Free [Kindle] by Julie Smith [KDP]

[melmac]

The 3rd in Julie Smiths Skip Langdon series is free today the 1st,2nd and 4th have all been free before in Atdrakes KDP Slushpile threads. Now I just need 5-7 strangely in the Aussie store they only have 1-4,7

Jazz Funeral (Skip Langdon #3)

"A genuinely moving mystery ... It's always a pleasure to spend time with Skip, a no-nonsense, level-headed heroine in a wild and reckless city." -THE BALTIMORE SUN

Everybody loved easygoing Ham Brocato, producer of the successful New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; even so, he ends up stabbed to death in his kitchen on the eve of the fest. Spunky 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 aspiring blues musician sister has disappeared, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn't herself 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 quirky 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 both big city and gossipy small town, in a tale of southern kinships gone awry.

[ozron]

Thanks. Also have 1-4 now.

[DrNefario]

I seem to have missed number 4, but I do now have 1-3. One day I might read one and find out if they're worth keeping.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I seem to have missed number 4, but I do now have 1-3. One day I might read one and find out if they're worth keeping.

If you like this type of mystery - sort of police procedurals with a bit of a dark tone - they are pretty good. These were published in the late 80's or early 90's, IMS, and I read several in DTB. I enjoyed the sense of place with the New Orleans setting. She also has a couple of other series, but this was the series I enjoyed the most.

I missed #2 when it was free - darn! But at least I have #'s 1, 3, and 4.

[koland]

also only see #7 in the US, in KDP. She's change the title to Crescent City Connection on the Kindle edition. #8 is also missing in ebook form.

#9 is Forge Books - Mean Woman Blues (title on it has wrong series name)

[mitford13]

# 2 in the series is free again:

The Axeman's Jazz by Julie Smith

It's a steamy August in New Orleans and a murderer has borrowed the name of the Axeman, a serial killer who roamed the city in 1919. The modern-day Axeman has strangled a young woman and stabbed an elderly man, beside whose body a teddy bear is found. The letter "A" is scrawled near both corpses in lipstick and in blood. Both victims, it develops, were members of 12-point recovery programs modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous; the killer may be using the groups' anonymity as a shield.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by mitford13

# 2 in the series is free again:

The Axeman's Jazz by Julie Smith

Oh, AWESOME! That's the one I had missed. Thank you for the post!

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by mitford13

# 2 in the series is free again:

The Axeman's Jazz by Julie Smith

It's a steamy August in New Orleans and a murderer has borrowed the name of the Axeman, a serial killer who roamed the city in 1919. The modern-day Axeman has strangled a young woman and stabbed an elderly man, beside whose body a teddy bear is found. The letter "A" is scrawled near both corpses in lipstick and in blood. Both victims, it develops, were members of 12-point recovery programs modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous; the killer may be using the groups' anonymity as a shield.

Free again.

[NightBird]

First book in another series free - Death Turns A Trick (Rebecca Schwartz #1)

Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid. That dirty job done, a lovely evening turns even more delightful when she’s picked up by the cops and spends the next two hours at the Hall of Justice. Could this day get any worse? Of Course! Guess who arrives home to find a dead hooker on her living room floor?

Handsome Parker Phillips, Rebecca’s new beau and the most attractive man she’s met in ages, is arrested for the murder. (Worse, she suspects he might actually have done it.)

On the plus side, another very attractive man is following the case--reporter Rob Burns of the San Francisco Chronicle, a possible ally. And there are other possibilities.

[mitford13]

Originally Posted by NightBird

First book in another series free - Death Turns A Trick (Rebecca Schwartz #1)

Thanks for this! I had skimmed over the title and didn't notice it was by Julie Smith. Glad to discover a new series.

[mitford13]

Book no 5 in the Skip Langdon series is free today (think this is the first time):

House of Blues (Skip Langdon #5)

Detective Skip Langdon’s hunt for a murderer and the missing Hebert heirs embraces worlds within worlds—splendid but dangerous Garden District digs, Faubourg Marigny drug dens, broken-down projects, lowdown bars, an elegant hangout for crooked politicos, and a dealer’s crib masquerading as a sultan’s palace, harem and all. A palm reader warns Langdon of danger, but it comes when she's least prepared for it. Before long, the mob’s involved (maybe there’s a reason Hebert’s Restaurant won the lucrative casino contract), and so are family secrets so ugly they’d make Tennessee Williams wince. Everyone has them—the Heberts, the mob princess, even the crooked cop.

[DrNefario]

I expect that means I missed 4 again, doesn't it?

Still, I haven't read any yet. They might be rubbish.

[NightBird]

Tourist Trap (Rebecca Schwartz #3)

The THIRD book in Edgar-winner Julie Smith's REBECCA SCHWARTZ series.

"Warmth, wit and local color in a fast-moving story...Smith's best work so far."
--Kirkus
Fear stalks the streets! reports the San Francisco Chronicle. It also stalks these pages--and so do a lot of laughs.

You just know the Easter sunrise service is going to be a bummer when the San Francisco fog lifts to reveal a body nailed to a landmark cross. Next: mass shellfish poisoning at Pier 39. A very different kind of serial killer is operating here—one who seems to have a grudge against the whole city.

And this is a very different kind of serial killer tale—a funny one. Well, actually, what serial killer’s funny? But lawyer sleuth Rebecca Schwartz is warm and witty, never takes herself too seriously, and on one occasion offers closing testimony with green hair. A highly embarrassing moment, but the bright chartreuse is all in the service of making her case. No way does she believe her client would nail somebody—especially to a cross. And the things she has to do to prove it are hilarious and often unorthodox, yet always professional. Sometimes hyper-professional--the average lawyer simply can’t be bothered spraying herself with Thunderbird to fit in with her witnesses!

A wild ride through Baghdad by the Bay…and a great courtroom drama.

[NightBird]

#1 Skip Langdon is free again.

[HarryT]

Free again on Amazon UK, too.