Mysteries by Black Authors

This week I feature mystery author Delia C. Pitts. The author of the Ross Agency Mystery Series. The series follows Shelba Rook who works for the Ross Detective Agency.

Featuring the versatile mystery author Patricia E. Canterbury. Her works include a mystery novel set in the distant future in space, a series of Middle-grade historical mysteries, a children's contemporary fantasy mystery and an amateur detective who-dun-it novel to top it all off.

Barbara Neely's page on her publisher's site

A great interview with Barbara Neely conducted by mystery author Kellye Garrett in May 2019.

Today I am featuring the Mystery Writers of America's 2020 Grand Master Award recipient, Barbara Neely. Barbara Neely is the author of the Blanche White mystery series. Her series features Blanche White, a smart and brave black woman who works as a maid who takes on the role of amateur detective to solve murders that occur in the homes she is working in.

Set in a time when the main work that was available for black people and especially black women was to work as domestic servants. Blanche lives in a world where safety and meeting your basic needs is always a challenging trek. Plus, Blanche must deal with other difficult issues and on top of all that, she must help solve a murder. Blanche is the classic amateur detective who is often the smartest person in the room who everyone overlooks and underestimates.

Barbara Neely's four books in this wonderful series will easily feed your need for a good cozy / amateur sleuth mystery. The books in the series are:

1. Blanche on the Lam
2. Blanche Among the Talented Tenth
3. Blanche Cleans Up
4. Blanche Passes Go

Barbara Neely is a lifelong activist. She designed and directed the first community-based corrections facility for women in Pennsylvania and was the director of Women for Economic Justice, a Boston-based women's advocacy organization. She also produced radio programs for Africa News Service and was the host of Commonwealth Journal, an award-winning weekly interview program on the radio station of the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Ms. Neely also wrote many other short stories that were published in various anthologies and magazines.

I reviewed Blanche on the Lam and I am including a link to that episode here. It was a wonderful read and for audio book fans, all the books in the series are available as audio books.

I am including links to Barbara Neely's publishers, some other interesting articles and a great video where Ms. Neely was at Book World Praque 2012 signing copies of her book Blanch on the Lam that was recently published in Czech. In the video she states that fiction was a good place to do activism and Blanche was the perfect character to help people examine the issues that were important to her. https://youtu.be/62wGFRzYS9s

Sadly, Barbara Neely passed away last week. We lost a great woman and artist, but we are blessed by her works. I am so happy she was able to receive the MWA Award. And true to her spirit, when she heard that she won the award she said: "MWA Grand Master! I hope this doesn't mean I have to relinquish my position as Empress Regnant of the Multiverse."

So, we celebrate the life and work of our Empress Regnant of the Multiverse and creator of the Blanche White mystery series, Barbara Neely.

Myra Jolivet writes cozy mysteries with a supernatural flair. She describes her work as California mysteries seasoned with Louisiana Creole mysticism.

The books in her series are:

• Pushed Times Chewing Pepper
• Secrets, Spells and Snake Eyes
• Orchids and Omens

https://www.ifoundthisgreatbook.com/black-mystery-authors/myra-jolivet/

In 1926, seven legendary black creators set out to create a new publication. FIRE!! is one of the most important publications of the Harlem Renaissance. It marks a great collaboration between many of the artists who would go on to change the world of literature and art.

These seven creators organized and funded this important work.

Wallace Thurman - Novelist & Editor

Langston Hughes - Poet, Playwright, Novelist, Short Story Author, Etc…

Gwendolyn Bennett - Artist, Writer & Journalist

Richard Bruce Nugent - Writer and Painter

Zora Neale Hurston - Writer & Anthropologist

Aaron Douglas - Painter

John Davis - Journalist

While Fire only existed for one issue, it is an important piece of literature fiction because so many of the persons involved went on to become key persons in the Harlem Renaissance. Their works are now considered classics.

Artist Aaron Douglas designed the cover and other incidental art decorations

Richard Bruce contributed drawings that were inserted between stories and poems

Wallace Thurman contributed a short story, "Cordelia the Crude" and an editorial comment at the end titled "Fire Burns"

Zora Neale Hurston contributed a short play, "Color Struck", and the short story, "Sweat".

There is poetry by

• Countee Cullen
• Edward Silvera
• Langston Hughes
• Helene Johnson
• Waring Cuney
• Arna Botemps
• Lewis Alexander

Gwendolyn Bennett contributed a short story titled "Wedding Day, A Story"

Richard Bruce's "Smoke, Lilies and Jade, A Novel, Part 1" is very interesting because of its unique use of punctuation.

Arthur Huff Fauset contributed an essay "Intelligentsia"

You can get a reproduced copy from Amazon

Karla FC Holloway is the author of "A Death in Harlem". This is a very intriguing book for me because of the tie to a classic book of the Harlem Renaissance. Ms. Holloway uses the tragic and mysterious death that occurs at the end of Nella Larsen's "Passing" as a launch point for a fascinating mystery set in 1920 Harlem.

https://www.ifoundthisgreatbook.com/black-mystery-authors/karla-fc-holloway/

Karla FC Holloway takes the reader into the fascinating world of 1920 Harlem. The birth of the Jazz Age, the beginnings of a great artistic movement in Harlem and a time filled with very real dangers for black people.

Her detective, Weldon Haynie Thomas is the first "colored" policeman in Harlem. He has to handle a very difficult and tense situation while he works to discover the truth behind the death.

This is definitely a book every mystery lover should add to their list of books to read and I am looking forward to more books by Karla FC Holloway.

Elizabeth Wilkerson was one of Silicon Valley's first cyber-lawyers and she uses that life experience to build the world and mystery in her Afro-futurist mystery, Tokyo Firewall.

Elizabeth lived in Japan where she practiced securities law and founded a company to present African American culture to Japanese audiences. She also learned how to make perfect miso soup. A native of Cleveland, she graduated from Harvard and holds JD and MBA degrees from Stanford.

From the book cover…

Tokyo, the '90s. When Alison Crane quit her environmental law practice and followed her hotshot investment banker boyfriend to Japan, she thought they'd only grow closer. But jobless and broke, Alison sits home alone all day-—and most nights—isolated by culture shock, wobbly language skills, and her boyfriend's ambitions. Desperate for company, she ventures onto the only avenue she has left—the brand-new digital frontier.

Inside the confusing web of cyber chat rooms, Alison is approached by a charming Japanese man, and the two regularly meet online. However, her digital safe haven soon becomes a virtual nightmare when a troll who despises foreigners taunts her with escalating threats of violence. As her predator's attacks intensify, Alison must parlay her legal smarts and budding computer skills to stand her ground, or she'll lose her only source of freedom. And maybe her life...

You can follow Elizabeth Wilkerson by signing up for her newsletter and following her blog. Go to her website: elizabethwilkerson.com

https://www.ifoundthisgreatbook.com/black-mystery-authors/elizabeth-wilkerson/

• Provides a good overview of the years before and the years of the Harlem Renaissance
• Very interesting that in the twenty years between 1900 - 1920, only 10 novels were published by black authors.
• The book provides details about the growth of available literature by black writers in the 20's and 30's.
• The role of patronage and access to funding and publishing played is both familiar and interesting. It is interesting that in about 100 years we see another Renaissance in literature but this time it is very different because of the barriers that are broken due to technology.
• Godmother - Charlotte Mason is very interesting. While I can see why her attitude and treatment of these great writers. If it was not for her patronage, we might not have a lot of the works by these great writers.
• This book introduces the reader to a whole world of black writers for the Harlem Renaissance. This is a good jumping off point.
• A large part of the book deals with the history of the writers in the Harlem Renaissance.
• The details of the conflict between Zora and Langston is brief and it is sad that they had these issues over the rights of a play.
• One other thing that is brought up is the way Zora was treated by her fellow writers.
• The story of a certain group of black people trying to define what is acceptable for everyone is repeated. The resentment of Zora's style by certain members of the black literary clique is very similar to the arguments that have occurred in recent past and now.
• It is funny that some of the people critical of Zora were also rebel voices in their own right.
• This book sparked an interest in me to read all of Zora Neale Hurston's books and short stories.

• This story features Mr. Scratch who is enjoying his new skin he has inhabited as he goes to a meeting at the Kretcher Motel. A motel that is the center point for all things dark and terrifying. Where the imposing presence of Sybline manages the front desk. Do not mess with Sybline.
• Mr. Scratch and his lady companion start to enjoy their evening when suddenly they are interrupted by Mr. Rothstein and his golem bodyguard change everything.
• I loved this story. The world that O'Hanlon created drew me in and made me want more. I could love to read a whole novel with stories in this world.

The author David O'Hanlon lives in Arkansas with his two horrible goblins. He generally works in the horror and sci-fi genres, often setting his stories against the backdrop Arkansas' unique folklore, diverse ecology, and assorted trailer parks.

I am in the process of building a directory of black mystery authors. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I post information on mystery author who is black. This directory will include authors from all over the world.

I am building this directory to expand on the great work started by Eleanor Taylor Bland and continued by Frankie Y. Bailey that resulted in Frankie's List on the Sisters in Crime website. This list contains the names of almost 100 black mystery authors along with Asian, Hispanic, Native American and LGBTQ crime fiction authors. This list of diverse authors is a great resource and my inspiration for building my directory.

So, you may ask, why do I need to build a directory when the Sisters in Crime site already has a list. Well, first I think there cannot be too many sources for readers to discover diverse authors. Also, I plan to expand on the list and provide more resources for readers to discover books.

When you go to the Black Mystery Author Directory on, I Found This Great Book, you are presented with three tabs. The first tab lets you browse the authors by presenting a picture of the authors along with the type of mysteries they write. The authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name. By clicking on the authors name or picture you are taken to a post for the author. The post provides a link to the author's website, the type of mysteries they write, a short bio of the author and the covers of the mysteries the author has written. You can click on a book and you will be taken to a page for that book. The page will include information about the book, the book's ISBN number, a Kindle Book preview if it is available and options to purchase the book via Amazon and IndieBound.org. I do use affiliate links for Amazon. If you make a purchase of a book or audio book from the purchase links, I do get a very small affiliate reward from the purchase. This does not affect the price you pay or the money the author receives. I include Indiebound.org to help book lovers who what to support local bookstores. Indiebound.org helps readers find local books stores where they can purchase a book.

The second tab allows you to browse the books by the authors in the directory. I wanted to create a bookstore experience for you. You can browse through all the books cover by cover. You can also browse the books in a particular style of mystery. I also make it very easy to find mysteries where the sleuth is a woman. I will probably expand on these browsing options as I learn about more authors.

The third tab provides information about the directory including the names of authors I plan to add in the future. I will update this section as the directory grows.

This directory will include authors of African descent from all over the world. I am actively seeking authors for Nigeria, Kenya, other countries in Africa and the Caribbean. If you know of an author I should add, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].