New Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon is called to investigate a death of a young man who fell from a ladder, but she wasn’t called until several days after the accident. The death only became suspicious after a friend requested the death certificate from the coroner. The victim, thirty one year old Geoff Kavanaugh, was a computer geek who worked in a video store and still lived at home with his mother and stepfather. A major part of Geoff’s life was lived online in a virtual community of some 10,000, called TOWN. Skip finds that Geoff had posted a secret on TOWN that may have gotten him killed.

mystery lovers who like colorful characters and a easy, fun read. This book had all the flavor of New Orleans and plenty of quirky, but likeable characters. There was even a little witchcraft thrown in.

following Skip Langdon, the six-foot blonde homicide detective, around New Orleans as she figured out the mysteries of the case and of her own life. And I liked the storyline around the TOWN.

like I’d had a pleasant escape. But I couldn’t help feeling sad knowing New Orleans is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Julie Smith is a former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her first Skip Langdon novel, New Orleans Mourning, won the 1991 Edgar Award, making her the first woman to win that award since 1956.

if you like this genre, you should enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed all the Julie Smith’s novels that I’ve read.

I’ve read some of these books out of order. It doesn’t bother me to do it that way. I still enjoy the characters and their very humanness.

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Created Apr 30, 2007 at 11:23pm • Submit your own review...