The Mystery Search

Last week I introduced a feature to my chat group (McKenna Jeffries List) in which I explored a search I’ve been working on. I decided to share it with you. Come on and share in my search …

Before I became a writer I was of course an avid reader (and I still am). Nothing is more thrilling than the hunt for a good book. Although I love romance I read all genres. I also write work in most of them. I like to mix up my reading. My bookshelves are filled with anything from Laurell K. Hamilton to Brenda Jackson.

At the end of last year I picked up a book I had on my shelf for a while. It was a Nora Roberts novel The Villa. It was good and I was hooked. I love Nora Robert’s work. She can go from contemporary to suspense without blinking an eye. She also writes as JD Robb. The In Death series is phenomenal. Before the Nora I had recently read Janet Evanovich, Plum and Full series (they were a funny). With Nora I always find something different and since I love me some Nora Roberts she opened my appetite for some more. This led me to my search for more romantic suspense/ mystery books. I went through Julie Garwood, Linda Howard, Kay Hooper, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag. This is just a few of the authors I found. I am still in the process of reading to catch up on their various series.

Although I had this great list of authors I was still on the hunt because if you notice there is not an African American mystery writer or a book that features a heroine/hero in the bunch at least not from the one’s I’ve read so far. Beside this being one of the markets that I write novels for I as a reader wanted to read more. So for sometime now I have been on the hunt to add to my already growing list of mystery/romantic suspense writer’s some good quality African American author’s or books that features heroine/hero.

With my search I checked my own to be read pile on my bookshelf and came up with a copy of Body of Truth by Deirdre Savoy. I read it in a day. It was good and I wanted more. I asked around to my friends who share my passion for great books and although I got a list of great authors (some I already had) none was what I was searching for. Since then I have been on the look out searching the book store for more. The other day I took my search to the web and stumbled on a site I wanted to share.

Mystnoir ~http://mystnoir.com/

Directly from the site:

MystNoir features mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels written by or featuring African-Americans.

I was so happy to find this site and after exploring I came to find out the creator of the site is actually Angela Henry who is also a writer. I went out quickly to search for her book The Company You Keep which was released in May 2005 under BET Book's Sepia imprint. I took me a little time to find it but I have and am in the process of reading it. So now with the help of the info on the MystNoir site I have added to my already growing list (the authors I listed above) romantic suspense/mystery. What I love about the site is they also give you a breakdown of the Author’s and the characters that they write about. Yes there are a bunch of author’s who has continuing series that follow the same characters. I didn’t realize. For those of you out there who did why didn’t you share the wealth? LOL. Now onto my question.

I am still looking for more reads. Both with African American heroine/hero and without. As long as it is a good story I’ll read it. Yes it’s a miracle my shelf still has space.

Who are you favorite romantic suspense/ mystery author and why?