A Tia Taylor Mystery: The Locked Room by Dr. Shauntey James
A Tia Taylor Mystery: The Locked Room by Dr. Shauntey James
Within an old-fashioned bookstore’s mysterious embrace, the captivating Dr. Raven Johnson, affectionately known as Aunt Ray, and her spirited niece, Tia Taylor, unwittingly become prisoners of a tantalizing enigma. Their predicament unfolds within the confines of a murder mystery locked room event, where the air grows heavy with suspense, and every word exchanged seems fraught with hidden meaning.
With an eerie creak, the ancient key turns in the lock, sealing the room’s entrance behind them and leaving the guests with no option but to confront the mysterious puzzle that looms. The oppressive atmosphere inside the locked room tightens its grip as time passes. Tia must solve the mystery and figure out the truth. Every whisper of the past may hold the key to the present, and the walls seem to pulse with the secrets of those who have crossed their threshold.
In this spellbinding narrative of tension and deduction, Aunt Ray and Tia are led solely by their unwavering determination to break free and, in doing so, rescue Aunt Ray, whose fate hangs in the balance.
https://www.amazon.com/Tia-Taylor-Mystery-Locked-Room/dp/B0CLVM7Q95/
Afro-Bougie Blues: A Collection of Short Fiction by Lauren Wilson
Step into the world of Afro-Bougie Blues and walk in the shoes of different protagonists as they struggle to move through the world. Read how ordinary black women and men develop tenacity when they have to deal with the reality of their choices.
Alexis finally finds love after seventeen years of a lonely existence, but life throws a curveball into her life. Watch as she overcomes the challenge despite her past still looming over her head.
Walk with Rodney, a gulf war veteran who tries to drown the war memories with alcohol. See Bessie, overweight and stuck in life, make a decision that sets her on a journey that transforms her life in ways she never imagined.
Thirteen-year-old Aisha wants answers to her complicated question about love. And this sets her father on the task of reflecting on what the word “love” really means. Listen to Lenore and her sisters recount stories from their father’s life after he succumbs to cancer.
From depression, abortion, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), spousal abuse, addiction, and extramarital affairs to colorism. Each short story takes you on a rollercoaster of emotion as you experience different areas of life narrated from a first-person perspective.
Afro-Bougie Blues is about characters with stories that are relatable because it captures struggles people deal with in everyday life. The author’s captivating prose and incredible storytelling will plunge the reader into fascinating worlds and challenge them to take on new perspectives that in turn inspire, move and entertain.
A great read for anyone who wants to know how people with diverse problems face the toughness of the world they inhabit. How they move forward when the future is uncertain and fortunes change in the blink of an eye, challenging their reality and overcoming it.
“You will find yourself not wanting this book to end.”
Afro-Bougie Blues: A Collection of Short Fiction by Lauren Wilson
Genre: African American contemporary fiction
About the Author
Lauren Wilson is a safety consultant who is occasionally visited by a muse that allows her to write amazing stories. It only happens a few times a year, but it is a wondrous experience. The rest of the time, Lauren evaluates the safety of manufacturing equipment being sent to Europe. The machines are often the size of a room, so she travels frequently.
In her spare time, she is a voracious reader of sci-fi alien encounters, UK historical mysteries, and stories about vampires and werewolves. She’s an online spades player and has a 5-story apartment building dollhouse project that she figures will take her another 10 years to complete. One of their favorite things to do is to drive 4 hours into the Pocono Mountains in PA and visit the Cove Haven couples resort. It’s a long way to go in order to play air hockey, but it’s worth it.
Lauren and her husband, Howard love watching stand-up comedy videos and he has recently started finding online joke videos that they can laugh at together. They have one dog, a pit bull named Petey who is a major bed hog.
You can follow Lauren on her blog and on Facebook by visiting her website for more details, https://www.afrobougieblues.com.
All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel by S. A. Cosby
The new novel from New York Times bestselling and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author S. A. Cosby, one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction.” —Washington Post.
After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county.
Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.
Now, Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish. All while also breaking up backroads bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers.
For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that’s no easy feat. But Charon is Titus’s home and his heart, and he won’t let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him…
Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley
In this highly anticipated sequel to the Edgar award winner Down the River Unto the Sea, Joe King Oliver is entangled in a dangerous case when he’s asked to investigate whether a white nationalist is being unjustly set up.
When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe with an assignment, he’s got no choice but to accept, even if the case is a tough one to stomach. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe Quiller’s been set up and he needs King to see if the charges hold.
This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, to understand Ferris’ skin in the game, and to get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez—no regular girl Friday—the machine King’s up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.
Mosley once again proves himself a “master of craft and narrative” (National Book Foundation) in this carefully plotted mystery that is at once a classic caper, a family saga and an examination of fealty, pride and how deep debt can go.
Her Last Breath by Dan Padavona
Her Last Breath (Wolf Lake Thriller Book 1 of 10 in Series) by Dan Padavona
He’s hunting a psychopath. And now the killer wants him dead.
After he’s shot in the line of duty, Detective Thomas Shepherd returns to Wolf Lake to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Living beside the water, he finds peace…until the body of a missing woman washes up on his shore and the town blames a teenage boy with a history of violence.
Is a killer stalking the sleepy resort village?
Thomas isn’t convinced the teenager committed murder. Challenging a village that wants justice at any cost, he pursues the real killer as evidence mounts against the teenager. If he fails, an innocent boy will go to prison.
Can Thomas clear the boy’s name before he becomes the killer’s next victim?
Ignore The Voices In Your Head by Julius Kane
After leaving his favorite bar, a wild, womanizing advertising executive takes a woman back to his place and immediately regrets it.
Jack begins to hear a strange voice telling him to do horrible things. Initially thinking his house may be haunted, he becomes extremely paranoid after finding out he is being watched by other world beings.
In order to get to the bottom of the aliens’ fascination with him, Jack joins up with a group of misfits who’ve had a few bizarre encounters of their own. After receiving a reliable tip, the group goes into the notorious Dark Entry Forest looking for answers; despite the disappearance of dozens of people who entered before them.
Along the way, they find out their ruined lives are connected by tragedy. Jack and his new friends then get caught in a life-and-death struggle against many powerful forces.
Purchase Ignore The Voices In Your Head by Julius Kane
Explore a new Genre, Survival Fiction blended with Sci-Fi Suspense.
Chapter Excerpt – Ignore The Voices In Your Head
A clear, masculine voice responded. It was the same voice from last night I heard laughing. The same pitch. The same tone. A nervous pain shot through my abdomen. Who the hell was in my house? I stared anxiously down the hall towards my bedroom. The door was partially cracked. I couldn’t remember if that was how I left it. The bathroom door was shut. Did I close it this morning?
I grabbed the biggest knife I saw from my kitchen cutlery set and went to investigate. I intentionally left the front door cracked; just in case I needed to run out fast. I didn’t want to fidget with the doorknob. Cautiously, I searched my bedroom; prepared for some fiending drug addict to jump out at me. The closets and hideaways were clear. I opened the bathroom door; nothing.
“Great!” I was relieved. But I was hearing things. I chalked it up to an overactive imagination. That was my reasoning. That was how I would be able to get through the next hour…the next day…the next week without checking myself into Bellevue.
I hurried to close my front door. I shut and locked my window as well. I didn’t want that giant fur ball sneaking back in. I was hoping nobody got off the elevator and saw Mrs. Toombs’ cat Flandy dead on my living room floor. That would be a huge headache I didn’t need. I grabbed about five trash bags and a pair of work gloves I sometimes used whenever my trash can became extra nasty.
I didn’t know how pet owners disposed of their dead pets in New York, but I was going to throw Flandy into the dumpster out back. She wasn’t my cat. She wasn’t my problem. And that oversized fur ball that killed her didn’t belong to me either. But here I was in the middle of this weird God-knows-what-shit.
( Continued… )
Purchase Ignore The Voices In Your Head by Julius Kane
Explore a new Genre, Survival Fiction blended with Sci-Fi Suspense.
Connect with Julius Kane
Your words can hurt, help or heal. Choose your words wisely. That said, if you love words that paint pictures, implant ideas and whisk you away from the monotony and stress of everyday life, you’re in the right place. If you’re ready to use your imagination, take a journey with me!
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MIAMI BEAT – TV Series Written by Frederica P. Burden
MIAMI BEAT – TV Series Written by Frederica P. Burden
Welcome to Miami! Beneath its sun-kissed beaches and clear blue skies lies a city that truly comes alive when dusk falls. As darkness envelopes the city, Miami nights pulse with tantalizing temptations, drawing even the noblest souls into its seductive depths. For Sidney, this truth is all too real.
Sidney, a young and spirited woman, is not just in Miami to chase her dreams. She has a purpose, a burning ambition, that she guards closely. The tragic loss of her father to police brutality when she was just a child became a turning point, hurling her family into a spiral she is determined to reverse. But as determined as Sidney might be, her heart remains her greatest vulnerability. Torn between two love interests, her choices could either lead to her salvation or her undoing.
Marcus Mystic, the man who has Sidney’s heart, grapples with shadows of his own. His estranged wife, Vondra, blinded by her longing for a love once shared, is relentless. Vondra will do anything, even commit the unspeakable, to reclaim Marcus and the life they once had. Marcus now stands at a crossroads, with choices that not only impact his life but that of Sidney as well. As Police Chief, Mystic is caught in a web of love, ambition, and danger, especially with Vondra posing a constant threat to Sidney’s life.
The story takes a shocking turn when Sidney’s brother, Randy Jr., unveils the dark truths about Marcus Mystic and his unfathomable crimes. Faced with this revelation, Sidney’s heart battles her mind, torn between love and a haunting reality. Can Marcus, despite his newfound authoritative position, sway Sidney before time runs out? Could he be responsible for robbing Sidney of her first love? And where does Sidney’s other suitor stand amidst this chaos? Could he be the key to avenging her father’s untimely demise?
Delve into the enigmatic world of Miami Beat. It’s a tale that meanders through the complex lives of lifelong friends, the deep-rooted corruption within the Police Department, and the devastation it wreaks on unsuspecting families. In the end, some will find redemption, while others will be left with blood on their hands.
TV Series: MIAMI BEAT
Creator: Frederica P. Burden
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
Format: 45-60 min per episode
Production Company: Relentless Media LLC.
MIAMI BEAT – TV Series Written by Frederica P. Burden
Watch a sample: https://youtu.be/3vpCxlHUcwE
THE BOOK SERIES
Miami Beat: The Secret Society by Frederica Burden
Welcome to Miami! When the sun-kissed beaches and clear blue skies fade into the darkness things really heat up. Miami nights give way to tantalizing temptations that can excite and coerce the darkness out of even the best of us.
Sidney is learning this the hard way.
A young, vibrant woman, Sidney is on a mission to pursue her dreams. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Sidney also has a goal and she will stop at nothing to see it through.
Losing her father to police brutality at a very young age became the catalyst in Sidney’s life, setting her family on a spiral that she desperately tries to end. Once an Explorer in the police department, she learned a great deal about law enforcement, which she intends to use to bring her father’s killers to justice.
The only thing standing in her way is her heart. There are two love interests in Sidney’s life and she’s forced to choose.
Will her choice lead to happiness or her destruction?
Purchase your copy of Miami Beat: The Secret Society at https://a.co/d/dGRUrBv
Murder: Secrets Among Colleagues by Dr. Shauntey James
Murder: Secrets Among Colleagues by Dr. Shauntey James
Prestigious faculty members at Mill Run University vie for a position to work on a national grant that will make a difference in all their careers. Secrets, lies, and cutthroat resentment stemming from graduate school dominate tenuous relationships between faculty, administration, and students, especially as tensions rise with an impending sexual misconduct hearing.
What length will a faculty member go to gain membership on the research team, earn tenure, achieve higher status, or even cover up a secret?
Is murder the only viable option?
Who can be trusted? Who is telling the truth? And how does one’s past impact future goals? See if you can figure out who has the motive to kill.
About Dr. Shauntey James
Dr. Shauntey James received her Ph.D. from Western Michigan University in 2000 in sociology with an emphasis in criminology, criminal justice, and feminist theory. Dr. James received her J.D. in 2014 from Thomas Cooley Law School. In law school, Dr. James was on the National Mock Trial Team, became certified in mediation, and worked in the Ingham County Probate Court and Estate Planning Clinic. Her teaching experience has enabled her to present on the local, state, and national level. Her most distinguished honor was being an Oxford Round Table Delegate. Presently, her research focuses on women, gender identification, and sexual assault.
My Government Means to Kill Me: A Novel by Rasheed Newson
The debut novel from television WRITER/PRODUCER OF THE CHI, NARCOS, and BEL-AIR tells a fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story following the personal and political awakening of a young, gay, Black man in 1980s New York City.
“Consistently engrossing.” —New York Times Book Review
“Full of joy and righteous anger, sex and straight talk, brilliant storytelling and humor… A spectacularly researched Dickensian tale with vibrant characters and dozens of famous cameos, it is precisely the book we’ve needed for a long time.” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Earl “Trey” Singleton III arrives in New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, at 17, he is ready to leave his overbearing parents and their expectations behind.
In the city, Trey meets up with a cast of characters that changes his life forever. He volunteers at a renegade home hospice for AIDS patients, and after being put to the test by gay rights activists, becomes a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). Along the way Trey attempts to navigate past traumas and searches for ways to maintain familial relationships—all while seeking the meaning of life amid so much death.
Vibrant, humorous, and fraught with entanglements, Rasheed Newson’s My Government Means to Kill Me is an exhilarating, fast-paced coming-of-age story that lends itself to a larger discussion about what it means for a young gay Black man in the mid-1980s to come to terms with his role in the midst of a political and social reckoning.
National Security by Matt Sloane
National Security (Vince Carver Spy Thriller Book 1) by Matt Sloane
Vince Carver left the CIA with a dead friend and a close call.
So much for so-called intelligence work. No longer knowing what he was fighting for, Carver switched to the private sector and swore he’d never go back. Armed with the elite skills of a special operator, he now leads a team of security specialists far from the battlefield.
Everything changes when his convoy is ambushed on American soil.
The three-letter agencies all want a piece of him, and the CIA is front and center. His client, a semiconductor billionaire, may be selling secrets to the Chinese. As his bodyguard, Carver is the asset best placed to uncover the plot, and he begrudgingly commutes to Taipei for one last mission.
Soon he’s embedded in a world of slick intrigue and fast lies.
Carver is pitted against a resident security team led by a beautiful and enigmatic woman, but she’s far from the only one keeping secrets. When foreign agents gun for him, old doubts resurface, and not even the CIA is above suspicion.
Carver rediscovers his drive to fight.
He may be guarding secrets vital to US national security, but he’s a private contractor to the bone. This is Carver’s show, and he knows the key to a timeless truth. When best-laid plans fall by the wayside, nothing can replace the indifferent precision of a man with a gun.
National Security by Matt Sloane is stunningly real. A debut espionage thriller packed with intrigue, spycraft, and blistering action. From high-stakes business deals in Taipei to a strategic installation nestled in America’s Appalachians, this instant classic doesn’t stop to breathe until the last page.
Recommended for fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp, Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath.
One Blood: A Novel by Denene Millner
One Blood: A Novel by Denene Millner
https://a.co/d/4Wh9zli
Inspired by her own adoption journey, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Denene Millner delivers a symphonic and emotionally transfixing epic set in pivotal moments in American history about three women with an indomitable spirit.
ONE BLOOD. THREE GENERATIONS OF WOMEN, LEGACY, AND SURVIVAL.
Join New York Times bestselling author Denene Millner as she explores the lives of three generations of women tied together by love, hope, dreams, ambition…and family secrets in this epic novel.
Meet Grace: raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her grandmother. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie―a woman who firmly left behind her Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Feeling like a fish out of water in the high society world filled with fancy teas and coveted debutante balls, Grace’s only place of comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society’s grand dames.
Meet Delores: beautiful, intelligent and fierce, Delores a.k.a. Lolo has never had it easy. Once she makes it north, she puts aside her dream of being a model to do what she has to do to survive as a woman with little money and no mooring: get married and have a family of her own. When secrets start to spill out and she and her family slowly begin to unravel, Lolo is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her dream intact and those she loves together.
Meet Rae: when Lolo’s headstrong daughter, Rae discovers that she is adopted, it’s just one secret among others that her family is keeping. When Rae finds out that she’s about to become a mother herself, she knows that there is an important reckoning that must be faced about herself and her two mothers.
Potent, poetic, powerful, told with deep love, and spanning from the Great Migration to the civil unrest of the 1960s to the quest for women’s equality in early 2000s, Denene Millner’s beautifully wrought novel explores three women’s intimate, and often complicated, struggle with what it truly means to be family.
Purchase One Blood here: https://a.co/d/2oeyw61
https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/one-blood/
Razorblade Tears: A Novel by S. A. Cosby
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.
The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.
Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father’s criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
Provocative and fast-paced, S. A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears is a story of bloody retribution, heartfelt change – and maybe even redemption.
One of Barack Obama’s Recommended Reads for Summer • New York Times Notable Book • NPR’s Best Books • Washington Post’s Best Thriller and Mystery Books of the Year • TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books
Stella Knox FBI Mystery Series by Mary Stone
Killer Smile (Stella Knox FBI Mystery Series Book 1) by Mary Stone
If looks can kill, a smile can be deadly.
Special Agent Stella Knox became an FBI agent to find the dirty cops responsible for her father’s murder and make them pay. But fresh out of Quantico, her first case has her seeking justice for a different victim—three of them, in fact.
The bodies of three teenage boys have turned up in a sleepy town outside of Nashville, TN. There’re no fingerprints, no DNA, and very little to connect the murders, except for a smiley face drawn in blood near two of the bodies. But why only two? The case makes zero sense, and the questions outnumber the answers.
Are the crimes related? Could it be the work of one calculating serial killer, or are they looking for three separate assailants?
One thing Stella knows for sure: someone is threatening the teenagers of small-town Cherry Farms, and they aren’t finished. As she and the team race against the clock to stop the nightmare that has descended upon this rural community, Stella has one more question…who will be next?
Enigmatic and gripping, Killer Smile is the first book in the new Stella Knox Series by bestselling author Mary Stone and Stacy O’Hare—a nail-biter that will make you wonder just how safe small towns really are.
Sweet Baby Mine by Maria Daversa
“My whole life I’ve wanted someone to believe in me, to believe I was worthy of love. I never thought that someone would be me.”
~Quote from Sweet Baby Mine
“Why is it all the bad things we’ve done in the past never stay in the past?”
Ana will do anything to hold on to Tony. He’s the love of her life–the Heathcliff to her Catherine, the Rivera to her Kahlo, the Sid to her Nancy. Without him, she’s nothing.
But Ana also has a secret–a youthful indiscretion that shouldn’t have happened. So, when her estranged daughter, Chloe, calls in the middle of the night to say she wants to come home, Ana finds herself caught in a web of deceit as mother and daughter share a secret so troubling it could destroy her marriage.
Set in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, Sweet Baby Mine is an adult coming of age tale about the collateral damage left behind when a marriage fails spectacularly. Told in real time and from the perspectives of the two main characters: Ana and Tony, the story documents the toll secrets, lies, betrayals, and mental illness can have on a couple who once believed they’d found in each other true love.
The tale is brutal, oftentimes heartbreaking, but always hopeful as it never deviates from its message. On the road to self-discovery, you will eventually learn that no matter what anyone says—no matter what flawed message you believed about yourself growing up, you are a good person and deserving of love.
A dark psychological drama, Sweet Baby Mine is unputdownable.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Octavia E. Butler meets Marvel’s Black Panther in The Deep, a story rich with Afrofuturism, folklore, and the power of memory, inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
The Deep is “a tour de force reorientation of the storytelling gaze…a superb, multilayered work,” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and a vividly original and uniquely affecting story inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping.
The Perfect Stranger by Charlotte Byrd
The Perfect Stranger (5 Book Series) by Charlotte Byrd
From USA Today Bestselling Author Charlotte Byrd comes a twisted dark second-chance romance about a secret billionaire, second-chances and escaped prisoner identities.
After a few bad relationships, I have given up on love until a man from my past shows up on my doorstep and puts a knife to my throat. He doesn’t want me to know his real identity because then I would get involved and try to protect him. What I don’t yet know is that taking this chance will lead me to an adventure of a lifetime and a love that I will never forget. But what happens when the authorities start to close in? What if we can’t prove his innocence?
****
A man breaks into my home and puts a knife to my throat. Who is he? What does he want? He takes a step closer and I realize that I know him. I haven’t seen him in years but I’ve never stopped thinking about him.
He is dark, rich and powerful and he has a secret. Anger rushes through me.
Who does he think he is coming here? But when I open my mouth to yell at him, our lips touch and I can’t pull away…
Young love doesn’t last forever but neither of us ever forgot each other. What I didn’t know, however, was that he had spent the last few years serving time for a murder he didn’t commit. He found a way to escape from prison and came to see me, the one person who could help. But what if I can’t?
From 1.5+ million books bestselling author Charlotte Byrd comes an extra steamy romance featuring forbidden love, second-chances, and secret billionaire identity. This complete series ends with a happily ever after.
The Violin Conspiracy: A Novel by Brendan Slocumb
Ray McMillian is a Black classical musician on the rise—undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world—when a shocking theft sends him on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place.
Without it, Ray feels like he’s lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
The Woman in My Home by Kerry Fisher
I was starting to believe it might be my turn for the fairy tale. A man who adored me, someone to return to at the end of the day and to share my life with. And Rebecca. Capable, reliable Rebecca who could help me to manage my busy home…
Finally, Cath has met someone: a man she loves, Robin, and who adores her in return. And after years of managing fine on her own, running a successful business, raising her son, and caring for her elderly mother, she feels she deserves some happiness. And who better to provide it than charming, fun-loving Robin?
She expected everyone to be delighted for her. But her friends and family are suspicious of Robin. And Rebecca, a desperate single mother who Cath has hired as a live-in housekeeper, doesn’t trust him either. He’s too slick, he’s too perfect and it all happened too fast… how well does Cath really know him?
Cath is used to taking care of herself; she’s nobody’s fool. But when things start to go wrong in the house that’s been her haven for all these years, she’s forced to ask herself whether the man she loves is really what he seems… And having let Rebecca in to every part of her life, is Cath ready to face the secrets she might find there?
From the Amazon charts bestselling author of The Silent Wife and The Woman I Was Before, The Woman in My Home is a gripping read about family secrets and lies. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.
They Can’t Take Your Name: A Novel by Robert Justice
Laced with atmospheric poetry and literature and set in the heart of Denver’s black community, this gripping crime novel pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice—and a crooked detective who wreaks havoc…with deadly consequences.
What happens to a deferred dream—especially when an innocent man’s life hangs in the balance? Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row.
Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother’s Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father’s name. Just as she nears success, it’s announced that Langston will be put to death in thirty days.
In a desperate bid to find freedom for her father, Liza enlists the help of Eli Stone, a jazz club owner she met at the classic Five Points venue, The Roz. Devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, Eli is trying to find solace by reviving the club…while also wrestling with the longing to join her in death.
Everyone has a dream that might come true—but as the dark shadows of the past converge, could Langston, Eli, and Liza be facing a danger that could shatter those dreams forever?
We Lie Here: A Thriller by Rachel Howzell Hall
A woman’s trip home reveals frightening truths in a twisty novel of murder and family secrets by the New York Times bestselling author of And Now She’s Gone and These Toxic Things.
TV writer Yara Gibson’s hometown of Palmdale, California, isn’t her first choice for a vacation. But she’s back to host her parents’ twentieth-anniversary party and find the perfect family mementos for the celebration. Everything is going to plan until Yara receives a disturbing text: I have information that will change your life.
The message is from Felicia Campbell, who claims to be a childhood friend of Yara’s mother. But they’ve been estranged for years—drama best ignored and forgotten. But Yara can’t forget Felicia, who keeps texting, insisting that Yara talk to her “before it’s too late.”
But the next day is already too late for Felicia, whose body is found floating in Lake Palmdale. Before she died, Felicia left Yara a key to a remote lakeside cabin. In the basement are files related to a mysterious tragedy, unsolved since 1998. What secrets was Felicia hiding? How much of what Yara knows about her family has been true?
The deeper Yara digs for answers, the more she fears that Felicia was right. Uncovering the truth about what happened at the cabin all those years ago will change Yara’s life—or end it.
“In We Lie Here, Rachel Howzell Hall gives us a tight, lean, eye-level look at the Gibson family—flawed, normal, abnormal, and each affected by a deadly secret left buried for years—while weaving a page-turning tapestry of dread, cold-blooded murder, and nail-biting tension. What a ride. What a wonderful writer. More, please.” —Tracy Clark, author of the Chicago Mystery series
“Rachel Howzell Hall continues to shatter the boundaries of crime fiction through the sheer force of her indomitable talent.” —S. A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland
Women Lie Men Lie by A. Roy Milligan
Women Lie Men Lie: A Gritty Urban Fiction Novel by A. Roy Milligan
JC is an ex-convict. In a city hit hard with recession, women with money are his new hustle. But when his new gig lands him in a sordid love triangle, will he survive and come out unscathed?
JC is thrust into the perils of a city without prospects. That is, unless he wants to go back to crime and dealing drugs.
Poor and faced with the reality of urban decay, JC needs to find a way out. But recession has a choke hold on the city. Crime, larceny, and street violence are rampant. It seems he doesn’t have a choice until he finds his footing, a means out of the dangers of street life.
JC’s new game is supreme, second to none. He will use his street ways to win the hearts of unsuspecting women. Gullible women with money are his new hustle! A hustle that requires a licentious tongue. One that could pierce the soul and capture any heart.
But for every king of spades there’s a queen in waiting, and Diamond is that queen. She’s JC’s equal in every way. Once JC’s partner in crime, she’s grown to become a woman spoiled by men and riches.
The duos dangerous game, however, soon reaches a crossroads. A steamy love triangle threatens everything they’ve worked for, throwing them into a tangle of deception and sordid lies.
Women Lie Men Lie is an original urban tale plotted and told like none other. Each breath taking page will leave you wondering what’s next!