Myst Noir: African-American Mysteries

Featured Title for June: Death at the Double Inkwell

Death at the Double Inkwell By Shonell Bacon

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction; take the lives of mystery novelists and twins, Jovan Parham-Anderson and Cheyenne Parham. They are young, beautiful, talented, and on their way to their sixth best-selling novel; that is, until Jo learns her husband, Cordell Anderson, founder of Anderson Technologies, is having an affair with Alisha Stewart, his right hand at Anderson. Before she can confront him, tragedy strikes her home, and Jovan must deal with the fact that the careful, safe life she had with Cordell was merely smoke and mirrors.

Mystery News-Deals & More: R. Barri Flowers

Bestselling crime novelist R. Barri Flowers will be interviewed on two shows in June.

On Wednesday, June 9th, Barri's interview on Investigation Discovery channel's Wicked Attraction series can be seen. The episode is titled, "Twisted Twosome," and will be shown twice at Jun 09, 9:00 am, EST, and Jun 09, 2:00 pm, EST.

And for those of you who live in Canada or have access to Canadian programs on cable, Barri's interview on the History Channel's series, Crime Stories, will be broadcast on Monday, June 21st. The episode is titled, "The Love Slave Murders," and will be shown twice at Jun 21, 11 am, EST, and 3 pm, EST.

R. Barri Flowers has signed a three book deal with Urban Books to write mainstream suspense novels under the pen name, Devon Vaughn Archer. The first title, THE SECRETS OF PARADISE BAY, will be released on July 1st 2010.

THE SECRETS OF PARADISE BAY is the taut tale of bad blood between brothers, the beautiful woman who turns their lives upside down, and a vengeful man determined to kill all three.

The second book, THE HITMAN'S WOMAN, is set to be released in the summer of 2011.

Barri has also signed with Twilight Times to edit a second mystery anthology, MURDER HERE, MURDER THERE, written by bestselling, award winning authors belonging to the American Crime Writers League. It is scheduled to be released in August 2011.

Book Trailer: From Cape Town With Love!

Featured title for May: From Cape Town with Love!

THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS OF CASANEGRA AND IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT TEAM UP FOR A THIRD TIME TO PRESENT FROM CAPE TOWN WITH LOVE, A TENNYSON HARDWICK NOVEL.

Actor-turned-detective Tennyson Hardwick has solved two high-profile deaths in Hollywood, but nothing has prepared him for a race to save a child’s life. Tennyson’s past in the sex game cost him his new girlfriend, and he brings her to Cape Town, South Africa—a scenic film destination and playground for the rich—to try to win her back. There Tennyson is hired as a bodyguard by superstar Sofia Maitlin when she visits an orphanage to adopt an African child.Months later, Maitlin offers Tennyson one of Hollywood’s hottest tickets—a job as a bodyguard at adopted daughter Nandi’s A-list celebrity birthday party. But the party is over before it begins. When Nandi’s birthday goes dreadfully wrong, it’s up to a guilt-ridden Tennyson to save a child’s life and reunite a Hollywood family.But how? He can’t go to the police, the FBI has threatened to arrest him, and Big Brother is monitoring his telephone calls. To find Nandi, Tennyson will have to rely on tips from his father—a retired LAPD captain—and a mysterious woman from his past, Marsha, who has already proven she can’t be trusted. His strongest lead is a deadly knife fighter known only as Spider.

When his search for the missing child crosses Marsha’s covert investigation into a criminal gang with ties to South Africa, Tennyson knows that finding Nandi might cost him his freedom—or his life.

Featured Title for April: Known to Evil!

Known To Evil By Walter Mosley

Leonid McGill-the protagonist introduced in The Long Fall, the book that returned Walter Mosley to bestseller lists nationwide -is still fighting to stick to his reformed ways while the world around him pulls him in every other direction. He has split up with his girlfriend, Aura, because his new self won't let him leave his wife-but then Aura's new boyfriend starts angling to get Leonid kicked out of his prime, top-of-theskyscraper office space. Meanwhile, one of his sons seems to have found true love-but the girl has a shady past that's all of sudden threatening the whole McGill family-and his other son, the charming rogue Twilliam, is doing nothing but enabling the crisis.

Most ominously of all, Alfonse Rinaldo, the mysterious power-behind- the-throne at City Hall, the fixer who seems to control every little thing that happens in New York City, has a problem that even he can't fix- and he's come to Leonid for help. It seems a young woman has disappeared, leaving murder in her wake, and it means everything to Rinaldo to track her down. But he won't tell McGill his motives, which doesn't quite square with the new company policy- but turning down Rinaldo is almost impossible to even contemplate.

Known to Evil delivers on all the promise of the characters and story lines introduced in The Long Fall, and then some. It careens fast and deep into gritty, glittery contemporary Manhattan, making the city pulse in a whole new way, and it firmly establishes Leonid McGill as one of the mystery world's most iconic, charismatic leading men.