Julie Smith
A former reporter for the New
Orleans Times-Picayune and the San Francisco Chronicle, Julie Smith is an author steeped in Louisiana culture. 
She lives in the French Quarter and, like so many of her characters, is a licensed private investigator. However, she earned her license as writing research and doesn't actually take cases other than minor pro bono work.
Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Smith went to the University of Mississippi where she studied journalism. From there, she went on to work at newspapers for several years before becoming a full-time freelancer. While a reporter in San Francisco, Smith met the Reverend Jim Jones upon whom she would later base her character Errol Jacomine. She says the scene with Jane Storey in The Kindness of Strangers is almost purely autobiographical and describes her attempts at covering Reverend Jones.
Like her Paul McDonald character, Smith earned money by writing client reports for a detective agency. That writing was done under the aegis of Invisible Ink with two partners-one of whom was fellow future mystery novelist Marcia Muller. Invisible Ink was disbanded after they both sold their first novels.
In 1991, Julie Smith's first Skip Langdon novel won an Edgar Award for best novel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rebecca Schwartz |
Skip Langdon |
Death Turns a Trick |
New Orleans Mourning |
The Sourdough Wars |
The Axeman’s Jazz |
Tourist Trap |
Jazz Funeral |
Dead in the Water |
New Orleans Beat |
Other People’s Skeletons |
House of Blues |
Paul McDonald |
|
True Life Adventure |
|
Huckleberry Fiend |
