Black History Month: Mystery Recommendations
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
Beauregard âBugâ Montage: husband, father, honest car mechanic. But he was once known - from North Carolina to the beaches of Florida - as the best getaway driver on the East Coast. Just like his father, who disappeared many years ago.
After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles - and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, heâs sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dearâŠ
A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby ColletteÂ
Recent MBA grad Bronwyn Crewse has just taken over her familyâs ice cream shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and sheâs going back to basics. Win is renovating Crewse Creamery to restore its former glory, and filling the menu with delicious, homemade ice cream flavors - many from her grandmotherâs original recipes. But unexpected construction delays mean she misses the summer season, and the shop has a literal cold opening: the day she opens her doors an early first snow descends on the village and keeps the customers away. To make matters worse, that evening, Win finds a body in the snow, and it turns out the dead man was a grifter with an old feud with the Crewse family. Soon, Winâs father is implicated in his death. Itâs not easy to juggle a new-to-her business while solving a crime, but Win is determined to do it. With the help of her quirky best friends and her tight-knit family, sheâll catch the ice cold killer before she has a meltdownâŠ
This is the first volume in the âIce Cream Parlor Mysteryâ series.Â
Blood Grove by Walter Mosley
It is 1969, and flames can be seen on the horizon, protest wafts like smoke though the thick air, and Easy Rawlins, the Black private detective whose small agency finally has its own office, gets a visit from a white Vietnam veteran. The young man comes to Easy with a story that makes little sense. He and his lover, a beautiful young woman, were attacked in a citrus grove at the cityâs outskirts. He may have killed a man, and the woman and his dog are now missing. Inclined to turn down what sounds like nothing but trouble, Easy takes the case when he realizes how damaged the young vet is from his war experiences - the bond between veterans superseding all other considerations.
The veteran is not Easyâs only unlooked-for trouble. Easyâs adopted daughter Featherâs white uncle shows up uninvited, raising questions and unsettling the life Easy has long forged for the now young woman. Where Feather sees a family reunion, Easy suspects something else, something that will break his heart.
This is the 15th volume in the âEasy Rawlinsâ series.Â
American Spy by Lauren WilkinsonÂ
Itâs 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. Sheâs brilliant, but sheâs also a young black woman working in an old boysâ club. Her career has stalled out, sheâs overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when sheâs given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic, revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Thomas is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving over the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects sheâs being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent.
In the year that follows, Marie will observe Thomas, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.
Inspired by true events - Thomas Sankara is known as âAfricaâs Che Guevaraâ - this novel knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War youâve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
When Koredeâs dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows whatâs expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. Thisâll be the third boyfriend Ayoolaâs dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Koredeâs long been in love with him, and isnât prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the otherâŠ
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