Created by Delia Pitts
Black Jersey girl VANDY MYRICK is the “toughest bitch” in Queenstown, New Jersey.
Just ask her.
Okay, it’s a barely a dot on the map, with a population of only about nine thousand or so, an exurb crammed into twelve square miles, surrounded by farmer fields, warehouses, Big Pharma labs, and wannabe suburban sprawl. And Vandy’s pushing fifty.
But she’s still plenty tough, and she knows what she wants.
She used to be a cop in Philly, but when her daughter Monica ODed at a college party, she chucked it all and moved back home to Q-Town, where she keeps herself busy as a P.I., burying her anger and grief in a shit load of divorce cases (the “bread and butter” of her work), and taking care of her ex-cop dad, who’s suffering from dementia.
Friends? Who needs ’em? She’s got work to do.
It may not be morally uplifting, but there’s no muss, no fuss, and she doesn’t have to carry a gun. Just the way she wants it.
And then, in this impressive series debut, Trouble in Queensland (2024) she makes the almost-fatal mistake of taking on Leo Hannah, the mayor’s nephew and a big shot at ArcDev Pharmaceuticals, as a client. He hires Vandy to tail his wife who he suspects is cheating on him.
It should be a slam dunk, a quick nasty bit of surveillance and ka-ching ka-ching!
But as the case unfolds, it turns out there’s more going on than she expected, and murder–what appears to be a racially charged murder, no less–rears its ugly head, and all the poison of sleepy peaceful Q-Town comes seeping out.
This one looks like a winner. Pitts speaks her mind with a healthy dose of cynicism and barely concealed rage, as she narrates this tough feisty debut, nailing the claustrophobic rot of small towns that have been “comfortable” for far too long, usually at the expense of its working class citizens. And Vandy’s the real deal, trying to deal with an never-ending string of cases (and her father’s dementia), alone but determined to live her life on her own terms.
Let’s see where Pitts takes her.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Delia Pitts is an American mystery writer whose short fiction has appeared in their Chicago Quarterly Review, the Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021, and Midnight Hour. She’s active in Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and Mystery Writers of America, and is the author of the S.J. Rook novels, about a Black op working for a Harlem detective agency.
UNDER OATH
- “Vandy is a realistic, tough woman who refuses to quit, and her inner thoughts are fun to read. Although this is a mystery novel, it also deals with grief, race, classism, and family.”
— Booklist - “Trouble in Queenstown starts at a simmer, but when Vandy’s investigation gets going, it reaches a full boil.
— Sarah Weinman (The New York Times Book Review) - “A darkly atmospheric debut whose heroine just might want to reconsider her decision not to carry a gun next time.
— Kirkus Reviews - “(A) standout series launch . . . With an indelible lead and a richly rendered setting, Pitts sets this series up for success. Readers will be eager for the next installment.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
NOVELS
- Trouble in Queenstown (2024) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
- Death of an Ex (2025) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
