New Orleans Mourning (Skip Langdon Novels)

This mystery is a compelling, exciting, entertaining and realistic reflection of New Orleans characters and traditions which I can attest to as a life long New Orleans resident. Smith has captured the many nuances of the culture, traditions, and language of the people of all classes and racial representations of the city. A good mystery--highly recommended.

This review is for the Ivy Book first Ballantine Books edition, February 1991. Julie Smith has published at least 19 mystery novels in four series. NEW ORLEANS MOURNING was the first novel in the Skip Langdon series. The Mystery Writers of America gave it the Edgar Award for best novel in 1991. There are now at least nine titles in the Skip Langdon series. Skip Langdon is a young, tall, white lady from a prominent New Orleans family. Her father, Don Langdon, is a doctor, who no longer talks to Skip. Her mother, Elizabeth, talks too much so Skip tends to avoid her. Whenever Skip calls her yuppie brother Conrad, he knows she wants something because why else would she call him. But you don't need close family ties if you have Jimmy Dee Scoggin, Skip's fifty year old, five-foot square hopelessly gay criminal lawyer landlord who hands her a joint whenever he waltzes through her door. Skip is a policeman with only two years on the New Orleans force. It's Mardi Gras and the king of Rex, Chauncey St. Amant is on parade. He looks up to wave at someone dressed in a Dolly Parton costume with balloons in her bodice and a two-gun holster. Dolly shoots Chauncey St. Amant. Skip knew the St. Amant family since her rubber pants days; she grew up with this uptown crowd, so she is temporarily assigned to the homicide division to help in solving Chauncey's murder. Julie Smith uses an above average number of names in her stories. There are at least 117 named characters (including one dog) in NEW ORLEANS MOURNING versus fifty or less in most novels. You might get dizzy with the rush of characters in the first ten pages, but by page 17 things will start to settle down. Julie Smith seamlessly weaves the sound, sight, smell and feel of New Orleans into this story. It's more than a mystery story; it's a tour of The Big Easy.

Skip Langdon can never be called your every-day cop/heroine. She is a 6-ft. mass of insecurities. She is oh-so-aware of her parent's compulsive social climbing, yet is branded "the debutante" by her fellow cops. She attended all the best schools and parties, but never felt like the "in-group." She has dropped out, dropped in, and is now trying to make a success in the New Orleans Police Department, living in the Quarter, unsure of herself with a totally non-supportive family who look down on her "blue collar" job.Yet Skip is a likeable, bright gal who knows New Orleans like an oyster knows his shell. She is on parade patrol at the height of Mardi Gras and is an eyewitness when the King of the Carnival, upper-crust businessman Chauncey St. Amant is shot while waving to the crowd from his float. In full view of the crowd, a person costumed as Dolly Parton has shot him from a balcony on the parade route. Pandemonium!Rookie cop Skip is quickly assigned to the homicide team on the case because she "knows" these top-drawer people. (This seemed a little flimsy to me, but what do I know about the New Orleans Police Department?) Enter the St. Amant family, worthy of Tennessee Williams. Fragile, alcoholic wife, Bitty has a tenuous hold on reality; gay son Henry who adores his mother and loathes the late Chauncey; beautiful, perfectly mannered, but oh-so-wild daughter Marcelle; and loyal family friend Tolliver, who might be in love with Bitty, but then again might be gay. This tattered, aristocratic family takes over the book. Nothing is quite as it seems, and many twists and turns take place before the conclusion. Then we have another fillip of a twist that smartly reminds us of just what New Orleans is all about.This is an engrossing story with a few too many side stories that however interesting, divert us from the main event. Ms. Smith has an excellent ear for dialogue and a good sense of the ridiculous; some of the incidents and confrontations are hilarious. I would call this a novel with a mystery thrown in. I would like to see a "straight" novel from Ms. Smith; I think it would be a success. "New Orleans Mourning" is a fun and instructive read.

Can't give it too many cudos... But why, oh why is a book like this not considered a literary masterpiece? Some of the [junk] that is put forth by theNY Times, the New Yorker, Oprah's Book Club, ad nauseum, is considered "top drawer," and yet we rarely hear about a brilliant detective novelist like Julie Smith being taken seriously by the "literary lights." I mean, it's very nice that she won an Edgar, but why not a Pulitzer? Her descriptions of New Orleans social strata are written with obviously great scholarship and at the same time are totally absorbing. I will say that New Orleans owes her a debt for the tourist trade a book like this will bring in. I can't wait to get back to that gorgeous city and scope out some of the "kultcha."I am a reader of highbrow, lowbrow and no-brow, and I read three, four books a week or more. I'm also a writer. If I can turn out a book that comes close to being this entertaining, I will die happy.Congratulations, Julie. You have written a great work. Now I can't wait to read the others in the Skip Langdon series. To begin with, she's a fabulous invention...nothing conventional about Skip. I imagine every woman who weighs more than the Vogue ideal will adore her. I must say, I thought another good title would have been..."Is Everyone In New Orleans a Drag Queen?" but I guess that would be considered too long. Anyway, for the film, I'd choose Ru Paul to play Skip, and the transvestite (sorry, forget her name) from "Midnite in the Garden of Good and Evil" to play Marcelle and Henry (different outfits, of course). After all, they'd have to be octaroon, or macaroon, or whatever. Anyway, I've gotta go order "The Axeman's Jazz." I just love a twelve-step theme. Let's have more of it, Julie. Probably half the people who like to read about degenerate booze hounds and sniveling enablers are in recovery programs.

Julie Smith gives Skip Langdon a wonderful debut as a cop trying to make her mark on the force. The New Orleans details are authentic. I enjoyed Skip's explanation of the subcultures of the city. My reading group read this and everyone, young and old, loved this Louisiana gal who was not the sterotypical beauty queen or little rich girl.