Skip Langdon Vol 1-3 (Skip Langdon Mysteries Book 1)

Description

Follow the remarkably bold, smart, and refreshingly human New Orleans detective Skip Langdon through the twists and turns of New Orleans at she investigates the shooting of a prominent Uptown socialite at Mardi Gras, the stabbing of the well-loved director of the famed New Orleans Jazzfest, and a series of mysterious deaths at the hand of a terrifying serial killer in the swampy summertime.

“Gritty, witty, and mesmerizing! Langdon is a splendid female heroine.” —People Magazine

“Smith finds secrets and potential in nearly all corners of New Orleans.” —NPR

Fans of Ace Atkins, Tana French, Sue Grafton, and Marcia Muller will love Skip Langdon’s pluck and charm in this bundle, which includes the first three books in the series: New Orleans Mourning, Axeman’s Jazz, and Jazz Funeral.

New Orleans Mourning
It’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and civic leader and socialite Chauncy St. Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies . . .

Enter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that can only mean danger for her—and doom for the St. Amants.

Axeman’s Jazz,
What’s the perfect killing field for a murderer? A place where he (or maybe she) can learn your secrets from your own mouth and then make friends over coffee. A supposedly “safe” place where anonymity is the norm. The horror who calls himself The Axeman has figured it out and claimed his territory—he’s cherry-picking his victims in the 12-Step programs of New Orleans.

Who better to take him out than tall, funny, social-misfit Skip Langdon, now a homicide detective on the Axeman team, a gig that takes her into the 12-Step groups to meet the suspects (giving author Julie Smith a chance for gentle satire).

Jazz Funeral
Skip Langdon just happens to be on hand when Ham Brocato, director if New Orleans Jazzfest, is discovered dead on the kitchen floor in the middle of his own party the evening before the Fest. To complicate the already murky 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.

As she probes the victim’s tangled relationships, Skip finds a Southern family to rival any in Tennessee Williams, including Ham’s live-in lover, feisty and swiftly rising star Ti-Belle Thiebaud; his father George, enmeshed with family members in a bitter disagreement over the family’s lucrative Po’ Boy chain; and Patty, his distraught stepmother. In this tale of southern kinships gone awry, she’s assisted by her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her gay landlord, Jimmy Dee. Meanwhile, Melody’s dangerous yet exhilarating journey tugs at the heart and raises the pulse rate.