Customer Reviews

The Axeman's Jazz

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The debut novel in the Skip Langdon series, New Orleans Mourning, won the Edgar Award. That's a hard act to follow and Smith sure tries. Many of the good parts of the first book are still present -- Skip's wonderful observations of Southern manners first among them. Got a killer holding a hostage outside? The Police are meeting at your house for a strategy session. Of course you serve coffee and cookies -- Cream anyone?

Unfortunately, the Edgar also seems to have given Smith the clout to ignore her editors and this book is easily 25% longer than necessary. The fact that the killer must be among the 12 step crowd (Codependents Anonymous) and in the six assigned to Skip is determined early. We then go through endless pages without moving the mystery forward.

Bottom-line: Still a nice sense of New Orleans but slow pacing make this an optional read. Reading of New Orleans Mourning helpful but not required.

If you've ever lived in New Orleans you'll recognize the quirky characters. If you're like me and you MISS living in New Orleans, Axeman's Jazz, and Julie Smith's other Skip Langdon stories will transport you back there - as well as entertain you.

I always enjoy this series of Louisiana mysteries starring failed belle Skip Langdon, but I had to buy this one for my daughter because of the great portrayal, only sometimes satirical, of 12-step programs (especially ones addressing co-dependency).

This is the first book in the Skip Langdon series. It is a
good mystery page-turner about a murderer who selects his
victims from 12-step programs. I learned a lot about how
12-step programs work and the rhetoric associated with 12-
step programs.

This is a good book for vacation, beach or airplane.

I am shocked by the critical reviews. I really liked this book. It's my first by this author but won't be the last. She tells a good story.

The sense of place (New Orleans) in this book was wonderful but made me a bit sad because I don't think that place will ever exist again as it was when she was writing. The story begins with a body being found -- a woman who recently moved to New Orleans from a smaller community, who didn't seem to have much of a life, so it's hard to figure out who she would have allowed into her apartment.

Then a second body is found, and someone comes forward to say that both these people were seen at a meeting of a 12 step group. Thus Skip Langdon, 6 foot tall homicide detective (female) has a clue, which is particularly important in that it soon becomes apparent that these murders are the work of a serial killer. She and her task force start attending meetings, getting to know the people who frequent these -- with the assumption that this is how the killer meets his victims, so he must be a regular 12 stepper.

The descriptions of some of the troubled attendees, many of whom attend several meetings a day every day, may make some 12 steppers squirm, but I was fascinated by what she described so astutely. The 12 step groups in question were not for substance abusers but for people who were unhappy and looking for a way to change their lives: in one group, people are trying to care for their inner child, so attendees hold dolls or teddy bears that represent their inner child. Some of the people described are quite likeable and relatively normal despite their problems, whereas others are so obviously angry and troubled that they are serious contenders for a possible serial killer.

I didn't have too much trouble figuring out who the killer was, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I did find a couple of pages toward the end so distressing that I more or less skipped them.

I'm sorry that other readers did not enjoy this book, but personally, I thought it was a real page-turner.

I've just discovered Julie Smith and I can't wait to read more of her books. I like mysteries that also offer well written characters and ongoing storylines-detective Skip Langdon is interesting and likeable-a good addition to the line of women detectives. This was a good story with characters I'd like to read about again. New Orleans makes a fun and unusual setting. The story kept me anxiously reading straight through and was intelligent and well written.

Cheez, it went on and on. Someone said it earlier...the Edgar has given Smith the "clout" to pour out bad writing.
If you just like to skip through a book til you find the (unbelievably implausible) culprit, you might like it. The 12-step theme and Skip Langdon are the only reasons to even pick it up with two fingers...but the writing is drawn out, repetitive, unimaginative, choppy - hell, if this were a senior high school thesis I'd send it back for revisions!

Julie Smith should know better. We all had such high hopes with New Orleans Mourning. She should have stopped there, written a totally different kind of book. She has the potential of an artist...how far she has strayed. They should have made a movie of New Orleans Mourning so she could "retire" gracefully with stacks of money and not have to turn out detective stories over and over. Believe me, she's not good at it. She's not a James Lee Burke or Moseley or Sandford or Block. These writers can keep it going for some reason. How disappointing. Skip is a great character, but characters are only as good as the writing that surrounds them, and I'm afraid that, without a movie, Skip will be so much molasses in a few years.

I just don't understand these folks who give bad reviews to this series! I'm a voracious reader and quite discriminating and I find it to be perfect, simply perfect! I've now read every single one of the Skip Langdon books (even one that is out of print) and I can't find one single complaint about the ENTIRE bunch! The plot was ingenious and riveting in this 12-step murder whodoneit. There were so many suspects, I was baffled to the very end---but I *did* have my suspicions. LOL! Thanks, Ms. Smith for the best reading entertainment I've had in years.

The bulk of this book was filled with tedious details that added nothing of substance to the book. Decent potential, but apparantly there was not a moment of editorial oversight offered. The conclusion was as unsatisfying as everything that preceeded it. I have not read anything else in this series and am not inclined to do so now.

I have read all of Julie Smith books and for an easy and fun read they are good. I especially like the Skip Langdon series as she is not a femme fatale and has her fits and faults, which make her more human like the rest of us.