Synopsis
New Orleans detective Skip Langdon must track down the brutal Axeman--a serial killer who preys on the city's hundreds of twelve-step recovery groups and who will spare anyone in whose home a jazz band is playing on the night of his rampage.

...and very mixed reviews from Amazon readers:

1 star: Dull, uninspiring and shallow, October 29, 1998
Reviewer: A reader from Maryland
This story was painfully boring. But I trudged through it because I figured it had to get better. I was wrong. From beginning to end, the plot is shallow, the characters boring and uninspired, the storyline so linear, and the dialog so completely unrealistic, that this book will probably disgust you for wasting your time to read it. I, for one, was glad when it was over.

5 stars: [email protected] from Massachusetts
I've just discovered Julie Smith and I can't wait to read more of her books. I like mysteries that also offer well written characters and ongoing storylines-detective Skip Langdon is interesting and likeable-a good addition to the line of women detectives. This was a good story with characters I'd like to read about again. New Orleans makes a fun and unusual setting. The story kept me anxiously reading straight through and was intelligent and well written.

I really liked the author's style: the humour is real and there were many moments when I couldn't contain the giggling. However, the end is less funny and describes very upsetting animal cruelty.
It's been a good read though, and I do recommend this book. I may now hunt down the other books in the series, because I do like Skip a lot, hoping there's less animal cruelty in the next books.

Hope the next reader will find this as amusing as I did!