Smith, Julie [Rebecca Schwartz series #1], (Death Turns a Trick [hc, Walker & Co. 1982] 978-0802754820 [pb, Booksbnimble, 2020] 978-0999813195 [Young San Francisco lawyer Rebecca Schwartz encounters jealous lovers, blackmailed officials, prostitutes, and angry pimps as she attempts to clear her latest boyfriend of the murder of his prostitute sister. – Amazon]
United States · Fiction author
Julie Smith
Julie Smith (born 1944 in Annapolis, Maryland and raised in Savannah, Georgia, she later moved to New Orleans and eventually to San Francisco to pursue a career as a newspaper journalist and a prolific novelist) – She also established a publishing house [“Booksbnimble”] and became a licensed private investigator. She has written over 20 books in various series, including the 5-volume Rebecca Schwartz series. Schwartz describes herself as a “Jewish feminist lawyer”. Smith has not identified herself publicly as Jewish, the Schwartz series notwithstanding. The Jewish aspects of the Schwartz series are centered primarily on the protagonist’s identity and her family life:
Protagonist’s Identity: Rebecca Schwartz is an amateur sleuth and attorney in San Francisco who often leans into her “nice Jewish lawyer” persona, using it as a self-descriptor that blends her professional life with her cultural background.
Family Dynamics: A recurring source of humor and “Jewish content” comes from Rebecca’s interactions with her overbearing mother, which often reflects traditional cultural stereotypes and family drama common in Jewish-American literature.
Cultural Perspective: While the series are “cozy mysteries” primarily focused on crime in San Francisco, Rebecca’s Jewish worldview often colors her observations of the “absurdities of urban life” and her social circle.- [Google/AI and Amazon]
Smith, Julie [Rebecca Schwartz series #2], (The Sourdough Wars [hc, Walker & Co., 1984] 978-0802755896 [mass mkt pb, Ivy Books, 1992] 978-0804109291 [When the heir to the Martinelli family’s renowned sourdough starter is murdered before they were to auction it off, Rebecca Schwartz is determined to discover if he died for a handful of dough. The more she sifts through the tangled relationships of the city’s bread-making dynasties, though, the closer she gets to the recipe for murder. – Amazon]
Smith, Julie [Rebecca Schwartz series #3], (Tourist Trap [hc, Mysterious Press, 1986] 978-0892961627 [pb, Mysterious Press, 1987] 978-0445406407 [Rebecca heads to an Easter morning sunrise service and gets the shock of her life when she sees a real body nailed to the cross. N.B.: She’s there because her boyfriend’s covering the service for the San Francisco Chronicle. The body’s there because someone’s making a statement he doesn’t want the press to miss. Rebecca learns the man was a tourist. And he’s only the first to die. A man identifying himself as the Trapper is out to destroy San Francisco’s tourist trade by killing visitors. But when the cops arrest an innocent man as the Trapper, Rebecca takes on an impossible defense and goes undercover to find a killer. – Amazon]
Smith, Julie [Rebecca Schwartz series #4], (Dead in the Water [mass mkt pb, Fawcett, 1991] 978-0804108553 [hc, Robert Hale & Co. 2005]) 978-0709078449 [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....Amazon]
Smith, Julie [Rebecca Schwartz series #5], (Other People’s Skeletons [mass mkt pb, Fawcett, 1993] 978-804110860 [hc, Five Star, 1999] 978-0786219537 [When Rebecca learns that her best friend and legal partner Chris Nicholson is accused of murder and won’t give an alibi, she gets curious. To her amazement, she finds that her partner has a secret life--and so did the victim, dashing critic Jason McKendrick. For that matter, so does everyone else in the case, causing Rebecca to wonder what planet she’s stumbled onto. One thing she knows with certainty: She has to shake some skeletons from the closets--and fast--or Chris is going to prison.... Amazon]
Note: All 5 volumes of the series are available in a single collection, published only on Kindle.