Saturday, October 16, 2010

Black Woman Mystery Writers

Number 28


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I have been away for a while, but no worry, I was volunteering from Thursday through Sunday at “That Big Book Sale” at the Gaillard Auditorium in downtown Charleston.  This sale is sponsored by the Charleston Friends of the Library, which I am a board member.  We collect donated books, VHS, DVDs, software and sale them from $.50 to $15.00.  We have also rare books that are auction.  We have about four sales each year at smaller libraries, but this is the largest and I have volunteered for it the last five years.  Each and every year I love it more.  So many books and not enough time to read them, but I will try.  
The picture you see above was outside of the Gaillard is me standing in front of the tallest collection of books.  It’s call BookzillaBookzilla was a fundraising project that gives volunteers, businesses and the general public an opportunity to support Charleston Volunteers for Literacy's tutoring program for students in high need and local elementary schools.  The artist, Karl Beckwith Smith, was attempting to set a new sculpture record by collecting and stacking over 10,000 books into a towering art sculpture.  You selected books there were next to the tower, paid $5.00, wrote you name on the book and it was added to the tower.  I could not let that go without my face in front.  I just loved it. Will tell you more about the book sale tomorrow, now one to Books and more Books:
Nikki Baker is the author of a mystery series featuring black lesbian stockbroker Virginia Kelly.  Unfortunately, none of her books are on the Kindle, but I thought you would like to try her.  They are pretty good if I say so my self.  I have a few of her books that I brought over the years and still have them in my library.  You know, its fun to read about a black woman kicking ass and taking prisoners.  Read on sisters and brothers, read on!!!

IN THE GAME (VIRGINIA KELLY MYSTERY)  - $5.45 (1991 Paperback) - - - When businesswoman Virginia Kelly, a black lesbian, meets her old college chum Bev Johnson for drinks late one night, Bev confides that her lover, Kelsey, is seeing another woman. Ginny had picked up that gossip months ago, but she is shocked when the next morning's papers report that Kelsey was found murdered behind the very bar where Ginny and Bev had met. Worried that her friend could be implicated, Ginny decides to track down Kelsey's killer and also contacts a lawyer, Susan Coogan. Susan takes an immediate, intense liking to Ginny, complicating Ginny's relationship with her live-in lover. Meanwhile Ginny's inquiries heat up when she learns the Feds suspected Kelsey of embezzling from her employer. Woven into the narrative are observations on lesbian life and on prejudice, which are undercut when the author resorts to stereotyping: Ginny's boss, for example, is a drunken Irishman. Still, an entertaining assortment of female characters makes Baker's debut promising, even though the plot's logic does not stand up to close scrutiny: the police do not suspect Bev of the murder, making Ginny's sleuthing to save her friend appear superfluous.  



THE LAVENDER HOUSE MURDER: A VIRGINIA KELLY MYSTERY - $3.85 (1992 Paperback)




LONG GOODBYES: A VIRGINIA KELLY MYSTERY  - $15.00 (1993 Paperback)

THE ULTIMATE EXIT STRATEGY - $9.86 (2001 Paperback)

JACQUELINE TURNER BANKS - Jacqueline is the author of a mystery series featuring a college-educated black cleaning woman in Oakland, California.  Ruby Gordon, is “a woman of substance and possessed a quirky good humor.  


MAID IN THE SHADE  - $.01 (1998 - Paperback)

BARELY MAID (A RUBY GORDON MYSTERY) - on the Kindle for $1.99


Jacqueline also writes children books - 
EGG-DROP BLUES,
A DAY FOR VINCENT CHIN AND Me
THE NEW ONE
Here are some of her romance books on Kindle:
SCENTED LUST - $5.99
SCENTED DREAMS (A DOGON-HUNTER SERIES) - $6.99




THE GREAT GEBRE - $0.99








VALERIE WILSON WESLEY - Valerie was an Essence magazine executive editor, a graduate of Howard University (Yeah!!! Howard of my home town of DC), and a children’s author.  She is the creator of black private eye Tamara Hayle, a single parent and ex-cop in Newark, New Jersey.  This character is a believable and independent sleuth with intuition, sexiness, tenderness and toughness.



DYING IN THE DARD: A TAMARA HAYLE MYSTERY - $9.99 - - - In her seventh case, PI Tamara Hayle reluctantly agrees to investigate the murder of her former best friend from high school, Celia Jones. Celia's teenage son, Cecil, convinces Tamara to take the case, but then he is murdered, too. Many people had reason to hate Celia: the men she loved and left, the husband of her lesbian lover, and her own ex-husband. Tamara finds that the promiscuous Celia's life was intertwined with popular high-school students from their joint past and their families--all of whom are well-respected members of the community. But is one of them a murderer? Tamara disagrees with the police solutions to the crimes and continues to investigate.




OF BLOOD AND SORROW: A TAMARA HAYLE MYSTERY - $14.85 - - - This time PI Tamara searches for a missing child with the and to save her own child. 




There are many more black mystery woman writers, but many of their books are not in Kindle format.  So, why not give you more tomorrow of books that are still cheap, but in another format.  See Yah Tomorrow!!!   Start reading your but off!


















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