With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, and family with thrilling results. Evander “Vandy” Myrick became a cop to fulfill her father’s expectations. After her world cratered, she became a private eye to satisfy her own. Now she's back in Queenstown, New Jersey, her childhood home, in search of solace and recovery. It's a small community of nine thousand souls crammed into twelve square miles, fenced by cornfields, warehouses, pharma labs, and tract housing. As a Black woman, privacy is hard to come by in "Q-Town," and worth guarding.
For Vandy, that means working plenty of divorce cases. They’re nasty, lucrative, and fun in an unwholesome way. To keep the cash flowing and expand her local contacts, Vandy agrees to take on a new client, the mayor’s nephew, Leo Hannah. Leo wants Vandy to tail his wife to uncover evidence for a divorce suit. At first the surveillance job seems routine, but Vandy soon realizes there’s trouble beneath the bland surface of the case when a racially charged murder with connections to the Hannah family rocks Q-Town. Fingers point. Clients appear. Opposition to the inquiry hardens. And Vandy’s sight lines begin to blur as her determination to uncover the truth deepens. She’s a minor league PI with few friends and no resources. Logic pegs her chances of solving the case between slim and hell no. But logic isn’t her strong suit. Vandy won’t back off. Click here to head to Amazon, and read below for a bit on the author! MURDER TAKE TWO, my contemporary noir novel, is available now. This suspenseful private eye thriller was published in February 2022. You can get your ebook or print copy of MURDER TAKE TWO now. My new mystery, TROUBLE IN QUEENSTOWN, will be published on July 16, 2024 by Minotaur, the suspense and crime imprint of St. Martin’s Press. This gripping contemporary novel features Vandy Myrick, a Black private investigator who returns to her New Jersey hometown to unravel a twisted family tragedy. Follow me on social media for more on the upcoming publication of TROUBLE IN QUEENSTOWN. My recent work includes three short stories. You can find “Talladega 1925,” in Chicago Quarterly Review #33, an anthology of Black American Literature. Check out Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 for my story, “The Killer.” And my newest short work, “Midnight Confidential,” is included in Midnight Hour, a chilling anthology of crime fiction by authors of color.The new audio versions of Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 and Midnight Hour are exciting ways to dive into my short stories. I am active in Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and Mystery Writers of America. I enjoy hearing from readers. So drop me a question or comment on my website, "www. deliapitts .com." Follow me on Instagram and Threads at "deliapitts50" and on Twitter as "blacktop1950".
0 Comments
This is the fourth time Ivan has joined us, and he is a book club favorite. He provides us with a moment of reprieve from dark and dangerous reads! Please see below for cover art, summary, Ivan's bio and link for purchase. When career minor league baseball player Sam Murdock is released from his team, and his promise to his father to become a major league baseball player goes unfulfilled, it looks like his career has hit the wall. But when a Saint named Chris appears and offers him a chance to play baseball with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, which was his father's favorite team, he jumps at the chance to go back in time. While he is there, he falls in love with a Brooklyn girl who works for the Dodgers. As the summer heats up, so does their relationship and the pair fall in love. When the season ends, Sam is torn between going home, or staying in his new home, with the girl he’s fallen in love with. Click here to head to Amazon, and keep on reading below for the author bio! Ivan Scott's road to being a published author is sometimes as crazy as the stories he writes.
Scott has written ever since he was in elementary school and finally was able to put together three books, all romantic fiction, that look at the romance we have for each other as well as for life. He has Dyslexia, so that is a struggle at times with his writing, but as he tells his two children, whom both have Dyslexia too, "Never use your challenges as an excuse. Use them to achieve greatness." His first book was rejected 303 times, but he didn't take no for an answer and decided to self-publish and has never looked back. Writing the story, formatting it, creating the cover, and doing all the marketing seemed like a daunting task, but as he says, "When you have passion and persistence, nothing is impossible." He lives with his beautifully saucy Redheaded wife, two troublemaking kids, and a Rat Terrier named Beesley in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs. To learn more about Ivan, please visit www.ivanscottbooks.com Rayna York grew up with hippie parents who liked to adventure. Where change was the norm, books were her constant—a way to escape. As an adult, many careers came and went, but writing has always been her passion. Her contemporary, coming-of-age love stories are often inspired by dreams, which she captures in her notebook with barely an eye open. When she’s not hidden away in her writing shack, Rayna enjoys playing pickleball, losing herself in a good book, or watching a movie. See below for cover art, summary, and link for purchase! Six years ago, Serena’s world was turned upside down by a car accident that tore her family apart. Now, only months away from graduation, her sole focus is escaping her small town for a fresh start.
Knox has survived by remaining invisible and taking life one day at a time. But all that changes when a chance encounter with Serena upends his carefully guarded world. As their worlds collide and the ghosts of Knox’s past resurface, more than their bond will be tested. Now, every decision made could be the difference between a future together or facing a reality where neither survives. Click here to head to Amazon! We had a great time discussing a book club that went drastically wrong! Please see below for cover art, summary, Alan's bio and link for purchase. When Izzy O’Brien flees the city centre apartment she shared with her controlling partner, she relocates to the seaside town of Dun Laoghaire, and the house she inherited from her aunt.
Isolated and insecure, Izzy is relieved to be embraced by a tightknit group of female neighbours, who invite her to join their book club. However, the town is not as sleepy as she thinks. And her ex-boyfriend is not ready to let her go. Alan Gorevan is an award-winning thriller writer and intellectual property attorney. He lives in Dublin. Click here to head to Amazon. Check out the social links below as well! Website: https://www.alangorevan.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/alangorevan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alangorevan/ Facebook: fb.me/alan.gorevan.books Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20057559.Alan_Gorevan We will be discussing his important book, Vanished. This is a work of fiction about human trafficking. Though it's fiction, Mark doesn't hold back from tackling this heartbreaking topic.
Bio, cover art and link for purchase are below. We met with Sandra Nikolai on January 26th to discuss her newest paranormal mystery, The Red Hoodie!3/9/2024 Sandra is a regular in the book club. If she publishes a book, she's coming to visit! We had a great time chatting about her fabulous new series! See below for bio, cover art and link for purchase. Mystery author Sandra Nikolai weaves ordinary characters into extraordinary, life-threatening situations, using the premise that evil often lurks in familiar places. Her popular, fast-paced mystery series featuring ghostwriter Megan Scott and investigative reporter Michael Elliott has earned international reviews from fans who love the challenge of solving heart-pounding whodunits with realistic and tightly knit plots. Her Amber McNeil Mystery series features a psychic consultant working with police investigators on cold case files.
A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Sandra grew up in this cosmopolitan city and later moved to Ottawa, capping off a career path in sales, finance, and high tech. Sandra has published a string of short crime stories, winning awards along the way, including an Honourable Mention in the Canadian Writer's Journal short fiction competition. Sandra has been nominated for Favourite Author of the Year at the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Ottawa Awards presented by Faces Magazine. Visit Sandra's website and sign up to receive her latest book news and exclusive offers. Books in the Megan Scott/Michael Elliott Mystery series: False Impressions (Book 1) Fatal Whispers (Book 2) Icy Silence (Book 3) Dark Deeds (Book 4) Broken Trust (Book 5) Cold Revenge (Book 6) Books in the Amber McNeil Mystery series: The Missing Slipper (Book 1) The Red Hoodie (Book 2) Click here to head to Amazon! Chris Frost's first Christmas mystery, The Killer's Christmas List, was just released, and we met with him to talk writing process, new publishing house, and all things murder and mayhem! See below for bio, cover art and link for purchase. By the way, this book isn't available in the US yet, so we got the "royal" treatment from Chris with early release copies from the UK!! Chris Frost grew up in Northern Ireland and now lives in the appropriately-named Marple. He is the author of ten crime books, including the Erika Piper trilogy and The Stonebridge Mysteries. He is a scriptwriter, and a regular voice on The Blood Brothers Podcast and Friends Of The North. He is a fan of football, heavy metal and dogs.
Click here to head to Amazon! Ivan Scott is a book club favorite we keep bringing back to discuss his wonderful romances! Yes, I said romances in the deep, dark den of murder books! We'll always cross over to the light side for Ivan Scott! Please see below for bio, cover art and link for purchase. Ivan Scott's road to being a published author is sometimes as crazy as the stories he writes. Scott has written ever since he was in elementary school and finally was able to put together three books, all romantic fiction, that look at the romance we have for each other as well as for life. He has Dyslexia, so that is a struggle at times with his writing, but as he tells his two children, whom both have Dyslexia too, "Never use your challenges as an excuse. Use them to achieve greatness." His first book was rejected 303 times, but he didn't take no for an answer and decided to self-publish and has never looked back. Writing the story, formatting it, creating the cover, and doing all the marketing seemed like a daunting task, but as he says, "When you have passion and persistence, nothing is impossible." He lives with his beautifully saucy Redheaded wife, two troublemaking kids, and a Rat Terrier named Beesley in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs. To learn more about Ivan, please visit his website. Click here to head to Amazon!
This was our second book club discussion with Lewis, and a bit of a departure for us from crime to western with suspense and some criminal activity. Lewis is a master in the western genre! Experience and knowledge cannot be faked, and Kirts is at expert level! Please see cover art and a link for purchase below. Click here to head to Amazon!
Simon's legal thrillers are brilliant, and Nothing But The Truth is NO exception! Please find his bio, cover art and link for purchase below. Simon Michael, often referred to as “the British John Grisham”, is the author of the best-selling London 1960s Charles Holborne series, featuring his antihero barrister, an East End villain made good but struggling in his West End profession. Simon was published in the UK and the US in the 1980s and returned to writing when he retired from the law in 2016. The Charles Holborne series, The Brief, An Honest Man, The Lighterman, Corrupted, The Waxwork Corpse, Force of Evil and the latest, The Final Shot, have all garnered strong reviews for their authenticity and excitement. Simon’s tales from the Bar and the plots for his novels are based on his criminal practice, his life and that of his own family. Refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, the Michael family arrived in the Port of London in 1492 and remained in the East End for the next 450 years. Simon believes himself to be the only member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple formerly to have been a council labourer, a van driver and a gardener. Once qualified he practised as a barrister for 37 years, working at the Old Bailey and other criminal courts, defending and prosecuting a wide selection of murderers, armed robbers, con artists and other assorted villainy. The era about which he writes, the 1960s, was the “wild west” of British justice, a time when the Krays, the Richardsons and other violent gangs fought for control of London’s organised crime, and the corrupt Metropolitan Police beat up suspects, twisted evidence and took a share of the criminal proceeds. Simon weaves into his thrillers real events of the time, the cases on which he worked, and his unusual family history. If you would like to hear when the next book is out or other Holborne-related news, you may sign up for his newsletter at: http://www.simonmichael.uk/newslettersign-up/ Click here to head to Amazon!
|