband Timbo as he ruled over their drug empire. They lived lavishly as King and Queen while calling shots from New York to Augusta, Georgia. Their Columbian connect in Miami, ensured their place at the top of the game.
They lived the dream, until the feds raided their mansion and snatched Falisa and her husband, leaving their twelve-year-old son to hold down the Throne. He did everything his father asked; even placing his own life in jeopardy to prove that he was capable of walking in the shoes that were left for him.
One simple mistake turned their entire family upside down, and their son was left to swim the waters with the Great Whites. Loyalties are tested, and bonds are strained as young Fly learns that the road to the throne is no cakewalk.
Easy & Healthy French Recipes Volume 3: How to cook classic French appetizers
Cookbooks, Food & Wine > French
Author: Claire Rose
French cook Claire Rose is bringing to the masses the greatest appetizer recipes from the biggest culinary nation in this easy-to-understand cookbook. The dishes have been simplified and crafted around the idea that anyone can, and should, be able to make the best food possible.
All recipes call for fresh, all-natural ingredients commonly found in any marketplace.
Create healthy snacks for the kids or entertain your special guests with these superb dishes.
How to draw collection 1-12
Children’s Books > Activity Books
Author: Amit Offir
Over 400 pages that will teach you how to draw step by step the coolest things to draw. This is a great book for parents that want to draw with their kids, drawing teachers and art teachers can use it in so many ways. It’s great for kids and adults who love to draw and want to improve their drawing skills
Subculture
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Charles Anthony Vilina
A Kentucky community finds itself in shock and disbelief over the disappearance of two high school boys on a dark December night. Two months later, one boy’s body is unearthed on the farm of a reclusive and enigmatic girl, a foreigner of Asian descent. Her arrest and subsequent trial for murder forces this community, and the reader, to appraise their personal beliefs in the face of their deepest fears.
The First Ward
Historical Fiction
Author: Richard Sullivan
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This novel is based on the true history and tumult of boom-town Buffalo’s First Ward from 1850 through New Year’s Eve 1899, and the real-life characters who influenced and controlled the lives of half a million people.
Newlywed Sam Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, was gifted with a spledid home with servants, as well as a part ownership of the Buffalo Express newspaper by his generous father-in-law, yet the Great American Storyteller would find neither happiness nor success in this unruly city.
Patalosh: The Time Travelers
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Z Altug
Ten-year-old Orion Spence never expected to wake up alone on the HMS Exploricus after his birthday. After finally locating the first officer of the time-traveling airship and the rest of the crew, Orion gets horrible news. His parents, who serve as captain and science officer, have been kidnapped by the evil Emperor Daaggerd. The emperor has taken Orion’s parents in order to gain control of the Exploricusand also the Ancient Book of Spells, a powerful book Orion’s family is pledged to protect.
Truffles by the Sea
Christian Fiction > Romance
Author: Julie Carobini
- $2.99 List Price
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Determined to turn her life around, Gaby Flores moves to a Ventura seaside loft, takes on a new motto–Be gullible no more–and begins to rebuild her flower store while searching for Mr. So Right. But when a lawsuit, an eviction notice, a near-empty bank account, and quirky neighbors invade her beachy world, not even chocolate can solve her worries as her fledgling faith is put to the test.
Sisters of Grace
Literature & Fiction > African American > Romance
Author: H. M. Mann
When lightning strikes the roof of Grace Apostolic Faith Church in Grace, Alabama, during a tropical storm, Andrew Hunt stops to fix it. Once he does, he finds himself immersed in the middle an “almost” wedding and a flood of Gray family drama.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks and the Kindle Daily Deal here on page 2
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