Author Delia Pitts joins Mystery Readers Group on February 18
On Tuesday, February 18, 2025 from 6:30 to 7:45 pm, celebrate Black History Month with the Mystery Readers Group.
There will be a special visit with Delia Pitts (pictured), author of Trouble in Queenstown. Born and raised in Chicago, Delia graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. Delia is also the author of the Ross Agency Mysteries, a series set in Harlem. She has also published several acclaimed short stories, including, “The Killer,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021.
Here’s a list of mysteries by and about Black Americans:
Classic Mysteries
Devil in A Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley: this novel, set in L.A. in 1948, is the first book in Mosely’s bestselling Easy Rawlins series. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, a tough World War II veteran and detective, is on the trail of a missing woman in South Central L.A., a search that leads him from elegant board meetings to the raucous jazz joints of late forties Los Angeles.
A Rage in Harlem, by Chester Himes: The first book in Himes’s groundbreaking Harlem Detectives series follows Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones as they patrol New York City’s roughest streets.
The Conjure-man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem, by Rudolph Fisher: Originally published in 1932, this mystery by Harlem Renaissance author Rudolph Fisher is the first detective novel to feature a Black protagonist and all Black characters. When the body of N’Gana Frimbo, the African conjure-man, is discovered in his consultation room, Perry Dart, one of Harlem’s ten Black police detectives, is called in to investigate. Together with Dr. Archer — the Watson to Dart’s Holmes —Dart works to solve the baffling mystery, helped and hindered along the way by two local boys keen to clear themselves of suspicion of murder and undertake their own investigations.
Newer Releases
Ash Dark as Night, by Gary Phillips: Freelance photographer Harry Ingram documents police brutality during the 1965 Watts riots, capturing a fatal shooting of a young Black activist. When his hidden film gains public attention, Harry faces mounting threats from the LAPD while being drawn into a missing-person case tied to the chaos of the riots.
It’s Elementary, by Elise Bryant: Black single mom Mavis Miller reluctantly takes charge of a new DEI committee at her daughter’s elementary school, only to find herself entangled in a mystery when the school principal goes missing after a heated PTA meeting.
Trouble in Queenstown, by Delia Pitts: Private investigator Vandy Myrick returns to her hometown and opens a detective agency, taking on routine cases to make ends meet. When a surveillance job for a powerful local family turns into a shocking murder investigation, sets out to investigate and uncovers troubling truths about racial tensions and power dynamics in her New Jersey town while confronting her own past.
