Louisiana Bigshot: A Talba Wallis Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Julie Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Talba Wallis | Publication Date: August 18, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Talba Wallis, hip and happening PI, a.k.a. the Baroness Pontalba, star of the New Orleans avant garde, was first introduced in Louisiana Hotshot and returns in this deft, well-written mystery about Babalu Maya, a "healer" who wants to know if her boyfriend is cheating on her. Shortly after Talba confirms her client's suspicions, Babalu dies of a heroin overdose the police are certain is a suicide. But both Talba and Jason, Babalu's contrite and confused boyfriend, find it such an improbable scenario that he hires Talba to find out what really happened. Unraveling the mystery takes the sassy sleuth with the attitude that's bigger than she is to the small Louisiana town where Babalu was born and to the prominent, influential family that turned its back on her a long time ago. While the plot isn't much more than a routine Southern gothic, the heroine is: Talba Wallis is a lively, engaging protagonist with family secrets of her own that are revealed in a secondary plot that's much more interesting than the primary one. Smith, the author of three other series, has a real winner in this one. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In her second outing (after 2001's well-received Louisiana Hotshot) from Edgar-winner Smith, Talba Wallis, whose day job as a newly licensed PI never interferes with her nighttime gig as the performance poet called the Baroness de Pontalba, finds herself entangled in the dirty laundry of white folks' family secrets when she sets out to prove that her friend Babalu's death was murder, not suicide and not a drug overdose. In the end, the snarl of old family skeletons, corrupt politicians and racial ugliness becomes too serpentine for its own good, and the solution to the murder is vaguely unsatisfying. Far more appealing are the strongly drawn characters. The interplay between the young black woman and her much older white boss, a man who admires her brain and her fearlessness but would never let on, is warm and respectful; Smith nicely plays it against the very real and very dangerous racial divide that Talba encounters when she investigates her friend's smalltown past. The fiercely independent Talba still lives with her no-nonsense mama, Miz Clara, who makes the best fried chicken known to man and thinks Talba's way of dressing for poetry readings makes her look like "some fool who's been to one too many rummage sales." But Talba, as her sweet schoolteacher boyfriend never fails to remind her, is every inch a baroness. She's also a fine poet, and one of the delights of the book is that Smith lets us peek inside the mind and heart of a poet at work, revealing the process as well as the result.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (August 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765343800
• ISBN-13: 978-0765343802
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,134,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of the Skip Langdon and Talba Wallis mystery series; Edgar-winner; New Orleans resident.

Also founder of www.booksBnimble.com, an electronic publishing start-up, and author of the YA paranormal adventure, CURSEBUSTERS!

Latest adventure:
I've reworked my writing class as an ebook called WRITING YOUR WAY (http://amzn.to/o6XN3T), with special emphasis on first chapters and marketing. You can see The Prose Nazi video below for an idea of my approach--i.e. flexible; designed to find YOUR best writing method, not force mine on you. We also have outtakes for your amusement. The third video, which I'll call GTFA, is a trailer for a fun parody book booksBnimble couldn't resist doing one rainy afternoon. Check out my websites, www.cursebustersbook.com, www.booksBnimble,com (where I also blog) and www.casamysterioso.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great, fun, exciting, hard-to-solve read, October 14, 2003

By 

Patricia Tryon (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Louisiana Bigshot: A Talba Wallis Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Young women starting out as PIs start cheap and often finish early in the mystery fiction business -- but hope that Baroness de Pontalba, a/k/a Talba Wallis will be around for many more pleasurable reads. She has more prickles than a porcupine and apparently less fear than Zeus in solving mean, bitter problems. Her personality glints like silver as she dances between personal and business tragedy; underestimate her, and you're the one playing the fool's gold.

This is a forceful, beautifully written story that, in all likelihood, will cast you as a stranger in a strange land. But you will probably not be able to put down the book and chances are you will also be unable to untangle the strands of mystery much before the final acts play out. It's probably too complex, or they would ruin the delicious ruminations of the Baroness on the other characters, but there ought to be a movie here. Just read the book. It's hard to imagine a movie subtle and strong enough to capture both dynamic action and the tension between emotion and thought.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Louisiana Bigshot, August 20, 2002

By 

Angela Henry (Springfield, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Louisiana Bigshot (Hardcover)

Even the simplest of tasks seem to land Private Eye/Poet, Talba Wallis, in big trouble in Julie Smith's, LOUISIANA BIGSHOT. ... Julie Smith successfully blends mystery and social commentary as Talba faces big hurdles, due to the color of her skin, in her investigation of Babalu's death. Smith has created a complex character who uses wit, and sheer nerve, and not always successfully, to navigate herself through some tough situations. You can't help but root for Talba Wallis.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome & Unputdownable, September 16, 2002

By 

Marion "[e-mail]" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Louisiana Bigshot (Hardcover)

I loved this second fast-paced tale of the irrepressible, sassy, intelligent poetess-turned-detective, Baroness Pontalba. The plot had more surprising twists and turns than a Louisiana bayou country road...and keeps you guessing until the very end. It always cracks me up when Ms. Smith brings Detective extraordinairre, Skip Langdon into the story....she's the main character in her excellent Skip Langdon series. If you're just discovering Ms. Smith's writing, you're in for a delectable treat and a fabulous story. She's the best!