Literature Urban African American Thriller Mystery

Sand Cove is a beautiful secret haven tucked away from the city, entirely off-limits to everyone except for its residents. Sand Cove seems like the picture-perfect place to live, but when Luca Moretti is found dead in his home, FBI agents Tyler and Stanton expose the residents' deepest secrets to find his killer.

Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Ronnie and Ahli have been raised to do the unthinkable to survive. With their father setting up all of their dangerous hits, the two have easily stolen over $200,000 over the years. Still, they feel a void. They want to live normal lives while they still can. Before they can perform their last job, which their father has promised will get them out of the game for good, a prior hit comes back to haunt them. It leaves their father with his throat slit and the girls in fear for their lives. With no money and no safe place to go, the girls have no choice but to agree to do one last hit.

It's a hard knock life for Saucy Sarita Robinson, and the rules of the game are clear: Get yours or get had. When her father gets popped in an armed robbery and her mother turns to drugs, Saucy is left to scratch out a life for herself on the streets of Harlem, and this city-slick vixen refuses to become a victim. Young, hot, and hungry for the spotlight, Saucy uses her assets to get whatever she wants: 128th Street has its own rules, and she knows them well.

Verónica takes a bite of forbidden fruit when she becomes romantically involved with her boss. The one-night fling leaves her pregnant with another man’s child and headed straight to divorce court. Victória can identify with her sister as she, too, harbors a secret love that goes against their strict upbringing. After the sudden death of their mother, Victória enlists the help of her lover to unravel a decade’s worth of deceit. Armed with letters written by their father, the sisters soon find out that deception runs deep, and their time here in America has been based on a lie.

Heir to the infamous DeLuca drug cartel fortune, Angel DeLuca walked away from it all for a normal life - until a wrenching betrayal shattered his belief in anything but saving his family's hard-won legacy. He's come back to lead the DeLuca empire - no matter the cost. But his most dangerous rival is the one woman whose fierce determination he can't resist....

When the police kill her husband in the presence of their young son, Shy McGee becomes a single mother trying to raise boys to men. Her 17-year-old son, Prince, channels his anger into an effort to become king of the streets. Seeing her son try to step up and take his father’s place, Shy has his back. Cherise is Shy’s best friend, but she doesn’t like what she’s seeing lately. Cherise has taught her son, Raequan, only one life lesson: how to run hustles. Now Cherise and Raequan are tired of watching the McGee family prosper while they remain at a standstill.

Anita is a young, strong black woman who made her dreams a reality: the house, the cars, a generous bank account, and a fiancé who was getting ready to go pro. Everything was perfect. She was only a step away from finishing her doctorate when her world was shattered. When Leah’s teenage love Dropp got caught up and sent away for a five-year bid, Brit, a low key hustler, was there to show her that she never had to be alone again. Leah fell hard for Brit, married him, and made a family. But now Dropp is home....

Tall, dark, and handsome best-selling author Xavier Preston thought his nightmare - in the form of Pilar, a fanatical stalker/fan - had finally ended. Little does he know, it’s only beginning. When Xavier met Pilar, he got much more than he bargained for. What started out as an erotic one-night stand quickly turned into a dangerous game of obsession and pain, with both parties playing to win. Then...she simply disappeared.

The Game Don't Change opens with DeMarco Jones' escape from a juvenile detention facility. Successfully evading the law, DeMarco builds his reputation on the streets of Queens as a fearless and charismatic drug hustler. Though he is only 16, women of all ages can't get enough of him. But DeMarco soon finds that he must battle ferociously to maintain his new kingpin status.

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.

Harlem is a beautiful, smart, and funny 17-year-old. She lives in the projects with her drug-addicted parents. Harlem must fend for herself and at times do a little hustling of her own to feed their habit. As if things can’t get worse, Harlem’s world is turned upside down when her mother dies from a drug overdose and her father pulls the ultimate betrayal by prostituting her. Harlem is pushed into an adult world and into the hands of a crime and drug lord named Chief, who gives Harlem every luxury she has ever dreamed of, and more pain and suffering than she can stand.

Born to the game, the younger Santanas found themselves forced to fill their mothers’ shoes after the two sisters were indicted by the feds. Instead of sticking to the blueprints they inherited, they deviated far from the script. The money, power, and respect shot straight to their heads, and they used their status as a weapon. Now, their deadly display of violence and bloodshed has drawn heavy attention and heat to the family name.

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.

After she brought down the Make Money Crew, Newark's most notorious bank-robbing gang, she was able to make peace with the son she never knew. His memory is even starting to feel like a blessing rather than a curse. She and her on-again, off-again husband, Tank, are back on and stronger than ever. But just when she thought she could put away her undercover identity as Queen and just be Naeema, Tank is attacked while out on a job guarding a high-profile celebrity.

Markita “Kita” Jones is a young woman with the world at her fingertips. A high school student with beauty and brains to match, she’s well on her way to Howard University. However, on her 18th birthday, she watches her dreams die during a drive-by shooting that claims the life of her brother. Overnight, Kita transforms from a naïve schoolgirl into a savvy street hustler on a mission to find her brother’s killer. With the help of her best friends, Kenya and Alexis, Kita quickly begins making more money and more enemies than she ever could’ve imagined.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and Caesar King feels weighted to the ground. The Five Families are in complete disarray, and Caesar realizes too late that stepping down was the wrong thing to do. It’s up to him to make the puzzle whole again. But when another war comes to their doorsteps and a past mistake comes back for blood, death rips through the boroughs like a tornado. In the end, there might not be any pieces left to put back together.

Lenny Wells is living his best life as the star football player in high school. It's his senior year, and he is preparing to leave for college in a few months. Everything would be perfect if only his girlfriend, Andrea, would let go and move on with her life. But Andrea has other plans for Lenny and their relationship. She is prepared to do whatever it takes to prove to Lenny that he belongs to her, and nothing and no one will change that.

TV investigative reporter Topher Davis, the only Black journalist on that beat, has exactly three weeks to do one final story before his position is eliminated due to corporate budget cuts. Enlisting the aid of his sister, SFPD Homicide Detective Lynn Sloan, he decides to investigate what the families of Blacks killed by police—and the families of the cops themselves—go through when tragic events like this occur. Instead, they find themselves involved in an ever-expanding mystery as more officers who’ve committed the same offense turn up dead.

Sisters from Trinidad, Violet and Lily have never had much in common. Stunning Lily arrives undocumented in New York and makes her way as a stripper. But Harvard-educated Violet is this close to the perfect assimilated life, thanks to a prestigious job, and her rich bougie fiance.... Until she's wrongly accused of helping a notorious strip-club mogul embezzle millions of his workers' earnings. Violet loses everything - except the determination to get her life back. Now Violet's on his track with the help of his vengeful ex-wife and the Lower East Side Women's Health Clinic's resourceful crew - which includes Lily.

After serving 10 hard years in the joint for armed robbery, JC is ready for some payback. His targets, the three childhood friends - now crimelords - who betrayed him to save themselves, are about to have everything they've worked for ripped right out of their hands.