Louisiana Hotshot

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Talba Wallis is a smart, sassy, computer whiz who applies for a job with a private detective agency run by Eddie Valentino. She shows off her computer skills by handing him a folder with his personal info. Julie Smith writes well drawn characters across racial lines--Talba is black and Eddie is white.

One quote from the book that I liked: "... a shrimp po'boy was still finer than nightingales' tongues."

This is book 1 of the series.

Ah, New Orleans. The drug that is the heat and scents, the music and moans, life and death and destiny. The heart of a world both magical and profane. Where “church ladies” still wear hats and movements in the dark often presage the advent of violence and death.

Julie Smith knows New Orleans. She knows it beauty and it’s darkness. The sound of a young girls voice, raised in a pure gospel song. The poverty, the loss, the scent of fresh blood and death. Julie first caught my attention with “New Orleans Mourning” and that attention has never wavered. Her words paint the soul of New Orleans and it’s people, a painting by Diane Millsap rendered into nouns and verbs, vibrant and thrumming with life.

Julie’s newest character, The show more Baroness de Pontalba, also known as PI Eddie Valentino’s humble assistant Talba Wallis, is one of those characters I find myself instantly liking. A smart, sassy computer geek with potential to spare – if only she could drag herself out of New Orleans and find a real job. Living with mamma, Miz Clara, is fine and dandy with the Baroness, but she really has to get a job. When she does, with the erstwhile Eddie Valentino, what happens is by turn exciting, terrifying, funny and fascinating. It is, all-in-all, exactly what I would expect from the amazing Julie Smith.

When I have gone looking for new books by Julie, I have always searched for “Skip Langdon” by name, her famous New Orleans policewoman character. Therefore, I have missed the Talba Wallis series, a situation I have every intention of rectifying immediately. Talba is smart and accomplished, but she is also deeply damaged by a past she cannot remember and that no one seems to want to fill her in on. As she begins to have flashes of memory regarding her early life, the seemingly simple case she is working on with Eddie heats up to something that quickly spins out of control. The story is by turns heartbreaking and uplifting and I look forward with great eagerness to read the next installment and the next.[bc:Louisiana Hotshot|835857|Louisiana Hotshot (Talba Wallis, #1)|Julie Smith|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312062962s/835857.jpg|2832207] show less

This is a read one get one free type of crime novel with lots of humor delivered by dialogue. First there is the primary mystery from page one to page 328. (I read on a Kindle, your page numbers may vary). Cassandra Scott is a fourteen-year-old molestation victim. Who did it? Even when we find out she was molested by Toes (a name, not an appendage) there are lots of questions remaining. Hero, poet, and almost private detective Talba Wallis wants to pursue and develop any leads to bring Toes to justice. Cassandra makes this more difficult as her and her party-going colleagues refuse to identify the man with the ridiculous name, Toes. Solving the mystery following a linear path from beginning to end of the book is the first big mystery. A show more quick resolution is desired because people Cassandra’s friends begin disappearing. It turns out Toes is not a nice man. Few psychopaths are.

Mystery number two is embedded in mystery one. Talba discovers leads to solve Cassandra’s problems but each one serves as a trigger for hidden memories in Talba’s past. She doesn’t know her father. Miz Clara, Talba’s mom, refuses to mention his name and gets very angry if Talba asks any questions about him. So far Talba’s research of documents has only revealed one name, her birth name, Urethra Tabitha Sandra Talba Wallis, also known as the Baroness de Pontalba. OK, the last part was not on her birth certificate; it is a title she conferred on herself while promoting her career as a poet.

Talba initially doesn’t think of herself as a detective. She is a poet, but that doesn’t pay the bills. After answering a rather tongue-in-cheek ad offering employment, she meets aged, experienced, outdated detective Edward Valentino. Old in experience as a street detective, he barely had the computer skills to answer emails and he didn’t intend to learn at his advanced age. Other social attitudes follow logically for the brain-fossilized Eddie. He has a stereotypical attitude towards African-Americans that we have come to expect from a white guy raised in New Orleans. Talba, however, is a modern, free thinking poet and computer whiz, just what is needed in the one detective and one not very competent secretary agency. She will learn all she needs about being a detective while serving as an intern with a provisional license to Eddie.

The novel is fast paced partly due to the plethora of themes. Race relations are covered very well not by confrontation but by acceptance of the existence of attitudes and positive steps to encourage change. And it’s done with humor. There is a layman’s examination of repressed memories, of how powerful they can be, of how difficult it is to force them to surface. There are the stories of parent-child relationships, first between Cassandra and mother Aziza, then between Talba and her mother Miz Clara. There is a romantic story going on at the same time, between Talba and Darryl, a high school guidance counselor who has been through a marriage before. There is the story of the music “scene” with associated drug use and criminal conduct that includes murder. Guess where “Toes” comes from. And nope, it is not a spoiler to have mentioned his role a few times in this review.

And there is poetry; after all, the Baroness is a poet.

This is the first book in the Talba Wallis series. I am sure I will read follow up novels to vicariously enjoy her experiences as she becomes a more experienced detective. show less

It took me some time to get into this book. The premise was very good and the story line flowed very well. In the end I couldn't put the book down. I just had to keep reading to see how things will turn out. I will be looking for the next book in the series.

Absolutely fabulous characters with marvelous descriptions.
New Orleans comes alive in Julie Smith's talented hands.

PI Talba Wallis #1. Poet & computer whiz.