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Hard-Boiled Chicks
Kid Trombone: A Talba Wallis Mystery Short Story
JAZZ ROYALTY, MEAN STREETS, AND ... MURDER!The troubled heir of a great New Orleans musical legacy has been gunned down. The writer who researched his obituary has met a sudden death. Coincidence?Or did he know too much? The Big Easy’s premier jazz singer, Queenie Feran, thinks there’s more to it than an accidental overdose, and she hires PI and poet Talba Wallis--AKA the Baroness de Pontalba--to uncover the truth. The Baroness rubs elbows with jazz royalty, sounding them out for clues and swaddling the reader in New Orleans ambience, before she takes to the mean streets to uncover the victim’s secret life. WHO WILL LIKE This short story will appeal to fans of Talba, the smart, sassy, African American computer wiz who's also a gifted poet and detective, and Julie Smith’s other New Orleans detective, Skip Langdon. (As well as authors of female PI series like Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, Linda Barnes, and Laura Lippman; and intrepid African-American female protagonists like Jackie Brown, Christie Love, Anita Van Buren on Law and Order, Whoopi Goldberg’s unexpected Bernie Rhodenbarr, not to mention the incomparable Olivia Pope of Scandal.) Bottom Expect a kickass African-American female detective--with the soul of a poet!
- GenresMystery
42 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 13, 2014
11 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Julie Smith
266 books404 followersAuthor of 20 mystery novels and a YA paranormal adventure called BAD GIRL SCHOOL (formerly CURSEBUSTERS!). Nine of the mysteries are about a female New Orleans cop Skip Langdon, five about a San Francisco lawyer named Rebecca Schwartz,two about a struggling mystery writer named Paul Mcdonald (whose fate no one should suffer) and four teaming up Talba Wallis, a private eye with many names, a poetic license, and a smoking computer, with veteran P.I. Eddie Valentino.
In Bad GIRL SCHOOL, a psychic pink-haired teen-age burglar named Reeno gets recruited by a psychotic telepathic cat to pull a job that involves time travel to an ancient Mayan city. Hint:It HAS to be done before 2012!
Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel, that being NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.
Former reporter for the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE and the San Francisco CHRONICLE.
Recently licensed private investigator, and thereon hangs a tale.
Resident of New Orleans, Louisiana
In Bad GIRL SCHOOL, a psychic pink-haired teen-age burglar named Reeno gets recruited by a psychotic telepathic cat to pull a job that involves time travel to an ancient Mayan city. Hint:It HAS to be done before 2012!
Winner of the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel, that being NEW ORLEANS MOURNING.
Former reporter for the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE and the San Francisco CHRONICLE.
Recently licensed private investigator, and thereon hangs a tale.
Resident of New Orleans, Louisiana
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 8, 2017
New Orleans may not be the birthplace of jazz, but it’s the American city that has the closest ties to that distinctive musical style. Edgar-winning author Julie Smith has set a number of her mysteries in the Crescent City, including “Kid Trombone,” a short story featuring P..I. Talba Wallis. Like much of Smith’s work, the local flavor definitely improves the story.
In “Kid Trombone,” Talba is hired by Queenie Feran, a jazz singer who is revered locally as jazz royalty. Queenie wants Talba to find out if her recently deceased ex-husband, who died of an apparent heart attack, was actually murdered. Talba soon learns that the dead husband, a newspaper music critic, was looking into the recent unolved murder of Kid Trombone, a former headliner reduced to playing on street corners and dealing drugs to make a living. Of course, Talba soon figures out the two deaths are connected.
The mystery in “Kid Trombone” isn’t all that compelling, and it comes together fairly easily. Talba’s investigation pretty much resembles a typical one-hour TV cop series episode. She talks to one character who mentions a second character who in turn leads Talba to a third character and so on in pretty much of a straight line until she figures it out. Talba proves to be fairly resourcesful, although her self-proclaimed primary claim to PI fame, her supposed computing skills, aren’t very much in evidence in this story (she can’t figure out the password on the dead reporter’s computer until another character pretty much gives it away). In fact, Talba never really emerges as a very compelling character in the story.
But while the mystery in “Kid Trombone” is fairly routine, the atmosphere and supporting characters are anything but. Author Smith soaks the story in authentic local color, dropping names of real musicians and locales and mixing them with her fictional characters and some rather apt descriptive language, and readers are left for a real feel for a city where musical ability is held in a much higher regard than ordinary wealth or business success. Since there isn’t enough space in this fairly short story for a whole lot of description, the author makes her words count, as when she mentions that Queenie “held [a tuna] sandwich elegantly, between those perfect red-tipped fingers, as if it were something far too precious to eat.”
In the 20 pages or so of “Kid Trombone,” Smith plunks her readers down right in the middle of the French Quarter, watching Talba make her way through the cast of characters. This is a story that simply couldn’t take place anywhere else; in fact, even the ending depends on the unique relationship between the fictional jazz greats in this story and the city. “Kid Trombone” is a good, quick read, ideal for a lunch hour, and it has the added bonus of letting readers think there’s some cool jazz coming from the Kindle screen. This is a story with plenty of sweet notes.
In “Kid Trombone,” Talba is hired by Queenie Feran, a jazz singer who is revered locally as jazz royalty. Queenie wants Talba to find out if her recently deceased ex-husband, who died of an apparent heart attack, was actually murdered. Talba soon learns that the dead husband, a newspaper music critic, was looking into the recent unolved murder of Kid Trombone, a former headliner reduced to playing on street corners and dealing drugs to make a living. Of course, Talba soon figures out the two deaths are connected.
The mystery in “Kid Trombone” isn’t all that compelling, and it comes together fairly easily. Talba’s investigation pretty much resembles a typical one-hour TV cop series episode. She talks to one character who mentions a second character who in turn leads Talba to a third character and so on in pretty much of a straight line until she figures it out. Talba proves to be fairly resourcesful, although her self-proclaimed primary claim to PI fame, her supposed computing skills, aren’t very much in evidence in this story (she can’t figure out the password on the dead reporter’s computer until another character pretty much gives it away). In fact, Talba never really emerges as a very compelling character in the story.
But while the mystery in “Kid Trombone” is fairly routine, the atmosphere and supporting characters are anything but. Author Smith soaks the story in authentic local color, dropping names of real musicians and locales and mixing them with her fictional characters and some rather apt descriptive language, and readers are left for a real feel for a city where musical ability is held in a much higher regard than ordinary wealth or business success. Since there isn’t enough space in this fairly short story for a whole lot of description, the author makes her words count, as when she mentions that Queenie “held [a tuna] sandwich elegantly, between those perfect red-tipped fingers, as if it were something far too precious to eat.”
In the 20 pages or so of “Kid Trombone,” Smith plunks her readers down right in the middle of the French Quarter, watching Talba make her way through the cast of characters. This is a story that simply couldn’t take place anywhere else; in fact, even the ending depends on the unique relationship between the fictional jazz greats in this story and the city. “Kid Trombone” is a good, quick read, ideal for a lunch hour, and it has the added bonus of letting readers think there’s some cool jazz coming from the Kindle screen. This is a story with plenty of sweet notes.
October 20, 2019
Oh Wow! I loved it ❤️
I absolutely love Talba. I know this was a short story but I wasn't ready for it to end. This one is a classic Talba story. She is so good at what she does... even if it winds up being in a round about fashion. Please write some more for her!
I absolutely love Talba. I know this was a short story but I wasn't ready for it to end. This one is a classic Talba story. She is so good at what she does... even if it winds up being in a round about fashion. Please write some more for her!
October 18, 2016
My introduction to the Talba Wallis series, a spinoff from the author's Skip Langdon books with an African-American protagonist. Lots of music, lots of cooking, a nice twist at the end, very New Orleans. Recommended.
July 13, 2015
Finished reading "Kid Trombone" a Talba Wallis Mystery Short Story by @booksbnimble Julie Smith
A good short read learn how Talba works.
A good short read learn how Talba works.
August 26, 2015
Would like more Talba Wallus mysteries!
October 23, 2016
Good NOLA short story
Julie Smith is a good writer, but could not get a really great taste of old New Orleans in this one. Will go back to her full length books.
Julie Smith is a good writer, but could not get a really great taste of old New Orleans in this one. Will go back to her full length books.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews