Jazz Funeral - Hardcover

Smith, Julie

3.85 out of 5 stars

2,308 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517153742 ISBN 13: 9780517153741

Publisher: Random House Value Publishing, 1995

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"A genuinely moving mystery...It's always a pleasure to spend time with Skip, a no-nonsense, level-headed heroine in a wild and reckless city."
THE BALTIMORE SUN
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....
From the Paperback edition.

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From Publishers Weekly

Everybody loved easygoing Hamson Brocato, producer of the successful New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, but even so he ended up stabbed to death in his kitchen the night of his own JazzFest party. NOPD detective Skip Langdon, Smith's spunky heroine last seen in New Orleans Mourning, gets a ready-made suspect list from the victim's live-in lover, singing star Ti-Belle Thiebaud. Included are Ariel Bruge, Ham's assistant, apparently a woman scorned; his father George, enmeshed with family members in a bitter disagreement over the family's fast food ("Poor Boy's Po' Boys") chain; and Patty, the stepmother Ham was cool about. Skip notes the list's omissions: Ti-Belle herself (often heard arguing with Ham at the top of her powerful voice) and Melody, Ham's teenaged half-sister who vanished the same day Ham died. Skip doesn't miss much as she probes the victim's tangled relationships, remaining all the while a consistently convincing character herself, grumbling about her boss and anxious about her long-distance significant other. Smith's Big Easy setting is a lively blend of big city and gossipy small town. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Five books into her New Orleans series featuring female homicide cop Skip Langdon (The Axeman's Jazz, 1991, etc.), Smith narrowly misses the bull's-eye with this tale of southern kinships gone awry. Just as Skip and boyfriend Steve arrive at JazzFest producer Ham Brocato's house for a fˆte, his lover, gorgeous singer Ti-Belle, rushes in late, opens the door, and discovers Ham's dead body. Skip, taking charge of the case, realizes that Ham's father and stepmother--George and the years-younger Patty--are more concerned with the disappearance of their teenager Melody, whose backpack is found in the house. Did the murderer abduct Melody? Is Melody on the run from a killer she glimpsed? While trying to find the girl, Skip learns much about Ham, his first wife, his stepmother, and his adoring half-sister; she'll also be wounded in a shootout before Brocato family secrets and deceits are bared--and before the real New Orleans-style mourning for Ham can begin. A deftly plotted tale, marred only by its offhand, too quick resolution. -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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