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This page lists novels, short story collections and non-fiction by Julie Smith. Books edited by Julie Smith are also included.

Cover images, when possible, are for an early US edition and a more recent paperback or digital edition.

By Julie Smith
- novels / story collections
- non-fiction

Edited by Julie Smith
- fiction & non-fiction

Death Turns A Trick

Julie Smith

1982

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"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."

The Sourdough Wars

Julie Smith

1984

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"The Heir to the Martinelli family's renowned sourdough starter is murdered before they were to auction it off, Rebecca Schwartz is determined to discover if he died for a handful of dough. The more she sifts through the tangled relationships of the city's bread-making dynasties, though, the closer she gets to the recipe for murder."

True-Life Adventure

Julie Smith

1985

A Paul McDonald novel. Subsequently published as by J. Paul Drew.

"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? Birnbaum's last report concerned a kidnapped child, so Paul begins there. The trail leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate geneticist, and then to San Francisco City Hall, where an extremely nasty surprise awaits. But there’s an upside—lovely witness Sardis Kincannon. Nothing like falling in love while you’re running for your life!."

Tourist Trap

Julie Smith

1986

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"Rebecca Schwartz heads to an Easter morning sunrise service and gets the shock of her life when she sees a real body nailed to the cross. Rebecca learns the man was a tourist. And he's only the first to die. A man identifying himself as the Trapper is out to destroy San Francisco's tourist trade by killing visitors. But when the cops arrest an innocent man as the Trapper, Rebecca takes on an impossible defense and goes undercover to find a killer."

Huckleberry Fiend

Julie Smith

1987

A Paul McDonald novel. Subsequently published as by J. Paul Drew.

"The most priceless American manuscript in existence has unceremoniously dropped into Paul Mcdonald's hands - now what? In between much-needed therapy sessions, Paul's neurotic friend Booker the burglar stole it from his dad’s girl friend’s roommate, and now wants sometime-sleuth Paul to find its rightful owner. Because he’s pretty sure the roommate's not it. Paul is so awed he can hardly bring himself to touch it. It’s none other than the missing holograph of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And Beverly the roommate's no librarian, she’s a flight attendant, so Booker suspects chicanery. He’s only too right: Beverly, it turns out, is dead. Murdered for the manuscript, if Paul’s guess is right. Suddenly he’s the protagonist of A Literary Nightmare, surrounded by Mysterious Strangers, playing out A Double-Barrelled Detective Story involving A Stolen White Elephant and pretty much Roughing It with the bullying Homicide Inspector Howard Blick. It’s truly, A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage….no, not a marriage, a manuscript! But Paul does have his eye on tough and savvy Sardis Kincannon… The liberally-sprinkled Mark Twain quotes and references make this witty yarn a treat for the literary-minded, and better yet, the twisty plot will satisfy the pickiest mystery fiend."

New Orleans Mourning

Julie Smith

1990

A Skip Langdon novel.

"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."

The Axeman's Jazz

Julie Smith

1991

A Skip Langdon novel.

"For detective Skip Langdon, the murder of a multiple self-help group members is no fun. Even if the guilty character is claiming the mantle last held by the Axeman, a notorious New Orleans serial killer of seventy years ago. Yet as Skip threads her fascinated way from one self-help group to another, she finds she has more in common with the twelve-steppers than just the murder. And she knows what they do not: that among their anonymous numbers is a deadly murderous, and dangerously attractive - psychopath."

Dead in the Water

Julie Smith

1991

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"Attorney and exotic fish fancier Rebecca Schwartz would love to relax in picturesque Monterey, California, with her friend Marty. But when Marty's boss, the woman who's been sleeping with her husband, is found dead in a giant tank and the aquarium where Marty works, she looks sunk. Rebecca takes on her friend's case, and has some serious clue-harpooning to do. As she swims closer to the line, her friend looks more and more guilty, and Rebecca begins to wish she had just gone fishing."

Jazz Funeral

Julie Smith

1993

A Skip Langdon novel.

"Smack in the middle of the summer, Skip finds herself investigating the stabbling death of the universally beloved producer of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Then the victim's sixteen-year-old sister disappears, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn't herself the murderer, she's in mortal danger from the person who is. And with her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her landlord, Jimmy Dee, to assist her, Skip trails an elusive killer through the delirium of a city caught up in the world's most famous music bash."

Other People's Skeletons

Julie Smith

1993

A Rebecca Schwartz novel.

"When Rebecca Schwartz learns that her best friend and legal partner Chris Nicholson is accused of murder and won't give an alibi, Rebecca gets curious. To her amazement, Rebecca finds that her partner has a secret life--and so did the victim, dashing critic Jason McKendrick. For that matter, so does everyone else in the case, causing Rebecca to wonder what planet she's stumbled onto. One thing she knows with certainty: She has to shake some skeletons from the closets - and fast - or Chris is going to prison."

New Orleans Beat

Julie Smith

1994

A Skip Langdon novel.

Subsequently published as Death Before Facebook.

"Skip Langdon is sent to investigate the death of thirty-one-year-old Geoff Kavanagh, victim of an accidental fall from a ladder. But as Skip pursues the case, he discovers an on-line computer community whose secrets may mean the difference between accident and murder, and among whose anonymous members a killer may be waiting to strike again at anyone who comes too close."

House of Blues

Julie Smith

1995

A Skip Langdon novel.

"After prominent New Orleans restaurateur Arthur Hebert is murdered in his beautiful Garden District home, three family members suspiciously vanish: Hebert's daughter, who was soon to have taken over the management of his restaurant, his ex-addict son-in-law, and his small granddaughter--all missing without a trace. A kidnapping gone wrong? Homicide Detective Skip Langdon thinks it's possible, but why should the kidnappers have taken three hostages when one would have been enough? Skip's hunt for a murderer and the missing Hebert heirs embraces worlds within worlds - the elegant, dangerous Garden District, the French Quarter, the seedy Treme, broken-down projects, exclusive mansions, and lowdown bars."

The Kindness of Strangers

Julie Smith

1996

A Skip Langdon novel.

"New Orleans is not a city, it's a world - exotic, sweetly perverse, dangerously seductive. Nowhere else does politics make stranger bedfellows; and the approaching mayoral election is stranger than most, pitting the usual thugs and vipers against a seeming breath of fresh air - Errol Jacomine, a liberal-minded, civic-spirited preacher. The only problem is, in the opinion of Police Detective Skip Langdon, Jacomine is a psychopath and dangerous as hell. On leave of absence from the police force, Skip becomes obsessed with exposing the frightening figure beneath Jacomine's good-guy image. Immediately, an anonymous army of spies and hatchet men go to work on her, and Skip begins to understand that in opposing Jacomine, she is risking not only her livelihood but her sanity and possibly the lives of people she loves."

Crescent City Kill

Julie Smith

1997

A Skip Langdon novel.

Subsequently published as Crescent City Connection.

"With a new, honest police superintendent, NOPD detective Skip Langdon feels there's hope for the city she loves. But no sooner does Superintendent Albert Good take office than he is gunned down by an assassin, and within hours the killer himself is killed. A mysterious entity calling itself The Jury claims credit for this act of vigilante justice. Who or what is The Jury? No one knows, but Skip perceives in it the evil brilliance of her old adversary, charismatic con man and cold-blooded killer Errol Jacomine. She's always suspected it's just a matter of time before Jacomine's megalomaniacal ego orchestrates his revenge. The time is now. From across the South, the players in the unfolding drama come together - a pretty college student on the run, a monk who has packed a lifetime's worth of misery into a few years, and a madman with a murderous agenda. Beautiful New Orleans gathers them all into her casual embrace, while Detective Skip Langdon races (perhaps to her own destruction) to forestall the bloodshed to come."

82 Desire

Julie Smith

1998

A Skip Langdon novel. Talba Wallis also appears in this novel.

"Councilwoman Bebe Fortier has misplaced her equally prominent husband. Across town, part-time detective-poet Talba Wallis has a simple wish--to find out what Russell Fortier's disappearance has to do with her. But the private investigator who hired Talba to spy on Fortier can't help her out. He's lying in his office with a bullet in his chest. At first, Police Detective Skip Langdon thinks it's just a small case with some big names - until she senses something huge starting to unfold. Something rooted in corruption, resulting in violence - and motivated by that old demon . . . desire."

82 Desire

Julie Smith

1998

A Skip Langdon novel. Talba Wallis also appears in this novel.

"Councilwoman Bebe Fortier has misplaced her equally prominent husband. Across town, part-time detective-poet Talba Wallis has a simple wish--to find out what Russell Fortier's disappearance has to do with her. But the private investigator who hired Talba to spy on Fortier can't help her out. He's lying in his office with a bullet in his chest. At first, Police Detective Skip Langdon thinks it's just a small case with some big names - until she senses something huge starting to unfold. Something rooted in corruption, resulting in violence - and motivated by that old demon . . . desire."

Mean Rooms: A Short Story Collection

Julie Smith

2000

A short story collection that includes stories that feature Rebecca Schwartz and Skip Langdon.

"From the high art of revenge in Fresh Paint to the depths of the Antarctic in The End of the Earth, this collection proves that Julie Smith is indeed one of those writers who never writes the same story twice."

• Silk Strands
• Grief Counselor
• Where The Boys Are
• Fresh Paint
• Blood Types
• Always Othello
• Too Mean To Die
• Montezuma's Other Revenge
• Project Mushroom
• Cul-De-Sac
• Crime Wave In Pinhole
• Strangers On A Plane
• The End Of The Earth

Louisiana Hotshot

Julie Smith

2001

A Talba Wallis novel.

"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. But both detectives have unfinished business from the past—in Eddie’s case, something he deeply regrets; in Talba’s, a personal mystery, one so frightening no one will help her investigate. But she knows she won’t sleep till she solves it—and the truth will change her forever."

Louisiana Bigshot

Julie Smith

2002

A Talba Wallis novel.

"Talba Wallis and Eddie Valentino need every skill and ounce of courage they can summon in this intricate tale of a decades-old conspiracy only now coming home to roost, with the murder of Talba’s friend Babalu Maya. Babalu is actually Clayton Robineau, daughter of the local banker in a small Louisiana town that bears her name, a town buried under the weight of its own malevolent past. Something terrible happened to Clayton as a child, but it was far from the usual 'something terrible'. As Talba and Eddie investigate, they find it was an injury—both pscyhic and physical--so bizarre, so shameful and damning that almost anyone in town would kill to cover it up. Or so it seems to the New Orleans duo as they dodge bullets and what passes for the law in this malignant enclave, fetid with the rot of its corruption, yet determined to keep its sordid skeletons buried."

Mean Woman Blues

Julie Smith

2003

A Skip Langdon novel.

"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 (Jacomine knows how to frame as well as kill), she goes on the hunt for a maniac with a gift for conning people and the extreme makeover to make it work."

Louisiana Lament

Julie Smith

2004

A Talba Wallis novel.

"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."

I'd Kill For That

Author: Gayle Lynds, Rita Mae Brown, Lisa Gardner, Linda Fairstein, Kay Hooper, Kathy Reichs, Julie Smith, Heather Graham, Jennifer Crusie, Tina Wainscott, Anne Perry, Marcia Talley and Katherine Neville

Editor: Marcia Talley

2004

A collaborative, serial novel.

"On the banks of the Truxton River lies Gryphon's Gate, a gated community built by Henry Drysdale where the rich and privileged live, work and play. Tempers flare when Henry's ex- decides to develop the adjoining land and environmentalists, developers, residents and the media clash. Then the violence turns ugly--a dead body is found on the golf course and Detective Diane Robards is called in to investigate. Diane's efforts are thwarted at every turn and as she uncovers the secrets behind the serene facade of Gryphon's Gate, she races against the clock to unmask a ruthless killer."

P.I. On A Hot Tin Roof

Julie Smith

2005

A Talba Wallis novel.

"New Orleans’ most dynamic detective duo, poet/computer genius Talba and street-savvy Luddite Eddie Valentino, have a personal interest in this one - Eddie’s lawyer daughter Angie’s been set up for a drug bust. Prominent Judge Buddy Champagne’s the obvious perp and Talba’s so mad she embeds herself in his house as a spy - but she doesn't count on ending up with a family straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; nor did she realize how involved she was going to get - especially with Buddy’s 14-year-old daughter Lucy. It works, though, She uncovers plenty of evidence the judge is dirty. And then things get ugly: Somebody kills Buddy and Talba’s true identity comes to light. The Champagnes hate her at this point, but guess what? They hire her to solve the case."

Meet Skip Langdon: Two Mystery Short Stories

Julie Smith

2014

An electronic publication that combines two short stories that feature Skip Langdon: Always Othello and The End Of The Earth.

The End Of The Earth was originally published in the 1997 anthology Detective Duos. Always Othello was probably first published as part of a jigsaw puzzle / short story mystery.

Kid Trombone

Julie Smith

2014

A Talba Wallis short story published electronically. The story was originally published in 2004 in the anthology Murder … And All That Jazz.

"The troubled heir of a great New Orleans musical legacy has been gunned down. The writer who researched his obituary has met a sudden death. Coincidence? Or did he know too much? The Big Easy’s premier jazz singer, Queenie Feran, thinks there’s more to it than an accidental overdose, and she hires PI and poet Talba Wallis - AKA the Baroness de Pontalba - to uncover the truth. The Baroness rubs elbows with jazz royalty, sounding them out for clues and swaddling the reader in New Orleans ambience, before she takes to the mean streets to uncover the victim’s secret life."

Blood Types

Julie Smith

2014

A electronic publication of a Rebecca Schwartz short story. The story was originally published in the Sisters In Crime anthology in 1989.

"If you’re a lawyer, and someone you haven’t heard from in years calls to ask how to execute a holographic will, what are you to think if he dies the next day? This is a dark, dark story…actually very unlike San Francisco attorney Rebecca Schwartz’s usual outings. Rebecca’s usually given to displaying her wit and using her wits, but she mostly does the latter here."

Cul-De-Sac

Julie Smith

2014

A electronic publication of a Rebecca Schwartz short story. The story was originally published in the Sisters In Crime II anthology in 1990.

"When Julie Smith’s much-loved lawyer sleuth, Rebecca Schwartz, helps a friend move, she’s pretty surprised to find the new roommate digging a grave. This mystery short story’s a bit darker than most of Rebecca’s adventures, although the irrepressible San Francisco lawyer manages to keep her famous sense of humor."

Silk Strands

Julie Smith

2014

A electronic publication of a short story that was originally published in the anthology Deadly Allies in 1992.

"Even when the cops showed up. There was something just so ICY about him. San Francisco poet Morgan Ellender is conducting a post-mortem on her failed romance when San Francisco's finest pay her a visit, informing her that the real victim is not her bludgeoned heart, but her secretive ex-lover. How can she disentangle herself from the web of secrecy he's woven her into-- maintaining a pathological aloofness, never introducing her to his friends, forbidding her even to call him at his office? She suddenly realizes she has no information to back up her innocence. It seems impossible that he could have inspired enough passion in anyone to commit murder. But someone did."

Montezuma's Other Revenge

J. Paul Drew (Julie Smith)

2014

A electronic publication of a short story featuring Paul McDonald. The story was originally published in the anthology Justice for Hire in 1990.

"Sometime San Francisco private investigator Paul Mcdonald wears lots of hats: ex-reporter, struggling mystery writer, devoted cat owner, and friend to a number of shady characters - who tend to get him into trouble. Paul’s not so much hard-boiled as smart-mouthed (in a highly charming way!) - and broke. But this time his $55 an hour fee leads from investigating a friendly burgling-by-acquaintance to a brutal murder. An Aztec sculpture of questionable origin has gone missing, leaving a wake of misfortune that seems to point to a curse: psychotropic drugs, pre-Columbian art, sacrificial maidens… Paul traces the statue to a South of Market loft at the intersection of the international art world and a cult devoted to the revival of the Aztec religion."

Murder On Magazine

Julie Smith

2018

A Skip Langdon novel.

"Cody, the pink-haired sixteen-year-old, should be in school or at the mall texting her friends, not hanging out at the intersection of serial murder and human trafficking. When the options are: (1) Return to a life of slavery (2) Go to jail for murder (3) Be killed by a serial killer, Option 4 makes perfect sense - RUN! As mean as the streets of The City That Care Forgot can be, this child attracts angels (often unlikely ones) – and entire packs of dogs - who come to her aid. She also finds a friend in NOPD’s newest Sergeant - big (six-foot!), beautiful, tough, and tender-hearted Skip Langdon. Skip knows her best hope of finding the killer is to find Cody – plus she feels for the girl, in whom she recognizes a younger version of her plucky, resourceful, whip-smart self. The city’s hard-boiled; the detective has a heart the size of the Superdome."

A Place Called Home: Twenty Writing Women Remember

Editor: Mickey Perlman

1996

Includes a chapter by Julie Smith called Splendor In The Mildew.

"The word "home" means something different to each of us. Mickey Pearlman has gathered together a group of writing women whose memories of home present a panorama of experience: Sandra Benítez, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Morris, Kathryn Harrison, Francine Prose, Arlene Hirschfelder, Erica Jong, Jill McCorkle, Melinda Worth Popham, Julie Smith, Lucille Clifton, Dani Shapiro, Marci Hershman, Meg Pei, Carole Maso, Rosellen Brown, Jane Shapiro, Sylvia Watanabe, and Lois Lowry. These writers look back to a place that sometimes appears as solid and unyielding as a piece of granite, but is actually as vital and elusive as a heartbeat. They remember firstborn children, destructive fires, homelessness, cherished workplaces, the sting of racism, and the safety of language while they dream again of the smell of rising bread, the sound of a daughter’s voice, and the scent of wet morning grass. A Place Called Home: Twenty Writing Women Remember is a collection of original writing that you will cherish, give to others, and come to regard not only as a book, but as a letter from a friend."

Write Free: Forget Other People's Rules, Liberate Your Creativity, And Write A Novel That Sparkles

Julie Smith

2011

Published electronically.

"WRITE FREE (formerly WRITING YOUR WAY) is all about finding your own best writing method, not a writing teacher’s idea of what’s right for you. It’s for the pre-published novelist who’s way past finding her inner writer and just wants some nuts-and-bolts advice that’ll help her through the plot knots and POV power struggles."

New Orleans Noir

Editor: Julie Smith

2007

The contents are:

• What’s the Score? (Ted O’Brien
• Two-Story Brick Houses (Patty Friedmann)
• Scared Rabbit (Tim McLoughlin)
• Schevoski (Olympia Vernon)
• Algiers (David Fulmer)
• Pony Girl (Laura Lippman)
• The Battling Priests of Corpus Christi (Jervey Tervalon)
• Open Mike (James Nolan)
• All I Could Was Cry (Kalamu ya Salaam)
• There Shall Your Heart Be Also (Barbara Hambly)
• Muddy Pond (Maureen Tan)
• Lawyers’ Tongues (Thomas Adcock)
• And Hell Walked In (Jeri Cain Rossi)
• Night Taxi (Christine Wiltz)
• Annunciation Shotgun (Greg Herren)
• Loot (Julie Smith)
• Angola South (Ace Atkins)
• Marigny Triangle (Eric Overmyer)

New Orleans Noir: The Classics

Editor: Julie Smith

2016

The contents are:

• A Marriage of Conscience (Armand Lanusse)
• The Little Convent Girl (Grace King)
• The Story of an Hour (Kate Chopin)
• Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking (O. Henry)
• The Purple Hat (Eudora Welty)
• Desire and the Black Masseur (Tennessee Williams)
• Miss Yellow Eyes (Shirley Ann Grau)
• Pleadings (John William Corrington)
• Ritual Murder (Tom Dent)
• Rich (Ellen Gilchrist)
• Spats (Valerie Martin)
• The Man with Moon Hands (O’Neil De Noux)
• Rose (John Biguenet)
• Mussolini and the Axeman’s Jazz (Poppy Z. Brite)
• GDMFSOB (Nevada Barr)
• Jesus Out to Sea (James Lee Burke)
• Last Fair Deal Gone Down (Ace Atkins)
• Pie Man (Maurice Carlos Ruffin)