New Releases by Julie Smith

Hearts for the Homeless is an extraordinary book about a young boy s journey into homelessness. He experienced a life of luxury until fate took the life that he had known away. He had to learn how to cope with living in a homeless shelter as well as dealing with the fear of acceptance by his peers. Being homeless challenged him to be strong and to persevere. He had to overcome several painful obstacles in his young life to be able to move forward to make something of himself. The main character went on to become an exemplary teacher. He was able to begin a program entitled: Hearts for the Homeless within his school. Through his own traumatic and unfortunate circumstances, he was able to teach his students how to accept people for who they are on the inside and how to assist those in need. His humanitarian efforts instilled the fact to his students that they should always have a compassionate heart. Although Hearts for the Homeless is a fictional story, it will take you on a real-life journey into the depths of disparity and the motivation to succeed.

"The Culinary Capers of Canon and Lily: Canon Grows a Garden" is about two best friends and their culinary adventure. Canon is a moose who craves a variety of foods that aren''t readily available in his forest home. His wise friend Lily suggests that he build his own garden so he can prepare anything he desires. The story follows Canon and Lily through a journey to find plants for the garden, establish a garden in the forest with the help of their friends, and win over the hearts and stomachs of the other forest creatures.

50 Hikes in the Sierra Nevada charts the thousands of miles of trails crisscrossing the Sierras’ pine clad slopes and stark, treeless mountaintops, that make this region a hiker’s paradise. Including the perfect mix of classic Sierra treks and lesser-known routes, the author has focused on the most scenic destinations. The guide provides comprehensive, step-by-step directions for each hike and offers a glimpse into the natural and human history of the area. In addition, each chapter includes an up-to-date topographic map, directions to the trailhead, distance and elevation data, hike difficulty rating, and pertinent contact information.

What can be done to overcome these problems?".

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.

Police detective Skip Langdon tries to track down Errol Jacomine, a corrupt evangelical preacher who wants to become president of the United States.

Talba Wallis--African American poet, leader of New Orleans'' café society, and fledgling private detective--is hired by veteran sleuth Eddie Valentino to find a dangerous lothario who seduces teenage black girls who then mysteriously vanish.

This volume assesses the changing nature of the UK''s bilateral relations within the EU. Since the 1998 ''step change initiative'' the UK has begun to build up long-term bilateral cooperation that will serve as the backdrop to specific bilateral initiatives -- particularly in the areas of defense, social policy, and internal security -- enabling it to push the process of integration further.

Even Rebecca Schwartz is nonplussed when she learns that Chris Nicholson, her law partner and best friend, is a suspect in a murder case. Chris says she has an alibi, but she won''t say what it is. Rebecca has to wonder what could be so shameful that she can''t even tell her best friend. She''s amazed when she learns that her partner has a secret life as did the victim. One thing is certain: if Rebecca doesn''t shake some skeletons from closets - and fast - Chris is going to prison.

La Nouvelle-Orléans, la nuit du Mardi gras. Juché sur son char, Chauncey St. Amant, le roi du carnaval, parade au milieu d''une foule en délire. Soudain, une femme déguisée en cow-girl brandit deux pistolets d''opérette. Amusé, le roi la salue... et s''effondre. Chauncey était un notable. Skip Langdon, simple flic mais jeune fille de bonne famille, connaît bien ce milieu. Elle se voit donc confier la délicate mission d''enquêter " discrètement " avec ses collègues plus gradés... Secrets d''alcôve, carcan des conventions, racisme enraciné, : dans le Sud profond, la vérité n''est jamais bonne à dire. Or Skip, justement, n''a pas la langue dans sa poche...

"ONE OF THE BEST OF THE SKIP LANGDON SERIES. . . In the fast-growing field of fictional female police officers, New Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon stands tall." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch After prominent New Orleans restaurateur Arthur Hebert is murdered in his beautiful Garden District home, three family members suspiciously vanish: Hebert''s daughter, who was soon to have taken over the management of his restaurant, his ex-addict son-in-law, and his small granddaughter--all missing without a trace. A kidnapping gone wrong? Homicide Detective Skip Langdon thinks it''s possible, but why should the kidnappers have taken three hostages when one would have been enough? Skip''s hunt for a murderer and the missing Hebert heirs embraces worlds within worlds--the elegant, dangerous Garden District, the French Quarter, the seedy Treme, broken-down projects, exclusive mansions, and lowdown bars. It takes her into places where the city''s dirty business is transacted, and those where life is mostly madness, sadness, and badness. It may even take Skip to her death. . . . "SMITH BRINGS THE CITY STRIKINGLY ALIVE." --The Boston Sunday Globe

As the rich novels of Julie Smith remind us, New Orleans is a city of excess. These days the local philosophy that too much is not enough seems to encompass not only the famed Crescent City pleasures of sex, music, and food, but also the escalating horror of violent death. However, with a new, honest police superintendent, NOPD detective Skip Langdon feels there''s hope for the city she loves. But no sooner does Superintendent Albert Good take office than he is gunned down by an assassin, and within hours the killer himself is killed. A mysterious entity calling itself The Jury claims credit for this act of vigilante justice. Who or what is The Jury? No one knows, but Skip perceives in it the evil brilliance of her old adversary, charismatic con man and cold-blooded killer Errol Jacomine. She''s always suspected it''s just a matter of time before Jacomine''s megalomaniacal ego orchestrates his revenge. The time is now. From across the South, the players in the unfolding drama come together--a pretty college student on the run, a monk who has packed a lifetime''s worth of misery into a few years, and a madman with a murderous agenda. Beautiful New Orleans gathers them all into her casual embrace, while Detective Skip Langdon races (perhaps to her own destruction) to forestall the bloodshed to come.

"A genuinely moving mystery...It''s always a pleasure to spend time with Skip, a no-nonsense, level-headed heroine in a wild and reckless city." THE BALTIMORE SUN Smack in the middle of the summer, Skip finds herself investigating the stabbling death of the universally beloved producer of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Then the victim''s sixteen-year-old sister disappears, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn''t herself the murderer, she''s in mortal danger from the person who is. And with her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her landlord, Jimmy Dee, to assist her, Skip trails an elusive killer through the delirium of a city caught up in the world''s most famous music bash.... "From the Paperback edition.

Rebecca Schwartz is a fairly normal Bay-area attorney. But when she almost gets busted for playing piano in a bordello, and Kandi, a part-time student-prostitute is killed in her home, and then the killer stalks Rebecca, it''s time to take action--which is just what she does....

"Julie Smith not only firmly establishes her claim to the New Orleans crime scene, but she explores an intriguing new franchise for the serial killer." Sue Grafton For detective Skip Langdon, the murder of a multiple self-help group member is no fun. Even if the guilty character is claiming the mantle last held by the Axeman, a notorious New Orleans serial killer of seventy years ago. Yet as Skip threads her fascinated way from one self-help group to another, she finds she has more in common with the twelve-steppers than just the murder. And she knows what they do not: that among their anonymous numbers is a deadly murderous, and dangerously attractive -- psychopath.... From the Paperback edition.

When the smiling King of Carnival is killed at Mardi Gras, policewoman Skip Langdon is on the case. She knows the upper-crust family of the victim and that it hides more than its share of glittering skeletons. But nothing could prepare her for the tangled web of clues and ancient secrets that would mean danger for her--and doom for the St. Amants.... "Smith is a gifted writer." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

"A first-rate tingler." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Attorney and exotic fish fancier Rebecca Schwartz would love to relax in picturesque Monterey, California, with her friend Marty. But when Marty''s boss, the woman who''s been sleeping with her husband, is found dead in a giant tank and the aquarium where Marty works, she looks sunk. Rebecca takes on her friend''s case, and has some serious clue-harpooning to do. As she swims closer to the line, her friend looks more and more guilty, and Rebecca begins to wish she had just gone fishing....