SHE NEEDS A KID TO CATCH A KILLER…BUT HOW TO CATCH THE KID? “Julie Smith writes like jazz should sound—cool, complex, and penetrating right to the heart.” -Val McDermid, best-selling author of the Tony Hill seriesThe TENTH installment of the Skip Langdon series is a New Orleans feast for the senses, a canine love story, an action-packed police procedural made-to-order for readers who like their … procedural made-to-order for readers who like their female sleuths bold, smart, and refreshingly human. A serial killer is using Airbnb units to stage his murders, but a teenage runaway has escaped his grasp and now she’s in the wind, believing she’s killed him. Meanwhile the real killer stalks the city – and her.
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.
Longtime Skip Langdon fans who’ve thirsted for #10 will be delighted to hear the music of New Orleans in Smith’s prose. Fans of female-sleuth authors like Sue Grafton, Marcia Muller, and Linda Barnes, will love Skip Langdon’s pluck and charm. And those who particularly favor female cop stories, especially those by Nevada Barr, Lisa Gardner, Tana French, J.D. Robb, Karin Slaughter, Tess Gerritsen, and Anne Hillerman will find a new fave here.
“If you haven’t discovered Smith yet, now is the time to do so… Move over, Sara Paretsky.” –KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA)
“If it’s gritty realism you’re craving, gently simmered with spicy suspense and marvelously memorable characters, Smith is the perfect New Orleans tour guide… –The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS)
“BRILLIANT.” –San Francisco Examiner & Chroniclemore
Julie is one of my favorite authors. He word smithing is great.
I love JulieSmith’s books. Her characters are so real and the stories always move at a good pace. I always wonder how will she pull it all together! I recommend her to anyone who likes a good police/ mystery read.
Love Skip books!
Julie Smith is a favorite.
It’s scary to think that young girls could be sold into sex slavery in this day and age but it happens and that fact is crucial to the storyline of this book. Great writing as always.
This is a sad tale of sex trafficking and what happens to a victim who fights back, along with a good set of murders.
Another good read in Julie Smith’s police procedurals set in New Orleans.
I love this series. Good characters you care about. Excellent writing in twists and turns you don’t expect.
I have read all the books in this series. I love the New Orleans atmosphere and I love the characters.
Characterization, New Orleans, every Julie Smith you can enjoy many times.
Julie Smith is a terrific story-teller and character-inventor. Her New Orleans books give a heady sense of New Orleans, her San Francisco books give us SF and environs – and you can count on the mystery to be a good one. I highly recommend any books by her, only wish there were more!
i like skip langdon and her cohorts!
Good mystery, especially if you are familiar with New Orleans.
Great story in a series of great stories & characters in wonderful setting.
Thoroughly enjoyed – quick read!
If you like the Skip Langdon series, you will enjoy this latest edition.
Great character in Cody. Very believable and fresh. Skip is tenacious and soft which makes for a great heroine. I have been to New Orleans and the scenes were as a remembered. Great read….thanks. Judy
Julie Smith. Masterfully brings my New Awlins home to me in Northern California. What more do I need to say. She gives me back my home on Burgundy Street and the icy cold slurp of oystas mignonette and champagne with my mama and my yaya and days that one of her words flashes sweetness crabbing on the coast. If you want to at least see or even perhaps know the beautiful and ugly reality, really read all her books. She’s the real thing and can tell you rightly. You go, chere Allez-y et roulez.
One of my favorite authors !
I enjoy this series as a nice successor to the early Stephanie Plum’s. The characters are interesting and fun and Skip Langdon in her Nola is a bit more sophisticated and worldly than Ms. Plum in Trenton.