Sarah Gibbard Cook
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Black American Sleuths

3/19/2018

4 Comments

 
​Lately I’ve been relishing mystery series where author, protagonist, and setting are African American. They offer a glimpse into communities I can’t know from the inside. Unlike much of my mystery reading, characters aren’t presumed white unless otherwise specified.

Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle in New Jersey is a private investigator and former cop, like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone or Robert Parker’s Spenser. Like them, she experiences puzzles and dangers that keep me turning pages and a life that propels me from book to book. Unlike them, she lives in a world where worry over traffic stops or fear for teenage sons takes forms I can only imagine. When Death Comes Stealing (1994) is first in a series of eight.

Eleanor Taylor Bland’s Marti McAlister is an African-American police detective in Lincoln Prairie, Illinois, modeled on Waukegan. Like Tamara, Marti has a personal life as engaging as the crimes she solves. The series of fourteen begins with Dead Time (1992). Coming up on my list: Frankie Y. Bailey’s Lizzie Stuart, Nora DeLoach’s Mama Candi Covington, Barbary Neely’s Blanche White, and Pamela Samuels Young’s Vernetta Henderson.
4 Comments
Jan Gordon
3/19/2018 12:57:18 pm

Immediately interested I looked up both authors for their availability in either ebooks or audio form am disappointed to find neither is! Darn, I am no reading traditional books these days due to arthritis in my hands. Amazon has many of Wesley’s and a few Bland’s on Kindle and many at reasonable prices,l maybe I will try some

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Sarah link
3/19/2018 05:03:32 pm

So sorry they aren't more available. And I was disappointed the library didn't have all the series I was planning to try next. Interesting, with sleuths Kate Shugak in Alaska or Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn in New Mexico, their non-mainstream subculture contributes to their popularity, but I don't see the same dynamic for a lot of white readers around black Americans in Newark.

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Lisa Imhoff
3/22/2018 08:38:18 am

Sarah, someone recommended The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books to me and I was very satisfied with the first one I read! I want to read more. Very different. Black, but not American.

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Sarah link
3/23/2018 08:13:46 am

Agreed, Precious Ramotswe is delightful! My first draft of this blog post started with the joys of intercultural mystery series including her, a Japanese inspector, and several (granted, white) European. Rambled too far for one post. Botswana is a far cry from Newark or Waukegan, and the whole Precious series is great fun.

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    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 


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