Best Case: Murder: An Introduction to Julie Smith's Mysteries

An Edgar Award-winning tale of murder at Mardi Gras, the (unlikely) dynamic duo of a luddite private eye and a sassy poet/hacker-turned-investigator, a tasty San Francisco cozy chronicling the sometimes killer-competitive bakery biz, and an ex-journalist caught up in the dirtier…and deadlier… side of a P.I.’s puzzling demise. Mysterious bedfellows—and an irresistible collection of the “best of” that celebrated mystery novelist Julie Smith has to offer. Best Case: Murder is an anthology sure to hook readers into all 4 of Smith’s page-turning mystery series.

Plus! Two delectable short stories! All for the killer price of $8.99!

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. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her—and doom for the St. Amants.

LOUISIANA HOTSHOT

WANTED: HOTSHOT P.I. WITH NEAR SUPER-HUMAN SKILLS.

Confirmed grump Eddie Valentino placed the ad. Hotshot twenty-something Talba Wallis knew exactly how to answer it.

And thus was born the dynamic duo of New Orleans private detectives, one cynical, sixty-five-year-old Luddite white dude with street smarts, and one young, bright-eyed, Twenty-First century African-American female poet, performance artist, mistress of disguise, and computer jock extraordinaire. Think Queen Latifah and Danny DeVito.

In Louisiana Hotshot, their job is to hunt down a sociopath and pedophile who’s molested the fourteen-year-old daughter of their client, hangs out on the ragged edges of the rap and recording industries, and has more powerful allies than a Cabinet member.

SOURDOUGH WARS

TO YOU, ITS JUST A FROZEN LUMP OF DOUGH; TO SOME, IT'S LIFE AND DEATH... Especially to handsome Peter Martinelli, who wants to auction off the fabled sourdough starter from his family’s famous bakery. But who’d buy a frozen hunk of flour and water? Only, it turns out, every bakery in San Francisco, a national food conglomerate, and an upstart ringer with a mysterious backer.

Someone would even kill for it. And does.

Enter lawyer sleuth Rebecca Schwartz, whose client is her own partner, glamorous Chris Nicholson, Martinelli’s main squeeze before the ill-starred auction.

TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE

Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist … and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: he’d detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasn’t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.

But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul’s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul’s got a feeling that’s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?

Plus five short stories! --in MEET SKIP LANGDON and REDNECK RIVIERA.