Confirmed grump Eddie Valentino placed the ad. Hotshot twenty-something Talba Wallis knew exactly how to answer it. And thus was born the dynamic duo of New Orleans private detectives, one cynical, sixty-five-year-old Luddite white dude with street smarts, and one young, bright-eyed, Twenty-First century African-American female poet, performance artist, mistress of disguise, and computer jock extraordinaire. Think Queen Latifah and Danny DeVito. In Louisiana Hotshot, their job is to hunt down a sociopath and pedophile who’s molested the fourteen-year-old daughter of their client, hangs out on the ragged edges of the rap and recording industries, and has more powerful allies than a Cabinet member. But both detectives have unfinished business from the past—in Eddie’s case, something he deeply regrets; in Talba’s, a personal mystery, one so frightening no one will help her investigate. But she knows she won’t sleep till she solves it—and the truth will change her forever.

A Talba Wallis Novel By night the glamorous Baroness de Pontalba, by day New Orleans’ hippest P.I., Talba Wallis is dumbfounded when she can’t do a simple background check on an old friend—Babalu Maya just doesn’t seem to exist on paper. Four days later, she doesn’t exist at all. As Talba threads her way backward through Babalu’s short, difficult life, she finds an intricate pattern of violence and fear, and a shadowy Mr. Big with homicidal intent. Talba butts right into everybody’s business in Clayton, Louisiana, a small town with a big, ugly secret, where being black, mouthy, and smart are the three qualities most likely to get her killed. As she uncovers dark truths, events and people spiral into nasty motion in a story that has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River.

Allyson Brown, the Girl Gatsby, is a woman of wealth, hostess of fabled parties, patron of the arts—especially of poets. Found floating in her own swimming pool, shot to death. Poet and fledgling detective Talba Wallis gets an urgent call from the sister she barely knows: Janessa. To Girl Gatsby Janessa is close friend. But this call isn't an invitation to an elegant literary salon. Janessa wants off the hook as the principal murder suspect.Investigating, Talba and her irascible boss, Eddie, find the reality behind the Gatsby glamour. Allyson was widely hated, a con artist who neglected her children, failed to pay her bills, and lied to everyone she wanted something from. The one person she loved may have ushered her to her death.The case takes Talba and Eddie from literary parties to Gulf Coast bait shops, from biker bars to abandoned wharves, and finally, to the story of another Gatsby, which may yield answers, or greater mysteries.Louisiana Lament is Talba's journey through the not-so-genteel Southern literary scene, where backbiting and petty jealousies abound, and mint juleps are served with canapeacute;s of carnage.

When PI Talba Wallis gets a frantic phone call from Orleans Parish Prison, the last person she expects to hear from is her boss' lawyer daughter, Angie. Popped for drug possession, Angie insists the drugs were planted. She's a target for representing a neighborhood group protesting the illegal commercial use of a marina by its owner, Judge Buddy Champagne. According to Angie, the judge is dirty—and he's the one who had her set up. Talba and her boss, Eddie, are outraged—knowing Angie as they do, they pull out all the stops for her. And when Talba goes undercover as a housekeeper for Judge Champagne, she finds a household straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with the judge playing Big Daddy. The weak son and the hot daughter-in-law are in residence, being "between jobs." Big Mama's absent, though—she died some time ago, and the judge is now adding his fiancée to the mix. That would be Miss Kristin LaGarde, an impossibly lovely, and possibly innocent, young lady who seems hopelessly in love with the old coot. Talba dredges up lots of interesting material; such as that someone was accidentally electrocuted at the marina and that the judge is in bed with certain bail bondsmen. She finds evidence of bribes and kickbacks. He's dirty all right. When the story breaks and the scandal deepens, Judge Champagne winds up dead. And, to her surprise, Talba is asked to investigate. Did politics kill the judge? Or was it his own family?

MYSTERY FICTION'S MOST DYNAMIC DETECTIVE DUO—IN A BOXED SET!Now you can get the entire 4-book Talba Wallis series by Edgar-Award winning author Julie Smith (plus bonus short story) at an irresistible price. Talba, aka poetess Baroness de Pontalba, has the beauty, the brains, the computer savvy, the poetic soul, the youth, the right demographic, and the sass. Eddie Valentino’s got the detective agency. Also a short fuse and yes, wisdom. Not only do they make it work, they’ve got chemistry. “The quirky pleasure of watching the Baroness strut her stuff is worth the price of admission.” —Houston Chronicle Vol. 1: LOUISIANA HOTSHOTIn Louisiana Hotshot, their job is to hunt down a sociopath and pedophile who’s molested the fourteen-year-old daughter of their client, hangs out on the ragged edges of the rap and recording industries, and has more powerful allies than a Cabinet member. But both detectives have unfinished business from the past—in Eddie’s case, something he deeply regrets; in Talba’s, a personal mystery, one so frightening no one will help her investigate. But she knows she won’t sleep till she solves it—and the truth will change her forever. Vol. 2: LOUISIANA BIGSHOTThe hottest detective duo in New Orleans is going to need every skill and ounce of courage they can summon in this intricate tale of a decades-old conspiracy only now coming home to roost, with the murder of Talba’s friend Babalu Maya. Babalu is actually Clayton Robineau, daughter of the local banker in a small Louisiana town that bears her name, a town buried under the weight of its own malevolent past. As Talba and Eddie investigate, they find that something terrible happened to Clayton as a child, an injury—both pscyhic and physical—so bizarre, so shameful and damning that almost anyone in town would kill to cover it up. Vol. 3: LOUISIANA LAMENTOne stormy day Talba gets an emergency call from Janessa, the sister she barely knows, and arrives to find a body floating in a swimming pool—the mortal husk of Allyson Brown, known in New Orleans literary circles as the Girl Gatsby. Like Gatsby, Allyson was one of those mysterious rich people who move to town, give amazing parties, and seem made of moonbeams. Investigating, Talba finds the reality behind the Gatsby glamour. Allyson was a con artist who neglected her children, ignored her bills, and lied like a Ponzi schemer. But she wasn’t the only bad actor on the local literary scene. Fellow poet Rashad leads Talba a merry chase, leaving a trail of clues in the form of poetry, while novelists engage in fisticuffs, unseemly preening, and unforgivable arrogance. The Baroness discovers just how seamy, petty, and downright murderous her fellow literati can be.Vol. 4: P.I. ON A HOT TIN ROOFYOUR LAWYER NEEDS YOU TO BAIL HER OUT? ISN'T THAT KIND OF BACKWARDS? So thinks PI Talba Wallis, on her way to Parish Prison—and indeed something’s badly amiss. New Orleans’ most dynamic detective duo have a personal interest in this one—Eddie’s lawyer daughter Angie’s been set up for a drug bust. Talba embeds herself in the house of prominent Judge Buddy Champagne as a spy, and uncovers plenty of evidence the judge is dirty—but she doesn't count on how involved she was going to get—especially with Buddy’s 14-year-old daughter Lucy. There are plenty of mysterious twists and turns on the way to an ending guaranteed to surprise—but the real joy here is in the relationships. BONUS Talba Wallis Mystery Short Story—KID TROMBONE!The Big Easy’s premier jazz singer, Queenie Feran, thinks there’s more to her ex-husband’s death than an a