African American Fiction Mystery

On Christmas Eve, 1951 in New Orleans, fifteen-year-old Johnnie Wise is sold into prostitution by her domineering mother, and her dreams of being an Evangelist or nightclub singer like Billie Holiday vanish like the notes of an old song. In her new life, surrounded by powerful men with even more powerful secrets, Johnnie finds that she can use romance with the men that pay to sleep with her to her advantage, and the teenage girl finds herself thrown into a world of wealth, bribery, and cold-blooded gangsters. But, the underbelly of New Orleans in the fifties isn’t without its dangers.

A smash debut novel from rising star Yasmin Angoe, Her Name Is Knight features an elite assassin heroine on a mission to topple a human trafficking ring and avenge her family....

News of the murder sparks fear in the small community of Cherry Creek, and that fear only grows when the arsonist leaves a calling card belonging to a killer everyone believed was long dead. The Dragonfly mysteriously disappeared from the local asylum decades ago, stepping out of existence and into legend. The story draws the attention of Noelle McKenzie, a local author, and she digs into details from the past while Captain Derek Dempsey searches for evidence in the present.

As a painter travels the world and creates his art, he also mourns the death of his queen, his wife. He is secluded from the world and finds an escape through the drawings in his work. Not until he gets an unexpected knock at his door does his life take a drastic turn. The guest presents a problem that traps them inside of a home for 72 hours and this quiet suburban estate becomes the devil’s playground. The painter is then thrown into a psychological game that has twists and turns, which leads to an unforeseeable ending.

“In this terrific series opener, Afia evokes the women’s lives in all their wayward and beautiful glory, especially the abruptness with which their dreams, hopes and fears cease to exist.”--The New York Times The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the Harlem...

Dmytryk Knight was a respectable man who had followed the blueprints for the American Dream: go to college, find the girl of your dreams, get married, buy a house on the affluent side of Detroit. He’d done it all by the book. But when a crippling recession annihilates the auto industry, Dmytryk and his wife, Cora, suddenly find themselves without jobs and in foreclosure. And after two years of taking any job they can find and trying to live honestly, they realize that integrity just doesn’t pay the bills.

Written with the voice and vision that have made Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, "Fear Itself" marks the return of a master at the top of his form...

Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve. Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to...

“I'm obsessed. Die for Me is utterly unique and still at its core about the most universal of stories: about a woman vanquishing fear through love.” —Ali Hazelwood What my eyes are showing me can’t be possible. Can’t be real. Because if they are, then I have to accept that Julian...

Augustus 'Gus' Martin is an embattled LAPD negotiator. Evelyn 'Lynn' Kennedy is the new Police Commissioner hired under curious circumstances. Thrust into an explosive terrorist crisis, they must trust one another to save the lives of over thirty hostages. But as the bodies drop, what they are faced with is a chess match against the most formidable criminal mind either has ever faced. What is really happening and why? Will any hostages survive?

Perfect for fans of Promise Boys, this gripping historical mystery follows a teenager who finds a murdered girl on her family's California beach—a discovery that will reveal the racism rampant in her world. Fifteen-year-old Blue Collins’s parents own the only Black beach in Santa Monica in...

A cinematic, razor-sharp novel following a backlot fixer’s daring investigation into the suspicious death of a closeted Black actor within the glamorous world of Hollywood, from the bestselling author of My Government Means to Kill Me Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars...

When the organizing committee for her upcoming high school reunion needs a caterer, Halia agrees to help out. Soon she's serving up her signature macaroni and cheese and famous chicken wings to a host of appreciative ex-classmates. Some folks have blossomed since graduation. Others, like manipulative Raynell Rollins, currently married to a former football star, haven't changed nearly enough. When Raynell is found dead the morning after the reunion, the role call of possible suspects could fill the school gymnasium. Extramarital affairs, mega-church scandals and sports secrets...

Clay Furlow, NYPD Detective, has a theory about unexplained murders: "Follow the money trail, then read 'em their rights." Hienrich Ressler, a discredited psychiatric researcher, also has a theory: "God didn't make any perfect animals; we all have our own psychosis." The two men match wits in a battle to the death when Clay and his 10-year-old computer genius daughter discover that seemingly random killings are actually the results of an elaborate murder-for-hire scheme.

The third electrifying book in #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline’s Rosato & Associates series has criminal lawyer Marta Richter in a race to prove one man’s innocence. “Lisa Scottoline writes riveting thrillers that keep me up all night, with plots that twist and turn.”--Harlan Coben...

Though battle-wounded and scarred, Raphael has survived the criminal underworld in Benin with the help of the US government. Together with his wife, Essie, and their adoptive son, Kaion, they enjoy a seemingly picture-perfect life. Their harmony is shattered when CIA agent Rhys unexpectedly shows up at their doorstep. No aspect of life comes without a cost, and Raphael soon realizes that even his comfortable existence has a price.

A. C. Arthur presents Book 3 in the Legion series. Contains mature themes.

On the eve of trial, Assistant District Attorney Lainey Abbott gets a disturbing phone call. Her baby sister, Stephanie, who should have been back at her college dorm after visiting for the weekend, never arrived. At first, she isn’t too worried, because she’s a system insider and has plenty of resources available to locate her sister quickly, including Russ Sanders, the police detective she’s been on and off with for years. It’ll take a couple days, tops. They’ll find Steph and give her a piece of their mind for being so irresponsible. But a year later, Stephanie still hasn’t been found.

From Award-winning author Natalie R. Murphy. It has been 5 years since the tragedy of losing her boyfriend to violence and the abduction of their infant daughter turned Mya Stevenson's life upside down. She along with her two best friends, Shantel and Toni, have relocated to the small, up-and-coming town of Jasperville, IL. Now the owner of Pages Bookstore and Cafe in the small downtown area, Mya has moved on with her life, with the exception of love. She has allowed the fear of loving and losing, again, to prevent her from even entertaining the idea of a relationship.

Named a 2022 People Magazine best book of the summer! A riveting Harlem Renaissance Mystery featuring Louise Lloyd, a young Black woman working in a hot new speakeasy when she gets caught up in a murder that hits too close to home... Harlem, 1927. Twenty-seven-year-old Louise Lloyd has found the...