Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Death Turns a Trick | 1982 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 2 | The Sourdough Wars | 1984 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 3 | Tourist Trap | 1986 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 4 | Dead in the Water | 1991 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 5 | Other People’s Skeletons | 1993 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 6 | Blood Types | 2014 | Julie Smith | Buy |
| 7 | Cul-de-Sac | 2014 | Julie Smith | Buy |
The Rebecca Schwartz series by Julie Smith was the author’s first mystery series and introduced readers to a San Francisco defense attorney with a knack for stumbling into homicide cases. The series debuted in 1982 with Death Turns a Trick, which is set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s colorful neighborhoods and social scene. Rebecca is smart, funny, and Jewish in a genre that didn’t have many Jewish female leads at the time.
The original five books were published between 1982 and 1993, each dropping Rebecca into a new San Francisco setting with a fresh cast of suspects. After a long hiatus, Smith returned to the character in 2014 with Blood Types and Cul-de-Sac, bringing Rebecca back for readers who had missed her dry humor and sharp observations about life in the Bay Area.