"Fun and exciting murder mystery"
By day, she is Talba Wallis, ace private detective and
junior partner in the E.V. Anthony Investigations Agency;
by night, she is the Baroness de Pontalba. Dining
Hurricane Carol, Talba receives a call from her hysterical
half-sister Janessa, whom she met only once. Janessa
wants Talba to meet her at her employer's house. When she
arrives there, Talba sees a dead woman in the swimming
pool with a head wound and Janessa holding the gun. Janessa swears she did not kill Allyson Browser,
the "Gatsby Girl" who loved to throw parties and a
socialite with the literary greats of New Orleans.
Earlier in the evening Janessa witnessed a fight between
Allyson and her son Austin over money. Austin has
disappeared and so has Rashid, Allyson's other employee
who Janessa has a crush on. The police believe Janessa is
the best suspect, forcing Talba to mobilize her troops to
clear her sister's name and find out who the real killer
is before her sibling is arrested. Julie Smith is brilliant at creating characters that are
easy to identify with so that readers become absorbed in
the storyline, following the antics of the quirky cast.
Like many of Ms. Smith's victims, Allyson is not a nice
person so there are many suspects who had a motive to kill
her. Guessing who it is makes for fun and exciting
reading. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 5, 2004
SummaryAllyson Brown---the Girl Gatsby, they called her. A woman
of wealth, hostess of fabled parties, patron of the arts,
especially of poets. Found floating in her own swimming
pool, shot to death.
Poet and fledgling detective Talba Wallis gets an urgent
call from the sister she barely knows, Janessa. The Girl
Gatsby was Janessa's close friend. But this call isn't an
invitation to an elegant literary salon. Janessa wants off
the hook as the principal murder suspect.
Investigating, Talba and her perpetually irascible boss,
Eddie, find the reality behind the Gatsby glamour. Allyson
Brown was widely hated, a con artist who neglected her
children, failed to pay her bills, and lied to everyone.
The one person she loved may have ushered her to her death.
The case takes Talba and Eddie from literary parties to
Gulf Coast bait shops, from biker bars to abandoned
wharves, and finally to the story of another Gatsby, which
may yield answers, or greater mysteries.
Louisiana Lament is Talba's journey through the not-so-
genteel Southern literary scene, where backbiting and petty
jealousies abound and mint juleps are served with canapés
of carnage.
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