House of Blues

Julie Smith's claim to the New Orleans crime scene is indisputable. In House of Blues, she stretches her net of suspense and danger over the whole bewitching city, and her New Orleans beat goes on, ever stronger. Crime is Topic A across America. Even New Orleans, the most gracious American city, has hundreds of homicides each year, and sufficient random violence to keep the city's police force working overtime. So what's one more fatal shooting? When the victim is prominent restaurateur Arthur Hebert, whose distinguished restaurant of the same name attracts both knowledgeable visitors and natives, it's what the cops call a heater case, and the heat is on Homicide Detective Skip Langdon. During the family's Monday night supper, Hebert is murdered in his beautiful Garden District home. At the same time, several other family members vanish: Hebert's daughter, who was soon to have taken over the management of the restaurant, his ex-addict son-in-law, and his small granddaughter--all missing without a trace. A kidnapping gone wrong? Skip thinks it's possible, but why should the kidnappers have taken three hostages when one would have been enough? Skip's hunt for a murderer and the missing Hebert heirs embraces worlds within worlds--the elegant, dangerous Garden District, the French Quarter, the seedy Treme, broken-down projects, exclusive mansions, and lowdown bars. It takes her into places where the city's dirty business is transacted, and those where life is mostly madness, sadness, and badness. It may even take her to her death. (