After a questionable hit and run accident on a hill in Tuscany, strange things begin happening to Kate Benedict. An aura appears over the head of an acquaintance who dies several days later. Then Kate sees an aura over Rebecca Williams, her long lost friend from college. Days later, Rebecca turns up dead and foul play may be involved. Realizing that the aura preshadows death, Kate must do what she can to save the ones she loves. Can she use her unusual new gift to help save others from dying, and to save herself if the killer comes after her next?

The Aura (Kate Benedict Paranormal Mysteries)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Bedford, Carrie

Mystery

Booksbnimble

In this EIGHTH entry in the Tubby Dubonnet series, the laid-back New Orleans lawyer finds himself caught in a twisted trip down memory lane, distracted by a luscious new love, and, as usual, surrounded by screwball denizens of everybody's favorite city. But he's also caught in someone's crosshairs, and so are half the cast of crazies and screwballs. Which makes for a delicious mix of danger and humor (with a dash of romance!), best consumed with a tall cold one and a bag of Zapp's Spicy Cajun Crawtators . When in the 1970s a young war protester is killed in broad daylight on Canal Street, it appears that his murder will be forgotten, a back page story lost in the big news of an especially violent era. But a youthful Tubby chanced to see it happen, and the tragic event's haunted him throughout his life. Decades later, an established (but not exactly driven) lawyer, yet successful enough to have time on his hands, Tubby decides to conduct his own investigation into the forgotten crime. He quickly stirs up a hornets’ nest of far-reaching political feuds, police corruption, government agents, and old men with secrets to hide. But as in all Tubby Dubonnet novels, the plot takes a backseat to local color, colorful characters, odes to fine food, wry observations, and a whole lot of humor. It's a little like spending a weekend in da Big Easy, dawlin'--complete with three well-chosen meals a day! WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Tremé, softshell crab po’ boys, Domilise’s, the Upperline Restaurant…wait, let’s start over—ok, legal mysteries, particularly Parnell Hall’s Steve Winslow series and anything by Lia Matera, comic mysteries, Elmore Leonard, funny lawyer movies like My Cousin Vinny, TV shows like Ally McBeal and Night Court; and everyone’s favorite New Orleans yarn, Confederacy of Dunces. “The literary equivalent of a film noir –fast, tough, tense, and darkly funny…so deeply satisfying in the settling of the story’s several scores that a reader might well disturb the midnight silence with laughter.” -Los Angeles Times Book Review “Take one cup of Raymond Chandler, one cup of Tennessee Williams, add a quart of salty humor, and you will get something resembling Dunbar’s crazy mixture of crime and offbeat comedy.” - Baltimore Sun “Dunbar catches the rich, dark spirit of New Orleans better than anyone.” --Publishers Weekly

Night Watchman (The Tubby Dubonnet Series)

Dunbar, Tony

Along with a deeper descent into New Orleans’ menacing underworld, this NINTH installment in Tony Dunbar’s humorous, hard-boiled Tubby Dubonnet mystery series brings new restaurants to try, a new assortment of colorful characters, beguiling courtroom scenes, and – yes! steamy shower sex. Ex-con Angelo Spooner is trying to start a legit business, but he just can’t catch a break. Just as his healing Holy Water, “Angelo’s Elixir” is about to go upscale, the sticky strands of the Big Sleazy’s tangled web of crime and corruption reach out to ensnare him. What’s a law-abiding parolee to do? He can’t get caught with a gun, but maybe that axe in his shed could help him extricate himself. But when low-level creep Frenchy Dufour’s henchman turns up nearly beheaded, Angelo’s fate rests in the capable hands of laid-back lawyer Tubby Dubonnet. Tubby’s been trying hard to lay low, too. As those closest to him are targeted by frightening attacks, he suspects his dealings with the clandestine society of Cuban exiles who’ve plagued him lately are far from over. Tubby would love to have nothing further to do with “that crazy band of geriatric lunatics”. But the old Cuban revolutionaries have taught their sons well. Now their grandchildren, heirs to a substantial cache of weapons and money, burn with a dangerous zeal to prove themselves. Meanwhile … a man’s got to eat! The epicurean counselor does his best thinking when he’s well-fed. Our good luck! –as we vicariously sample our way across New Orleans’ culinary panorama on the hunt for an axe murderer. But sleuth does not live by bread alone—even in a Tony Dunbar legal thriller. Ignoring his own advice to his client to “keep your head on your shoulders”, Tubby’s lost his to the lovely Peggy O’Flarity. It’s about time Tubby had some steamy sex – and maybe a little happiness? But fortune teller Sister Soulace has her doubts. “KEEP YOUR HEAD ON YOUR SHOULDERS,” the lawyer counseled his client… the axe murderer. “The literary equivalent of a film noir –fast, tough, tense, and darkly funny” -Los Angeles Times Book Review

Fat Man Blues (The Tubby Dubonnet Series)

The TENTH installment of the Skip Langdon series is a New Orleans feast for the senses, a canine love story, an action-packed police procedural made-to-order for readers who like their female sleuths bold, smart, and refreshingly human. A serial killer is using Airbnb units to stage his murders, but a teenage runaway has escaped his grasp and now she's in the wind, believing she's killed him. Meanwhile, the real killer stalks the city – and her.
Cody, the pink-haired sixteen-year-old, should be in school or at the mall texting her friends, not hanging out at the intersection of serial murder and human trafficking. When the options are: (1) Return to a life of slavery (2) Go to jail for murder (3) Be killed by a serial killer, Option 4 makes perfect sense – RUN! As mean as the streets of The City That Care Forgot can be, this child attracts angels (often unlikely ones) – and entire packs of dogs – who come to her aid.
She also finds a friend in NOPD’s newest Sergeant – big (six-foot!), beautiful, tough, and tender-hearted Skip Langdon. Skip knows her best hope of finding the killer is to find Cody – plus she feels for the girl, in whom she recognizes a younger version of her plucky, resourceful, whip-smart self. The city’s hard-boiled; the detective has a heart the size of the Superdome.

Murder on Magazine: A Skip Langdon Mystery

Smith, Julie

London architect Kate Benedict is off to a glamorous weekend party in Scotland at the once grand home of her boyfriend’s uncle. Fergus’s castle, complete with ghostly characters from the past and a creepy, closed-off wing, houses a vaguely menacing assortment of servants, locals and dodgy guests, and is wrapped in mysteries as thick as the Scottish fog. But, warmed by a cozy library fire and a nearly priceless collection of single malt scotch, the party-goers prepare to enjoy themselves. The festive event turns solemn, however, when an unwanted houseguest makes an appearance -- an aura over the head of Josh’s beloved Uncle Fergus. Visible only to Kate, the aura foretells imminent death. Unsure who can be trusted, she races to uncover the source of the danger, hoping to avert disaster.

The Scottish Connection (Kate Benedict Paranormal Mysteries)

Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel and the first mystery in the highly acclaimed Skip Langdon series, New Orleans Mourning falls deliciously between the psychological suspense of Laura Lippman and the delicate drama of Tennessee Williams. 
It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and civic leader and socialite Chauncey St. Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...\nEnter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her--and doom for the St. Amants.\nLangdon, with her weight worries, insecurities, and yet overall toughness has long been a favorite of those who like their female sleuths bold, smart, and refreshingly human.

New Orleans Mourning: A Gripping Police Procedural Thriller (Skip Langdon Murder Mystery)

WHAT'S THE PERFECT KILLING FIELD FOR A MURDERER? A place where he (or maybe she) can learn your secrets from your own mouth and then make friends over coffee. A supposedly "safe" place where anonymity is the norm. The horror who calls himself The Axeman has figured it out and claimed his territory--he's cherry-picking his murder victims in the 12-Step programs of New Orleans.
And he's had the gall to name himself after a historical serial killer. He just needs to go down, and fast, because this is New Aw'lins, dawlin'--half the town is either alcoholic or co-dependent!
Who better to take him out than tall, funny, social-misfit Skip Langdon, now a homicide detective on the Axeman team, a gig that takes her into the 12-Step groups to meet the suspects (giving the author a chance for gentle satire). As Skip threads her fascinated way from one self-help group to another, she finds she has more in common with the twelve-steppers than just the murder--her mother, for one thing, whom she encounters at Overeaters Anonymous! And she knows what they do not: that among their anonymous numbers is a murderous, and dangerously attractive psychopath...

Axeman's Jazz (The Skip Langdon)

August 29, 2005 - Doomsday: New Orleans is eighty per cent underwater, with no electricity, no phones, no 911 service, no rules. Facing the complete breakdown of systems and normality, New Orleans homicide Detective Skip Langdon is on her own to interpret and execute the only direction she's given: Get out there and keep the peace.With communications down and all emergency services on search and rescue, all Skip can hope to accomplish is helping the person right in front of her. More than once that person turns out to be Billy, a gutsy 15-year-old from Treme who's in greater danger of being swamped by his chaotic home life than the Cat 5 hurricane Skip shelters him from.When she escorts him home and discovers the scene of a possible homicide, homicide detecting must take a back seat to maintaining order-if not peace. Outrageous rumors are swirling, stirring up unrest, but what really bothers her is the one about a police department order to use the chaos as a cover for "cleaning up" by rounding up criminals and assassinating them. Now that just can't be true. Can it?But after she hears it for the third time, Skip teams up with the only cop in the city she's positive she can trust, her former partner, movie-star handsome, kickass, praline-sweet Adam Abasolo. They may not be able to fix everything, but, as the bodies pile up, they are damn sure going to hit back at the guys who're giving their department a black eye.

The Big Crazy: A Skip Langdon Mystery (The Skip Langdon)

Everybody loved easygoing Ham Brocato, producer of the famed New Orleans JazzFest. So how did he end up stabbed to death on his kitchen floor?\nNew Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon just happens to be on hand when Ham's body is discovered in the middle of his own party the evening before the Fest. To complicate the already murky case, the victim's sixteen-year-old blues musician sister has disappeared, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn't the murderer, she's in mortal danger from the person who is. So Task One is finding Melody, ambitious, unhappy at home, and determined to break from her family.\nAs she probes the victim's tangled relationships, Skip finds a Southern family to rival any in Tennessee Williams, including Ham's live-in lover, feisty and swiftly rising star Ti-Belle Thiebaud; his father George, enmeshed with family members in a bitter disagreement over the family's lucrative Po' Boy chain; and Patty, his distraught stepmother.\nIn this tale of southern kinships gone awry, she's assisted by her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her gay landlord, Jimmy Dee. Meanwhile, Melody's dangerous yet exhilarating journey tugs at the heart and raises the pulse rate.

Jazz Funeral: A Skip Langdon Mystery (The Skip Langdon)

Product Description A ROLLICKING TALE OF MURDER, ROMANCE, AND A BORDELLO... Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid. That dirty job done, a lovely evening turns even more delightful when she's picked up by the cops and spends the next two hours at the Hall of Justice. Could this day get any worse? Of course! Guess who arrives home to find a dead hooker on her living room floor? Review "If you haven't discovered Smith yet, now is the time to do so... Move over, Sara Paretsky."--KPFA-FM (Berkeley, CA)"Funny and witty, with a clever, outspoken heroine."--Library Journal"Smith's crisp storytelling, her easy knowledge of local practices, and her likable, unpredictable heroine will make readers look forward to more of sleuth Schwartz's adventures."--San Francisco Chronicle"Nobody gets inside her characters like Julie Smith."--Linda Barnes, author of the Carlotta Carlyle series"Smith is a very funny writer with a nice feel for the absurdities of urban life."-- San Francisco Examiner"A delightfully modern sleuth."--Minneapolis Tribune"Rebecca's lively first-person narration brands her a new detective to watch."--Wilson Library Bulletin"An attractive and amusing heroine."--The San Diego Union

Death Turns a Trick: A Rebecca Schwartz Mystery (The Rebecca Schwartz)

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