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!

#FridayReads Features the New Tracy Clark Mystery, Runner

Welllllllll, Tracy Clark’s fourth Chicago P.I. Mystery called Runner, featuring our sister Cass Raines, is officially OUT. When I write OUT, I mean OUT! As in me walking out of work for the weekend so I can sit down somewhere (I honestly hope it rains so I can order out as well) and read it over the weekend. This is a series I look forward to for a new release each year, and so far we’re in year four with a hopeful five down the slide.

Seriously, I want this series to be one of those long-running private-eye series where long into the future I can profess how I was a DAY ONE reader. Corny notions, but it’s how I feel.

Evidently, Runner is going to be one of those winter-based chilly kinds of mysteries.

Or, at least according to the blurb, it’s going to be winter in Chicago. Nevertheless, a fifteen-year-old girl has gone missing from her foster home, and her newly recovered addict biological mother taps on our resident P.I., Cass Raines, to find her. Also, following the blub, the fifteen-year-old girl doesn’t want to be located, and Cass’s search slowly reveals the mystery as to why. Oooooo, I hope it’s a good secret. After reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre, I want to read another mystery that is willing to slap my other cheek as that book did.

Anyway, here’s to me walking out of work (courtesy of Stephanie Mills) Friday morning and on into the weekend without a care in the world other than getting to some more Tracy Clark and probably a Terry’s Pizza with a mug of coffee on the side.

Totally random, but I think Clark is due for a green-themed color feature on the fifth book’s cover.

Because there will be a fifth book.

Because I said so, Kensington Publishing Corp.

#FridayReads: Cordelia Gray Has Risen…

Okay. Okay. I told myself to take a minute or two out of Friday to write an updated post–or a #FridayReads deal thing. So, while I sit here at a blank page trying to put an essay down on paper, let me catch readers up on what I have next in mind to read.

Oh, I plan on doing some duel reading (more on the other book later). 50 pages a day. Something like that. Not my usual gig, but I don’t want to lose steam with my second offering…

Therefore, first up is…

The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James. This is the second and final entry in James’s Cordelia Gray detective agency series.

Shamefully, I started this book ten years ago, after reading the wonderfulness of the first book in the series, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. So why am I just now picking up Gray’s second and final mystery?

You want to know the truth? I had a dream about it and, in that dream, I was Cordelia Gray. Blame it on the Benadryl, but I tell you no lies. I laid my ass down one night and dreamt about reading this book, as I, in the dream, was Cordelia Gray solving a mystery involving crows. Maybe that was guilt for not completing this book working through my subconscious.  Yet, needless to say, I took the hint.  Dreaming about unread books has happened to me before.

But just in case, I have to list what made me stop the book ten years ago about a quarter ways through:

1.    As I’ve stated over the years, I can’t stand mysteries involving theatres, movie lots, television sound-stages, scripts, and curtains—basically, entertainment business stuff. Don’t ask me why because I don’t even know why these set-ups annoy me. Nevertheless, in the case of The Skull Beneath the Skin, an actress is receiving poison-pen letters. Heading toward a performance on an island somewhere in Britain, said actress’s husband employed Gray to go undercover as her secretary-companion. Gray’s job is to stealthy find the culprit of these letters before he or she exacts their desired threats upon the actress. Naturally, a pile of bodies will help Gray toward the truth.

2.    I bailed as the chapters moved further away from Gray’s perspective and into others. I’m used to this now from James.  Her mysteries have strength and resonance because of her ability to brighten her characters with personalities, nuance, secrets, and motives (not to dismiss her incredible literary writing qualities applied to her mysteries).  When she hops perspectives, you get first-hand observation to play inference with her mystery-writing game.  But as I’ve always said about James, you MUST read between the lines of her dialogue.  That’s where she can really trip you up.

I GUESS I’M CONSIDERED ACTIVATED NOW

At the time of my initial attempt at the book, I was new to James. I had yet to even start her Adam Dalgliesh series. Which, thankfully, I stand at a six-out-of-fourteen down as of writing this. So I found Skull to be tepid and laborious than my experience with the first Gray mystery.  An Unsuitable Job for a Woman was shorter, and darn-right airtight with its clever mystery and pacing.  Nevertheless, reading the wonderfulness of Dalgliesh has grounded away those regards for James’s work.

And so, ladies and gentleman, that’s why I’m here. It’s finally time to give Cordelia Gray her proper due.  I don’t know why Storm from X-Men came to mind, other than I feel all powerful and activated and ready to handle my business by giving this series a proper closing.  I’m over 50 pages in already and ready to GO!  Only then can I knock on the doors of the eight books I have left in the Dalgliesh series.

(Forgive all spelling and grammatical errors.  I seriously have an essay to write, so I’m making this one quick.)

My #ReadSoulLit Start-Ups

 

So I would start a James Baldwin book the weekend before taking my Grandmother to two specialists the following week. Then the week after is my birthday week, as well as my return to the classroom. Busy little beaver, I suppose. Not the best time to find myself waist deep in Baldwin’s level of immersion and gripping engagement. Yet, I chose to pick up his book, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone. But who am I kidding? It is always the perfect timing for a Baldwin book. As I write this, I am fifty pages in and on my second cup of coffee for the evening. His work is that absorbing; I always want to be alert to his offerings. And here it is about to start raining! The right vibe. The right move. The right night. As I have stated, perfect timing.

I’m halfway through Tammye Huf’s A More Perfect Union. It is the book chosen for the #ReadSoulLit read-along of 2021. So far, I am liking the book. It is a fictionalized retelling of the author’s ancestors’ love story, seeded in a Virginia plantation around 1849. You take a slave named, Sarah, and her Irish immigrant beau named Henry; imagine the peril involved. One thing I enjoy is Henry’s narrative insight into the Irish immigrate experience. I also enjoy the parallel of family pain and trauma both Sarah and Henry share, though the overall illustrations of those shared traumas are fairly “light” (if you will). Nevertheless, their pain is something that draws them to one another. To keep a balance, Sarah and Henry do alternate shifting his or her narrative throughout the book. Yet, there is a third character named Maple that is as desperate to share her painful narrative as well. And an interesting one it is, considering she is the half-sister of the plantation’s mistress.

I should note how the book reads fast. There is a level of “dashing” to the author’s style; she only illustrates so much before we are off to the next scene/moment/chapter. So sometimes I am wanting more, before launching further into the story. Also, there is this restless sensation I am experiencing halfway through the book. I am often left wondering “when is the other shoe going to drop in this story.” Having experienced that before in a book, that is when I know I must step back for a moment and read in pieces. Which is the purpose of a read-along after all.

Last, I have only read the first chapter of A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley. I spent Friday night torn between books I am going to pick up between readings of A More Perfect Union. I am not one to juggle books at one time, though; I need my completeness to move on. Still, I am going easy on myself this month. I figured if I focus on three books, I could do the juggling books thing. Wesley is for sure in the mix, as I take these three books on one day at a time. I wanted to make sure I had a mystery somewhere in the blend, and A Glimmer of Death was right on time.

Speaking of black mystery writers, the last book I finished was Stormy Weather by Paula L. Woods. It is the second book in her Charlotte Justice series. And I am going to tell you all right now: PAULA L WOODS DOES IT FOR MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, BABY!

No lie. I love Paula L. Woods’s work and am now going to order the final two books in her series the second I edit this post. If I find the time and space, I would love to further explain why. But understand she knows how to work a theme, and in Stormy Weather it was “Black Hollywood Royalty”. She also does compelling suspects with his or her own individual story threads very well. When I actually want to see a suspect character come on stage and act out, you’re doing something right with me. Another thing I love about Woods’s work is you can tell she cares about what she is writing about. There is a sense of necessary acknowledgement of the issues she takes on. When it comes to applying commentary to the mystery, Woods is right up there with Barbara Neely in my book.

Anyway, carry on. #ReadSoulLit. Black History 365 days of the year!

Closing On Maxine O'Callaghan's Delilah West Mystery Series

 

#FridayReads & Talking Fictional Women Private-Eyes Heavyweights (How Maxine O'Callaghan Faired?)

 

Early Part of 2021 Reading Plans & Some Maxine O'Callaghan Series Clean Up

 

TWO Up-Coming 2021 Black Mystery Releases…

Naturally, I have these books sprinkled all over my virtual book-buying carts in anticipation.  But just as a friendly reminder, here’s what we all have to look forward to (all links are Amazon/author’s website affiliate)…

Runner (A Chicago Mystery #4) by Tracy Clark

Release Date: June 29, 2021

“Chicago in the dead of winter can be brutal, especially when you’re scouring the frigid streets for a missing girl.  Fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus has run away from her foster home.  Her biological mother, Leesa Evans, is a recovering addict who admits she failed Ramona often in the past.  But now she’s clean.  And she’s determined to make up for her mistakes–if Cass can only help her find her daughter.  

Yet, it seems Ramona doesn’t want to be found.  Ramona is holding secrets dark enough to kill for, and anyone who helps her may be fair game. And if Ramona can’t run fast enough and hide well enough to keep the truth safe, she and Cass may both be out of time.”

I am so, so glad Tracy Clark and her P.I. Cass Raines [see labels] is back.  Four years.  Four books.  And a thousand or so more to go will do me just right.  The only hard part is the wait!  But, as always, I remind myself not to rush life.  Cheers for another Cass book to start the summer off with.

~.~

Murder by Page One: A Peach Coast Library Mystery from Hallmark Publishing by Olivia Matthews

Release Date: March 23, 2021

“Marvey, a librarian, has moved from Brooklyn to a quirky small town in Georgia. When she’s not at the library organizing events for readers, she’s handcrafting book-themed jewelry and looking after her cranky cat. At times, her new life in the South still feels strange…and that’s before the discovery of the dead body in the bookstore.

After one of her friends becomes a suspect, Marvey sets out to solve the murder mystery. She even convinces Spence, the wealthy and charming newspaper owner, to help. With his ties to the community, her talents for research, and her fellow librarians’ knowledge, Marvey pursues the truth. But as she gets closer to it, could she be facing a deadly plot twist?”

So as you can see, this isn’t the official cover art for the book.  But you can bettttttttt I look for an update daily!  Because I can’t wait to see what it looks like.  Anyway, while I most certainly will miss Olivia Matthew’s Sister Lou [see labels] mystery series, I am thoroughly excited that she has a new release coming up.  Can I guarantee you carrots and sticks that this Murder by Page One is going to be good!  Trust me, it will!

Hope you got these in your carts/wishlist/paper lists–WHEREVER.  See you all soon for the next round!

FINALLYYYYY! An Update on Marcia Muller's Next Sharon McCone Mystery

Soooooo, y’all know I take the time every other day to look for new releases from authors I love.  And nothing is more punishing than waiting years between releases.  So I thought Marcia Muller was done with her Sharon McCone P.I. mystery series, after 2018’s release of The Breakers.  Low-key… I was panicking a little about the woman and whether or not she was coming back.  You know, given how we lost Grafton four years ago.  Grafton’s passing was the reason I buckled down in 2018 and read through the entirety of Muller’s McCone series.  And, hell, I finished the series excited for more.  Sooooooooo, here we are YEARS later (and at the tail end of this craziness of 2020) with the announcement of the next Sharon McCone mystery.  I, naturally, just hate to wait until August for it.  UGH!  Anyway, I and many Muller readers finally got our answer in McCone’s 35th case, Ice and Stone.

“Private investigator Sharon McCone goes undercover to investigate the murders of two indigenous women in remote Northern California in this gripping, atmospheric mystery in the New York Times bestselling series.

When two women are brutally murdered in northern California, their deaths are the latest atrocities in a surge of violence targeting indigenous women in the area. Despite all evidence to the contrary, local officials rule the deaths isolated incidents, and they soon join the ranks of other unsolved homicides, quickly forgotten by law enforcement.

Private Investigator Sharon McCone knows better, and so does the organization known as Crimes Against Indigenous Sisters, who hires Sharon to go undercover in Eiwok county, a tiny region on the mountainous Oregon border, to uncover the murderer.

In an isolated cabin in the freezing, treacherous woods, Sharon must unravel a mystery that is rooted in ignorance, profound hatred, and vengeance — before another victim is claimed.”

Amazon affiliate link below:

Ice and Stone (A Sharon McCone Mystery #35)

RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 10, 2021

Me heading to the bookstore come August 10th, 2021:

The 3rd Cass Raines Private-Eye Book is OUT NOW!

“Wealth. Power. Celebrity. Vonda Allen’s glossy vanity magazine has taken the Windy City by storm, and she’s well on her way to building a one-woman media empire. Everybody adores her. Except the people who work for her. And the person who’s sending her flowers with death threats . . .

As Vonda’s bodyguard, off-duty cop Ben Mickerson knows he could use some back-up—and no one fits the bill better than his ex-partner on the police force, Cass Raines. Now a full-time private eye, Cass is reluctant to take the job. She isn’t keen on playing babysitter to a celebrity who’s rumored to be a heartless diva. But as a favor to Ben, she signs on. But when Vonda refuses to say why someone might be after her, and two of her staff turn up dead, Ben and Cass must battle an unknown assailant bent on getting to the great lady herself, before someone else dies.

Cass finds out the hard way just how persistent a threat they face during the first stop on Vonda’s book tour. As fans clamour for her autograph, things take an ugly turn when a mysterious fan shows up with flowers and slashes Ben with a knife. While her ex-partner’s life hangs in the balance, Cass is left to find out what secrets Vonda is keeping, who might want her dead, and how she can bring Ben’s attacker to justice before enemies in the Chicago Police Department try to stop her in her tracks . . .”

What You Don’t See is the third (and I pray to GOD not last) book in Tracy Clark’s Chicago-based private-eye, Cass Raines, mystery series.  Amazon had me wait two days since it’s May 26th release, but I got mine.  Heck, and it’s right on time for the weekend (’cause I ain’t GOT TO WORK!).  

So yes, prowling the streets of Chicago with Cass is pretty much all I need.  That and maybe a DoorDash and Instacart order just to keep me in the house.  Anyway, super excited to start this one!  Black woman private-eye for the complete and UTTER WIN, baby!  Y’all out there know how I getz down.

Call or text me at your own risk.  I may respond.  I may not.  It all depends on how deep I am into my reading of What You Don’t See.