One of my goals in 2021 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
I got New Orleans Beat for .25 cents at one of my favorite local used books shop. I chose this Julie Smith book bc it takes place in New Orleans.
Skip Langdon has had to fight for her place in the New Orleans Police Department but she is good at her job and gets results. When she is called to an accidental death of the computer savvy son of an unconventional family, Skip doesn’t believe it is an accident. When she starts to delve into the mysterious world of online communities, Skip finds far more than meets the eye.
This book is seemingly a simple cop mystery book. But it tackled a lot of interesting themes, including interracial dating/relationships, woman in careers usually reserved for men, gay rights and gay parenting, navigating long distance relationships, online communities and relationships of people revolving around online communities. This book is also very dated in a lot of those ideas. Especially revolving around the online communities, this book shows it’s age right away. The mystery was pretty cozy and I really liked that we see other aspects of Skip’s life. She has complex relationships with her on again off again long distance boyfriend, her community, her coworkers, and her best friend who has recently adopted his sister’s children. Skip becomes a defacto aunt to these kids and this responsibility informs some of her life choices. I feel that this book, although outlandish is some story aspects (as you would assume from a cozy mystery), has a lot of emotions and conversations surrounding these relationships that feel very genuine. In my quest to read books about New Orleans, I’m always looking for books that feel like NOLA to me and this book really fit the bill. I really enjoyed how the city is a big part of the story and you get a good feel for the geography and the atmosphere. I do want to back and read the rest of this series, hopefully more in order. I don’t think you can’t read these out of order, tho. New Orleans Beat worked fine as a stand alone. I would recommend this book to readers who like cop mysteries, and especially those with strong female cop characters, those who want to read books set in New Orleans and people who are interested in reading early internet books.
Have you started a mystery series lately? What is your favorite cozy mystery?
This book can be seen in my April Wrap Up.