Julie Smith 
Major Works
- Death Turns A Trick (Walker & Co.) 1982
- The Sourdough Wars (Walker & Co.) 1984
- True-Life Adventure (Mysterious Press) 1985
- Tourist Trap (Mysterious Press) 1986
- Huckleberry Fiend (Mysterious Press) 1987
- New Orleans Mourning (St. Martin's Press) l990
- The Axeman's Jazz (St. Martin's Press) 1991
- Dead in the Water (Ivy) l991
- Jazz Funeral (Fawcett/Columbine) 1993
- Other People's Skeletons (Ivy) 1993
- New Orleans Beat (Fawcett/Columbine) l994
- House of Blues (Fawcett/Columbine) 1995
- The Kindness of Strangers (Fawcett/Columbine) 1996
- Crescent City Kill (Fawcett/Coumbine) August, l997
- 82 Desire (Fawcett/Columbine) September, l998
- Louisiana Hotshot (Forge) June, 2000
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Julie Smith: A Biography
By Mary Zhu (SHS)
J ulie Smith was born on November 25, 1944, in Annapolis, Maryland. She is the daughter of Malberry, a lawyer, and Claire, a school counselor, Smith. Having spent the majority of her childhood in Savannah, Georgia; she felt the need to find a a different place to go to college, so she decided to go to college at the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford, Mississippi (Smith). Smith was 17 when she went to Ole Miss in 1962 as a transfer student from a small girls' college. Since early childhood, she knew she wanted to write. Her talent quickly bloomed in a creative writing course taught by the late Dr. Evans Harrington. She was one of five students in Harrington's creative writing class that year who went on to become published authors, with dozens of fiction, nonfiction and poetry works between them. The others were John Carr, Christian Garrison, Henry Hurt and James Seay. In an interview with Rick Hynum, Smith, who was a journalism major, explained, "Faulkner had a lot to do with my decision to come to Ole Miss. I had read Light in August and Sanctuary. I was reading Mosquitoes when I arrived (in Oxford), and I immediately felt as though I was trapped in the novel. All the southern names, the intense heat, the beautiful old homes, the people themselves. Oxford was so romantic and it had so much history." She got her B.A. in journalism from UM in 1965 (Hynum). Then Smith used her graduation money to buy a bus ticket to New Orleans, Louisiana. She felt that New Orleans was perhaps the best place on earth and still in the South. Eventually, an anxious Julie Smith became a writer for the Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans. Then, she moved to San Francisco and became the second woman to write for the San Francisco Chronicle. After fourteen years as a reporter for the Chronicle, Julie quit and joined two other women to form Invisible Ink, a n editorial consulting firm also located in San Francisco. She wrote about five books set in San Francisco while she lived there. Rebecca Schwartz, a female lawyer, and Paul McDonald were her main characters in these books. Julie got married in San Francisco in 1996 to husband Lee (Smith). Recently, Smith decided to retreat to New Orleans once again (Sherwin). New Orleans has been the setting for over half a dozen novels by Smith, many with the female protagonist Skip Langdon, who in nine of her novels to date has gained Smith popularity, fame, and recognition.
Julie Smith has written sixteen mystery novels and a number of short stories. Smith is the second woman who has written for the San Francisco Chronicle . Invisible Ink, a freelance writing firm, was formed in 1979 when Smith quit her Chronicle job and joined two other women seeking to create a writing firm (Smith). Her first books were not successful, but when Death Turns a Trick was published in 1982, her future as a writer seemed promising.. She continued on to win an Edgar Award in 1990, which made her the first American woman to win an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America since 1956 (Sherwin).
 Her current book, Louisiana Hotshot, was published in May of 2001. It continues with Talba Wallis (Baroness do Pontalba), a black poet/computer expert and would-be investigator who first appeared in the ninth Skip Longdon mystery called 82 Desire. Smith often depicts dysfunctional families, and one appears in Louisiana Hotshot. One of Smith's strengths is her love for New Orleans, and she describes both the quaintness and strangeness of the city well. Like Welty, Smith recognizes the importance of locale and local color as she brings New Orleans to life. The Baroness Pontalba is a hip, smart, cool female detective, making the book fun and intriguing to read.
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Timeline
- 1944 (November 25)-- Julie Smith is born in Annapolis, Maryland
- Childhood--Smith moves to Savannah, Georgia.
- 1962-- Julie enrolls at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.
- 1965-- Julie graduates with a BA in journalism from Ole Miss
- 1965-66-- Julie works as reporter for Times-Picayune , New Orleans, LA.
- 1967-68-- Julie works at San Francisco Chronicle as copy editor.
- 1968-1979-- Julie works at San Francisco Chronicle as reporter.
- 1979-- Julie founds Invisible Ink (editorial consulting firm), San Francisco.
- 1982-- Death Turns a Trick is published.
- 1984-- The Sourdough Wars is published.
- 1986-- Tourist Trap is published.
- 1990-- New Orleans Mourning is published
- 1991-- The Axeman's Jazz and Dead in the Water are published. Smith wins Edgar Award for New Orleans Mourning .
- 1993-- Other People's Skeletons is published.
- 1994-- New Orleans Beat is published.
- 1995-- House of Blues is published.
- 1996-- Julie marries Lee. Kindness of Strangers is published.
- 1997--Julie moves back to New Orleans, Louisiana.
- 1998-- Crescent City Kill is published.
- 1999-- 82 Desire is published.
- 2001-- Louisiana Hotshot is published
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 A Review
of Other People's Skeletons
by Mary Zhu (SHS)
Other People's Skeletons is an interesting, suspenseful mystery book with Rebecca Schwartz, a defense attorney from San Francisco, California, as the narrator. This book is suspenseful because it leads you to think the story is going in one direction when something happens to change the plot. Although this book is unrealistic for people that are skeptical to psychics, I believe anyone who loves action and suspense will find Other People's Skeletons quite fun and interesting. I am amazed how a book can be so full of action, yet be so full of compassion, and at the end, leaves you feeling touched. This book has a little bit of it all. I highly recommend it.
Other People's Skeletons is about the attorney Rebecca Schwartz, whose law partner gets accused of murder. Rebecca, through the course of attempting to prove her partner's innocence, learns so much about her life she never knew before. She uncovers a secret about her best friend, makes her way through relationship problems, experiences the fear of possibly having a deadly disease, is shot at, and finds that she is willing to risk her own life for the safety of others. This book is very unpredictable because too many people have motives and they could all be suspects. The suspense almost killed me. Full of twists, turns, and uncertainties, the whole book creates a hunger for the reader to finally consume the outcome, but the turning point is definitely where all the facts come together. For most readers, this book will not be put down until the reader is satisfied by the very gratifying ending.
Other People's Skeletons is mainly set in San Francisco, but the setting jumps momentarily to Monterey, and Atlanta, so it does a fair share of city-hopping. Also, the cities in the book truly exist: even the newspapers mentioned are real. This creates a real atmosphere for the reader. Imagery in Other People's Skeletons makes it easy to picture yourself watching all the goings on in the book. I felt as if I were an onlooker throughout almost all of the book. Detailed character sketches contributed to my picturing the happenings in the book. 
The characters in Other People's Skeletons range from the rich and famous, to lawyers and reporters, to prostitutes, to a psychotic man, but despite the varying characters, everyone plays an important role leading to the final conclusion. The ending isn't a terribly shocking one, but is somewhat surprising, and lets your mind rest from the pensive strain of wonder.
I believe every aspect of this book is laudable. To those of you that may be offended by sex or profanity, this book has a little of both, but nothing over-the-edge obscene. For the most part, any profanity is used to stress the importance or a character's mood in a particular situation. I stress to anyone with the desire to read a suspenseful book that this may be the book you are looking for.
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Related Websites
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Bibliography
"femaledetective.com." 25 Apr. 2001 <http://www.femaledetective.com/authors/smith_julie.html>
Hynum, Rick. Alum Julie Smith Making a Killing on Mystery Novels Set in New Orleans. 15 Apr.
Available at http://www.olemiss.edu/news/newsdesk/story330.html
Sherwin, Elizabeth. Smith banishes old demons in latest mystery novel l. 20 Apr. 2001.
<http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/1997/julie.html>
Smith, Julie. "Julie's Biography. "Casa Mysterioso: An Online Salon Hosted by Julie Smith. 15 Apr. 2001.
<http://www.juliesmithauthor.com/juliesbio.htm>
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