Winner of the 1991 EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD for BEST NOVEL and first mystery in the highly acclaimed Skip Langdon series.

“Smith is a gifted writer.”
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

“Murder at the Mardi Gras and the flavor of New Orleans … old secrets are highlighted in this wonderful story that is as filled with topical information as it is with a great story about murder and history. Smith writes with authority about her city.”
–Ocala Star Banner

“Julie Smith writes like jazz should sound—cool, complex, and penetrating right to the heart.”
— Val McDermid, best-selling author of the Tony Hill series

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.

Langdon, with her weight worries, insecurities, and yet overall toughness has long been a favorite of those who like their female sleuths bold, smart, and refreshingly human.

“Though her plot careens with as many twists and turns as a car chase through the French Quarter, it is Smith’s rotating focus on the complex viewpoints of her fully formed characters that gives her sixth novel its psychological and emotional depth … [A] rich, tightly structured narrative.”
–Publishers Weekly

If you like Laura Lippman, Sue Grafton, Linda Barnes, Nevada Barr, and Marcia Muller, Julie Smith’s your new best friend.