| Fiction |
by Eric Jerome Dickey |
Ten-time New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey sizzles in this rapid-fire sequel to Sleeping with Strangers, which finds international hit man Gideon waking up with his past haunting him and danger knocking at his door. A heated encounter inside a London hotel room (where he was pursued by three very different women) leaves Gideon waking up to a world where there’s no one to trust. Someone has taken out a hit on the hit man—but who? The clock is ticking as Gideon tries to pin down the man who was sent to kill him – a mysterious man with a broken nose who shadows his every move – while also finding out who from his past might have ordered the hit. Could it be the man he left alive in Tampa, the woman who taught him to kill, the scorned woman he still desires, or some other unseen enemy? As the hunter becomes the hunted, Gideon will need to find his friends—and his enemies—to get out of the game alive. From the back streets of London to Amsterdam’s red light district, Waking with Enemies is an international game of cat and mouse, in which Gideon must protect those he loves and face the possibility of his own death. |
by Omar Tyree |
After years of writing romance novels aimed at black women, Shareef Crawford is feeling restless in his career. On a book-signing tour in New York, he meets a woman who challenges him to try something more in tune with the streets of Harlem, Shareef's old home ground. In fact, Cynthia Washington has the idea of hooking up Shareef with Michael Springfield, a Harlem drug dealer serving a life sentence. Would Shareef be interested in writing Springfield's life story, the ultimate street story? He likes the idea, but will his publisher take a chance on a new direction? Should he risk his luxurious life in Florida, especially now that his marriage is failing and his family needs him? Although the language is sometimes rough and the sex graphic, Tyree's latest novel offers an interesting look at the growing popularity of urban fiction and one man's struggle to figure out where he fits in that market. Vanessa Bush, Copyright c Booklist. |
by Blair Underwood, Steven Barnes, & Tananarive Due |
Actor Underwood (Sex and the City, etc.) teams up with accomplished authors Due and Barnes to produce a seamlessly entertaining novel. Tennyson Hardwick—semisuccessful actor, ex-gigolo and incipient sleuth—has the mixed fortune to reconnect with rap superstar Afrodite, a former client, for a night of more than just sex. The next day, she's found dead in a plastic bag with a split skull, and he's a suspect. To clear his name, Hardwick draws on all of his considerable assets: good looks and charm, a $2.5 million house inherited from a devoted client, martial arts skills (Barnes's stock in trade) and connections on both sides of the law. The authors have mixed up a cocktail of exotic elements—the sex for pay industry, the grind and glitz of Hollywood and the rap biz, a smart leavening of black film history—and topped it with a double shot of brutal murder. Handsome Ten Hardwick has not only a great backstory but a very promising future.
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by Loure' Bussey |
Happily ever after never felt so good And after kissing her share of frogs, Serita Jones believes that happiness if inally within her grasp. A whirlwind romance, a fairy-tale wedding to the man of her dreams and a honeymoon in paradise. Her life couldn't be more idyllic. Until someone tries to kill her! Life changes in an instant. By a year's time, a vacation with friends on a tropical paradise is just what Serita needs to uplift her spirits. What she didn't count on was meeting sexy Hunter Larimore.
A confirmed bachelor, Hunter has no idea of the peril that awaits them--or the passion that will change his life forever. |
by Victoria Christopher Murray |
In Murray's powerful testament to Christian fellowship and friendship (after 2006's A Sin and a Shame), four members of an L.A. prayer group find spiritual growth and heartache as they struggle with broken dreams. Drawn together by Hope Chapel's Pastor Beverly Ford, these African-American women stand at crossroads in their lives. For Sheridan Hart it's trying to choose between marrying her lover or going back to the bisexual Ex who left her for a man. Kendall Stewart deals with her rage over her younger sister and Ex falling in love, but must make a life or death choice when her sister becomes seriously ill. Asia Ingram wants revenge on the father of her six-year-old daughter, a retiring, married LA Laker who's decided to end their decade-long affair. Vanessa Martin copes badly in the aftermath of her husband Reed's shocking suicide, grappling with a growing depression that threatens her ability to go on. The engrossing transitions the women go through make compelling reading, but some readers might find some of Pastor Ford's wisdom a little off as she assures Sheridan that Quentin, her bi-sexual Ex, "wasn't born that way." Still, Murray's vivid portrait of how faith can move mountains and heal relationships should inspire her growing conservative fan base.
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by Stephen L. Carter |
Two lesser characters from Yale law professor Carter's bestselling first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park (2002)—husband and wife Lemaster and Julia Carlyle—take center stage in his second, a compelling, literate page-turner that effortlessly blends a gripping whodunit with complex discussions of politics and race in contemporary America. Lemaster, one of the country's most influential African-Americans, has recently begun his tenure as president of a prestigious New England university. As he and Julia, who serves as a dean in the university's divinity school, drive home one snowy night, they happen upon the corpse of Professor Kellen Zant, a brilliant economist as well as Julia's former lover. The murder threatens to shatter not only the Carlyles' marriage but also the fragile psyche of their precocious but troubled daughter, Vanessa—and may affect the upcoming, bitterly contested race for the White House. Julia proves an unlikely but dogged investigator, who looks beyond the official verdict that Zant was killed in a chance encounter with a robber. |