African American Crime Mystery

A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.

Since the night Atlanta mayor, self-made millionaire, and womanizer Jamison Jackson plummeted from the top floor of a downtown hotel, everyone seems to have profited, from vicious criminals to corrupt politicians. Everyone except his jilted first wife Kerry. Once a socialite, she's now the prime suspect in Jamison's alleged murder. But she swears she's no killer - and surprisingly, Jamison's widow Val agrees. For all they know, it was Coreen, the mother of Jamison's secret love child.

From acclaimed author Patricia Hruby Powell comes the story of a landmark civil rights case, told in spare and gorgeous verse. In 1955, in Caroline County, Virginia, amidst segregation and prejudice, injustice and cruelty, two teenagers fell in love. Their life together broke the law, but their determination would change it. Richard and Mildred Loving were at the heart of a Supreme Court case that legalized marriage between races, and a story of the devoted couple who faced discrimination, fought it, and won.

National bestselling authors Kiki Swinson and De'nesha Diamond light it up with two devious tales of players, hustles - and running out of time...

In February 1971, racial tension surrounding school desegregation in Wilmington, North Carolina, culminated in four days of violence and skirmishes between white vigilantes and black residents. The turmoil resulted in two deaths, six injuries, more than $500,000 in damage, and the firebombing of a white-owned store before the National Guard restored uneasy peace. Despite glaring irregularities in the subsequent trial, 10 young persons were convicted of arson and conspiracy and then sentenced to a total of 282 years in prison.

What else is there for two brothers to inherit but a killer hustle when they come from a long line of hard core hustlers? Jason and Darius Jensen find the answer to this question as they learn to grind hard in the streets at a very young age. By chance, a high-level heroin supplier named George partners up with the brothers and loads of money begin falling into their laps. All seems well until a gruesome murder changes Jason's mind about his future.

Evelyn Thomas may have bitten off more than she can chew when it comes to her relationship with Brandon Fletcher. It seems he is trying to clone her into an exact replica of his beloved fiancee, Cassandra, who was brutally murdered. He's also still obsessed with finding Cassandra's killer. When Cassandra's aunt Ruby is arrested for murder, she proclaims her innocence. She points the finger at Jabbar, a police officer who was having a secret affair with Cassandra before her death. Accusations fly and secrets are revealed as Brandon seeks the truth.

Dee Dee is as laid back, sassy, and cute as they come, but having two overprotective brothers like Jay and Bee, who have clout in the Memphis streets, makes finding and building a relationship seriously hazardous to a brother's health. Things move fast for Jay and Bee after hooking up with a new contact. All of the training that Jay was secretly putting Dee Dee through comes into play as Jay and Bee are locked up in the county jail for selling to an informant. The game is dominated by thugs until Dee Dee hits the scene.

With Dylan now dead, Kira has no one else to look to for protection but Nick. Unfortunately for Kira, though, Nick doesn't want that responsibility and makes other plans.

While searching for her brother’s killer, Deondra “Dee Dee” Davis, out of jail on bail, must deal with a ruthless drug lord, the mob-connected Robinson brothers, a hired assassin, and unexpected love - all while eluding Detectives Gary and Perkins, who want nothing more than to see her behind bars.

An extraordinary fiction debut: a large, stirring novel of suspense that is, at the same time, a work of brilliantly astute social observation. Publishers Weekly predicts this "will be the talk of the political in-crowd this summer," and Booklist's starred review calls it "a roman à clef with fascinating insights into the behind-the-scenes machinations of racial and power politics." Don't miss this one!

A former journalist with a knack for unraveling dirty secrets, Khloe Mercer figures if she's going to risk her life, she might as well make big money as a private investigator. But this reckless newbie needs a major case to make her name - and really show she can handle Norfolk, Virginia's toughest streets. When a narcotics detective's widow needs someone to investigate her disgraced husband's so-called suicide, Khloe jumps at the lucrative fee - and the clues that the Norfolk Police Department is rotten from top to bottom.

Security firm CEO David Price is living the rewards of hard work and determination. Single, self-employed, and satisfied with his life, he has it all. Things couldn’t be better. That is, until he meets sexy vixen Sugar Greer - a married woman with a dark history that she must hide, and who he vows to protect. When it’s all over, David and his client are left with blood on their hands. Caught in a web of abuse, theft, and murder, David must get back on the streets to clear his name. It’s a journey that will lead him to One Dead Preacher!

Wilder Frank is a successful Jamerican comedian based in Chicago who suffers from an inherited illness. He leads an upright life and is content bringing laughter to the world, until he falls into a side hustle and loses his identity. Will he find himself? This story offers a peek into the fateful human tendency to never have enough.

Her name is Rochelle, and she is only fifteen when she disappears. Her father is a secret service agent assigned to ex-president William Baron Clarke, and when he asks for help, Clarke calls the most capable tracker he knows: Robert Sand, the only black man to ever attain the rank of samurai. Sand combs the tenements of New York's East Village in search of the girl, finally learning what no father ever wants to hear: Rochelle is in the clutches of Pearl, the meanest pimp in town.

Take a moment and walk in the shoes of a 17-year-old Egyptian girl who was drugged, raped, and turned into a hoe. Meet a young single Black mother who lost her job and needed a way to make ends meet but ended up losing it all. Get to know a White runaway girl who started turning tricks just to eat. The one thing they all had in common was Tmac. He was a smooth monster who hid behind a charming smile.

With the Black Lives Matter movement being widely relevant, hate crimes are on the rise, and Jennifer eyewitnesses the aftermath of Isaiah being shot - at the hands of her fiancé, Robert (on Independence Day). This event changed her life drastically as national headlines covered the “Fourth of July shooting”. With some protesting in Isaiah’s name, and others shaming him, Jennifer feels obligated to make an extremely risky decision.

Southside Gangsters is the only mafia tale untold. The untold story of Chicago’s south side in the 1950s, the story of the black gangsters, the story of the black mob. The wheel games were the best kept money making secret that produced $20,000 a day. The black policy kings, the famous James brothers, controlled it. The James brothers, Frankie and Johnny, were well educated crooks who made their money and kept peace in the streets. Once Johnny was in prison for tax evasion he was persuaded by mob capo, Sam Gianelli to teach him the rackets.

When a teenage girl witnesses a carjacking gone bad, she is marked for death by a crime boss. A lawyer and an enforcer forge an uneasy alliance to protect the girl from a hit man with an agenda of his own. Soon after, Paul Elliott - lawyer and close friend of the witness's family - begins counseling them and becomes entangled in the murder plot. As the long-simmering feud between Rico - the white enforcer - and the hitman John D'Angelo reaches boiling point, bodies start to pile up in rapid succession...and old scores will be settled.

Nan's day is not off to a good start. Her on-again, off-again relationship with Walter is off...again, and when she offers a fellow busker a place to stay for the night he ends up murdered on her kitchen floor. To make matters worse, the busker turns out to have been an undercover cop. And his former partner has taken an immediate and extreme dislike to Nan. When she finds that the dead man stashed a wad of cash in her apartment, cash that could go to help his blind girlfriend, Nan's desire to do the right thing lands her in trouble.