Showing posts with label POC Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label POC Mystery. Show all posts

Thursday, January 18, 2024

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List (Just Might Be Considered the "Baddie" Version)

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List



Watch Where They Hide
by Tamron Hall
. It’s the second book in her TV journalist, Jordan Manning, series. This time Jordan is going to investigate the disappearance of a stay-at-home mom who recently left her abusive husband to live with her sister. Of course, as a TV journalist, Jordan uses her profession to not only bring awareness to the woman’s disappearance, but to also solve the crime. This comes out on March 12th.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky. This is V. I. Warshawski’s 22nd case. This involve V.I. searching for a friend of her protegee who is later found remote house. Drugs are involved. The FBI is involved. Classic V.I. going after the bigwigs of Chicago. This comes out April 16th.



Circle in the Water
by Marcia Muller
. This is Sharon McCone’s 36th case. This has Sharon requested to solve a string of pranks surrounding occupants of an elite and wealthy neighborhood. What McCone finds throughout her search is not only murder, but a meth lab. So, what’s really going on in this neighborhood. This releases April 23th.

Forget me Never by Susan Wittig Albert. After about a three year break, Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles is back with her 29th investigation. As I’m writing this, there isn’t much information available on what the book is about (unless you scoured through the authors blog), but according to Amazon it is slated to release on May 29th. My only hope is that Albert is back to giving China a murderous crime to solve. Because, though I love all the ghost and New Age stuff, I really with the stories would go back to being these small-town high stake murder affairs.



Truth Be Told
by Patricia Raybon
. This is the third book in Raybon’s Annalee Spain mystery series. Taking us back to 1924, amateur detective and once schoolteacher, Annalee Spain, is going to be involved with a political-centric type murder mystery. This I due out on June 11th.

A Lethal Lady by Nekesa Afia. Book three in Afia’s Harlem Renaissance Mystery is due out July 30th. We’re back into the mind of her main character, Louise Lloyd, who thought trading Harlem for Paris would avail her of solving murders. Evidently, she’s dead wrong.

"2024 New Release Mystery Book Baddies I'm Looking Forward To," said the Zebra in the Blue Shirt.


 

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Adding Library Books to my Handy Library App

Had to update my Handy Library app. I saw so many books at the library the other day that I was interested in checking out in the future. Many of them are mystery novels written by Black writers. So that's exciting. 

Nevertheless, I had to fight off the temptation to check them all out. Have to keep reminding myself that I can't read everything all at once. LOL. But I'm excited to explore a lot of these new books, mostly by authors I'm new to myself.







Saturday, December 23, 2023

New Reading Journal & MORE Tracy Clark

Baby, it's 6:12pm and I am making it happen. I'm 100 pages into Tracy Clark's second Harriet Foster Thriller, Fall. This one has my full attention, without a doubt. The story centers around the mayor of Chicago (fictional, I might add) and a group of aldermen who conspired to commit a crime. A co-conspirator took the fall and was recently released from prison. All of a sudden, the others are getting killed. One strange thing about their murders is that dimes were placed without bodies. 

Harriet Foster's police procedural is woven with that of the numbered criminals surrounding the crime as well. The question is: whodunit? I'll save those ideas for later; I've got to keep reading during vacation.


Meanwhile, I've just closed out my original reading journal that I started in March of 2022 and came prepared with my new (again Sailor Moon-themed) journal. Overall, I'm having fun at home with my candles, wax warmers, coffee, double-layered socks, and blanket. With groceries in the house and bills paid, you can’t tell me a thing. I live for moments like this where I can just relax, be content, and read my books without worrying about where I need to be the day after and what I need to do. My time is my own. And… well… books own my time as well.

And I’m cool with that.

Let the vacation (and PlayStation 5 later this evening) continue. I honestly think I’m going to target another 50 pages of Fall by Tracy Clark. I see that happening tonight… along with another bite of this monster...






Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Vanille Caught Something New Today



"Little Caribbean, Brooklyn, New York: Lyndsay Murray is opening Spice Isle Bakery with her family, and it’s everything she’s ever wanted. The West Indian bakery is her way to give back to the community she loves, stay connected to her Grenadian roots, and work side-by-side with her family. The only thing getting a rise out of Lyndsay is Claudio Fabrizi, a disgruntled fellow bakery owner who does not want any competition.

On opening day, he comes into the bakery threatening to shut them down. Fed up, Lyndsay takes him to task in front of what seems to be the whole neighborhood. So when Claudio turns up dead a day later―murdered―Lyndsay is unfortunately the prime suspect. To get the scent of suspicion off her and her bakery, Lyndsay has to prove she’s innocent―under the watchful eyes of her overprotective brother, anxious parents, and meddlesome extended family―what could go wrong?"

Author Olivia Matthew's NEW RELEASE is out TODAY. You can grab a copy on Amazon (affiliate link) HERE

I have a lotttttt of new releases to catch up on. Boy, I tell ya. Life of a bibliophile.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Two New #Blackmysteries Launching Within the Coming Weeks

Just a general heads up since we’re talking about Black women writing mysteries–per my last post on Tracy Clark. We have two pieces coming up in the first two months of 2023 (that I am aware of now).


Patricia Sargeant is writing as Olivia Matthews in another new series centered around baking pastries with a West Indian flare down to the Brooklyn streets. The first book in the series is Against the Currant: A Spice Isle Bakery Mystery. It’s due out January 24th, with a follow-up called Hard Dough Homicide coming in May 2023. So Matthews is not playing, honey. And I live for the back-to-back releases. Matthews is coming for the cozy field, as it appears this new series will share in all its West Indian culture and flavor. 

As a matter of fact, culture and taste were two things I found missing in the first book of her previous series. I have yet to read the second book, but I hope to get to it soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Matthew's new (dare I say "daring") series. Many times authors such as Matthews have to either remove or water down cultural references and themes in their work. So this is Matthew saying to the cozy field: NOT TODAY, SATAN. NOT TODAY! That aside, my pre-order is in. Read Matthew's Sister Lou series if you can.




Author Patricia Raybon is back with her 1920s historical fiction-themed series featuring ex-college professor Annalee Spain. Double the Lies will release on February 7th of 2023. Despite my flurry of criticisms about the first book, I look forward to buying this one upon release. 

And such a treat this series is because you hardly EVER find a mystery series that takes place in the flapper days with a black woman in the lead. Like, NEVER. Go to the bookstore and see what I'm talking about! Anyway, how absolutely BOLD this cover is. The feeling I get knowing Raybon and Annalee Spain is COMING for the girls this season does my heart good. Can’t wait to get my hands on this one, too. With, of course, the hopes the author improves on her plotting and not rely on traditional mystery tropes to tell her story.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Tracy Clark's New Series Book Release Has Arrived

"When a young red-haired woman is found brutally murdered in downtown Chicago, one detail stands out: the red lipstick encircling her wrists and ankles.

Detective Harriet Foster is on the case, even though she’s still grieving the sudden death of her partner. As a Black woman in a male-dominated department, Foster anticipates a rocky road ahead acclimating to a new team―and building trust with her new partner isn’t coming easily.

After another victim turns up with the same lipstick markings, Foster suspects she’s looking for a serial killer. Through a tip from a psychiatrist, Foster learns about Bodie Morgan: a troubled man with a twisted past and a penchant for pretty young redheads with the bluest eyes. As Foster wades into Morgan’s sinister history, the killer continues their gruesome assault on Chicago’s streets.

In her desperate race to catch the murderer before they strike again, Foster will have to confront the darkest of secrets―including her own."

Unfortunately, 2022 didn't bless us with another Cass Raines book from mystery writer Tracy Clark. I suppose it's still being determined if the series will be complete (looks like Clark changed publishers or something) after the fourth book, Runner, was released in the summer of 2021. Cass Raines was one of few private investigator black woman characters in the overall genre; naturally, I have concerns about whether she should vacate the field. Nevertheless, Cass's "mother," Tracy Clark, is launching in 2023 with a new series featuring a new character/voice in the form of a Black woman detective named Harriet Foster. Apparently, Tracy Clark is shifting from the private eye to the law enforcement narrative. And guess what? I’m down for the ride! I just got my newly released copy of Harriet Foster’s first book, Hide. With–and get this–with the second book in the series (Fall) releasing later this year in December.


Now the issue is pulling myself out of a jagged reading slump to reclaim all the readings that I… well… I’ll stop here…

Regardless, I always show my support by buying books and going from there. I am a borderline book hoarder at this point. But I forgot to care.

Happy New (NEW) Release, Tracy Clark. Detective Harriet Foster is officially here. (Though I still want to know what is the future of Cass Raines.)

For more on Cass Raines and author Tracy Clark, click on the Labels below!

Friday, September 2, 2022

#WEEKENDREADS: Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older

In all my latest desires to dive back into reading urban fantasy, I've finally fallen onto my copy of Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel Jose Older. It's the first book in this Bone Street Rumba series (two other books were released), featuring the first-person narrative of a Puerto Rican man named Carlos Delacruz. Carlos is half-dead. Or what they call an inbetweener. He works for an organization called Council of the Dead. I'm going to spare you and myself in trying to round out and encapsulate what each "inbetweener" and "Council of the Dead" conceive of. Just know Carlos is like an agent of sorts ushered out to put a stop to supernatural problems. In the case of the first book, he has to stop a sorcerer who is also an inbetweener. As well as put a stop to a slew of ngks attacks. Ngks are a phylum of imps. Only they cause plagues and a host of other fatal disturbances. When we’re first introduced to one, it’s actually rather creepy.

I’m 100 pages into the book and, while I don’t follow 100% with the story, I’m enjoying this book a lot more than I thought I would. I was hesitant over the years, but Half-Resurrection Blues is winning me over so far. Placing some of the issues I have so far aside, I think I like the voice of Carlos. There’s a bit of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins in it–to a degree (I stress “degree”). Carlos is smooth and charismatic. Though, most of all, he cusses. With him in the lead, the story just kind of propels and glides me forward. Even and despite the work it takes to understand and conceive the urban fantasy landscape the author has built. Now in terms of urban fantasy, Carlos is obviously in the minority as a male protagonist and triple as a man of color. And can't I express how MUCH I appreciate a voice similar in likeness to my own. Call it swag or vernacular or whatever. I just appreciate it and it is what’s largely keeping me engaged.

Still got 226 pages left to see how much happens. And, of course, I’ll always be the first to drop out and say if and why something doesn’t work. But as of now, this is my #WEEKEND READ.


Friday, August 26, 2022

Just a Reminder: Shanora Williams...

 ... Lastest pyschologically thriller, The Wife Before, has been out. I'm late to have gotten my copy, but I have it (can't keep up with everything, man). The synopsis reads as (according to Amazon)...

"Samira Wilder has never had it easy, and when her latest lousy job goes south, things only promise to get harder. Until she unexpectedly meets a man who will change her life forever. Renowned pro golfer Roland Graham is wealthy, handsome, and caring, and Samira is dazzled. Best of all, he seems to understand her better than anyone ever has. And though their relationship moves a bit fast, when Roland proposes, Samira accepts. She even agrees to relocate to his secluded Colorado mansion. After all, there’s nothing to keep her in Miami, and the mansion clearly makes him happy. Soon, they are married amid a media firestorm, and Samira can't wait to make a fresh start—as the second Mrs. Graham . . .

Samira settles into the mansion, blissfully happy—until she discovers long-hidden journals belonging to Roland’s late wife, Melanie, who died in a tragic accident. With each dusty page, Samira comes to realize that perhaps it was no accident at all—that perhaps her perfect husband is not as perfect as she thought. Even as her trust in Roland begins to dwindle and a shadow falls over her marriage and she begins to fear for her own life, Samira is determined to uncover the truth of Melanie’s troubled last days. But even good wives should know that the truth is not always what it seems . . ."
It's giving Daphne du Maurier Rebecca vibes–though possibly the Black version. Regardless, if it's anything like her last book, The Perfect Ruin, I know it'll be goooooooooodddddddddd.


Sunday, August 7, 2022

Author Nadine Matheson is back with Inspector Anjelica Henley #2

Here we are a year later with the second Inspector Anjelica Henley book, The Binding Room, by UK author, Nadine Matheson. The book came out a few weeks ago in July, but right on time as it follows up Anjelica’s story post the first book, The Jigsaw Man.


Taken from Amazon:

Detective Anjelica Henley confronts a series of ritualistic murders in this heart-pounding thriller about race, power and the corrupt institutions that threaten us

When Detective Anjelica Henley is called to investigate the murder of a popular preacher in his own church, she discovers a second victim, tortured and tied to a bed in an upstairs room. He is alive, but barely, and his body shows signs of a dark religious ritual.

With a revolving list of suspects and the media spotlight firmly on her, Henley is left with more questions than answers as she attempts to untangle both crimes. But when another body appears, the case takes on a new urgency. Unless she can apprehend the killer, the next victim may just be Henley herself.




Tuesday, June 7, 2022

A Super Rare #BlackMystery Book

 

This 1974 gem came in the mail today. I’ve been hunting it down for about five months now, unable to commit to the usual $79-$100 price tag this sucker usually costs on second-hand sites. Somehow. Somewhere. In the world of dreams and fantasies, I managed to find this rarity on Thriftbooks.com for only $15. You know I grabbed this thing sooooooo FAST. Anyway, as contained within the cover art, the book is called Good Girls Don’t Get Murdered by Percy Spurlark Parker It’s about a woman seeking help from a black man named Bull. When she is found murdered, the police aim their investigation upon Bull who, of course, sets about traversing the local community to clear his name. I can’t speak too much of the commentary expressed in the work (considering I haven’t read it yet), but I’m certain it’s there for me to speak on in the future. Anyway, the point of today is to celebrate having obtained a copy of this book. The joy. The joy. The freakin’ JOY!

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Somebody said: “Birthday, Coupons, and Credit Card Reward Points.”

And I said: “Buy them STORES OUT!”

Recent acquisitions to slightly satiate my appreciation for reading (and buying books). I've been in a particular cozy kick lately. Or, in fact, desire to get back into reading cozies. It seems I haven't read a few in a hot minute. Heck, I didn't even pick up the Mrs. Jeffries series by Emily Brightwell last year. And, double heck, I didn't read cozies through December. I'm feeling those pangs. Additionally, having finished reading The Wheel of Time in November, I spent about a month and a half recovering from that experience. Now, I craze some more high fantasy goodness. Luckily, Tanya Huff and Mercedes Lackey have been somewhat handling that deal. Nonetheless, these are the books I spent the weekend doing what I love best (digging underneath stacks) acquiring…



1.  Black No More by George S. Schuyler

2. The Complete Smoke Trilogy by Tanya Huff

3. Pride, Prejudice, and Peril by Katie Oliver (kind of curious, but scared of this one)

4. Mrs. Morris and the Ghost of Christmas Past by Traci Wilton (finally decided to give this series another try)

5.  Body and Soul Food by Abby Collette (this lady just KEEPS series going)

6.  The Chuckling Fingers by Mabel Seeley (the 1941 publication date and woman in a trench coat took command)



7. Dead in the Scrub by B.J. Oliphant (an elderly woman rancher solving mysteries sounds like my tea)

8. The Princeton Murders by Ann Waldron

9. He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond (the title alone provides the kick to this British 1980s PI adventure)


Now… the heavy part is finding time to read them. Oh, well!


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