"An exciting who-done-it"

By day she is a private detective and by night she is a poet who gives readings in clubs and coffeehouses in New Orleans. One day she gets a call from the Orleans Parish Prison and Talba Wallis is shocked that her lawyer friend Angie Valentino is in jail for drug possession. Angie is her employer's daughter and Talba trusts her implicitly so when she says she was framed, the private detective is determined to clear her name.

The person who ordered the frame was Judge Buddy Champagne who didn't want Angie representing the people from Venetia Isles who oppose his using the Pelican Marina for commercial purposes because it would ruin the neighborhood. Talba goes undercover at the judge's house as a maid to see if she can find proof to exonerate her friend. In a strange twist the judge is murdered and his fiancée hires Talba to find out who the killer is.

Julie Smith can always be counted on to write an exciting who-done-it and with P.I. ON A HOT TIN ROOM she exceeds her standards of excellence. The heroine has a tough job because the victim was crooked and had a lot of enemies, some of them in his own family so there are a lot of suspects with viable motives. Watching Talba pursue the investigation is a treat because she has the talent and the confidence to do a good job. She becomes personally involved with the victim's teenage daughter and it is for her that she wants closure which means finding the killer. Award winning Ms. Smith has written perhaps her best mystery in her illustrious career.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 16, 2005

Summary

When PI Talba Wallis gets a frantic phone call from Orleans Parish Prison, the last person she expects to hear from is her boss's lawyer daughter, Angie. Popped for drug possession, Angie insists the drugs were planted. She's a target for representing a neighborhood group protesting the illegal commercial use of a marina by its owner, Judge Buddy Champagne. According to Angie, the judge is dirty---and he's the one who had her set up. Talba and her boss, Eddie, are outraged---knowing Angie as they do, they pull out all the stops for her. And when Talba goes undercover as a housekeeper for Judge Champagne, she finds a household straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with the judge playing Big Daddy. The weak son and the hot daughter-in-law are in residence, being "between jobs." Big Mama's absent, though---she died some time ago, and the judge is now adding his fiancée to the mix. That would be Miss Kristin LaGarde, an impossibly lovely, and possibly innocent, young lady who seems hopelessly in love with the old coot. Talba dredges up lots of interesting material; such as that someone was accidentally electrocuted at the marina and that the judge is in bed with certain bail bondsmen. She finds evidence of bribes and kickbacks. He's dirty all right. When the story breaks and the scandal deepens, Judge Champagne winds up dead. And, to her surprise, Talba is asked to investigate. Did politics kill the judge? Or was it his own family?