Title: What You Don't See

Author: Tracy Clark

Date: June 5, 2020

Day: Friday

Time: 7:00 PM

Description

Former cop Cass Raines knows the streets of Chicago all too well. Now she’s a private investigator and getting an exclusive glimpse into how the other half lives—and how they die . . .
 
Wealth. Power. Celebrity. Vonda Allen’s glossy vanity magazine has taken the Windy City by storm, and she’s well on her way to building a one-woman media empire. Everybody adores her. Except the people who work for her. And the person who’s sending her flowers with death threats . . .
 
As Vonda’s bodyguard, off-duty cop Ben Mickerson knows he could use some back-up—and no one fits the bill better than his ex-partner on the police force, Cass Raines. Now a full-time private eye, Cass is reluctant to take the job. She isn’t keen on playing babysitter to a celebrity who’s rumored to be a heartless diva. But as a favor to Ben, she signs on. But when Vonda refuses to say why someone might be after her, and two of her staff turn up dead, Ben and Cass must battle an unknown assailant bent on getting to the great lady herself, before someone else dies.
 
Cass finds out the hard way just how persistent a threat they face during the first stop on Vonda’s book tour. As fans clamour for her autograph, things take an ugly turn when a mysterious fan shows up with flowers and slashes Ben with a knife. While her ex-partner’s life hangs in the balance, Cass is left to find out what secrets Vonda is keeping, who might want her dead, and how she can bring Ben’s attacker to justice before enemies in the Chicago Police Department try to stop her in her tracks . . .

About the Author

Tracy Clark is the author of the highly acclaimed Chicago Mystery Series featuring ex-homicide cop turned PI Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving, African-American protagonist who works the mean streets of the Windy City dodging cops, cons, killers, and thugs. She received Anthony Award and Lefty Award nominations for her series debut, Broken Places, which was also shortlisted for the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List, named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Books of the Year. In addition to her Cass Raines novels, Tracy’s short story “For Services Rendered,” appears in the anthology Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African‑American Authors. A native of Chicago, she works as an editor in the newspaper industry and roots for the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks equally. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, PI Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and a Mystery Writers of America Midwest board member. Find Tracy on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @tracypc6161, or visit her online at TracyClarkBooks.com.

Title: The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America 

Author: Karen Abbott*

Date: October 25, 2019

Day: Friday

Time: 7:00 PM

*Also, Abbott is not only having her signing at Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, but she is returning Saturday at 11:00 AM to occupy Centuries & Sleuths coffin as the Forest Park Flapper for the Forest Park's Chamber of Commerce's Casket Race. If you have seen Ms. Abbott you know she will be one of the best looking Forest Park Flappers to attend this Forest Park tradition.

Description

The epic true crime story of the most successful bootlegger in American history and the murder that shocked the nation, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy

In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he's a multi-millionaire. The press calls him "King of the Bootleggers," writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events he and his glamorous second wife, Imogene, host at their Cincinnati mansion, with party favors ranging from diamond jewelry for the men to brand-new cars for the women. By the summer of 1921, Remus owns 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States. 

Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. Willebrandt's bosses at the Justice Department hired her right out of law school, assuming she'd pose no real threat to the cozy relationship they maintain with Remus. Eager to prove them wrong, she dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It's a decision with deadly consequences. With the fledgling FBI on the case, Remus is quickly imprisoned for violating the Volstead Act. Her husband behind bars, Imogene begins an affair with Dodge. Together, they plot to ruin Remus, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government--and that can only end in murder. 

Combining deep historical research with novelistic flair, The Ghosts of Eden Park is the unforgettable, stranger-than-fiction story of a rags-to-riches entrepreneur and a long-forgotten heroine, of the excesses and absurdities of the Jazz Age, and of the infinite human capacity to deceive.

About the Author

Karen Abbott is the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City, American Rose, and, most recently, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, named one of the best books of 2014 by Library Journal, and the Christian Science Monitor.. She has written for newyorker.com, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Salon and other publications. Her next book, The Ghosts of Eden Park, will be published by Crown on August 6.  A native of Philadelphia, she now lives in New York City.

Title: Blues in the Dark

Author: Raymond Benson

Date: October 26, 2019

Day: Saturday

Time: 2:00 PM

Karissa Glover is a movie producer who moves into a decrepit but functional old mansion in the West Adams Heights area of Los Angeles, where black celebrities of yesteryear—Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers, and others—once resided. The former owner was a white actress, Blair Kendrick, who often starred as the "bad girl"—a femme fatale—in films noir of the 1940s. However, Blair’s career was cut short when she was tragically killed by the mob after allegedly witnessing the slaying of a corrupt studio head in 1949.

As Karissa and her producing partner decide to develop a modern film noir about Blair Kendrick, malevolent forces from the past attempt to stop them—first with intimidation, and then with the thread of murder.
 
Is this because Karissa has learned that Blair was involved in a then-taboo interracial relationship with jazz musician Hank Marley? What really happened on the night that death struck in a dimly lit studio mogul’s office? The consequences of Blair and Hank’s doomed love affair still resonate in the present day as Karissa attempts to unravel Blair’s secrets.

Seeping with mystery, intrigue, Hollywood history, and forbidden romance, Blues in the Dark is Raymond Benson at his most insightful and page-turning best.

About the Author

Raymond Benson is most well-known for being the third—and first American—author to be commissioned by the James Bond literary estate to write the 007 novels between 1996–2002. He is the author of thirty-six books, including the New York Times bestselling The Black Stiletto series, now in development as a feature film, and most recently The Secrets on Chicory Lane. Benson lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Meeting of the G.K. Chesterton Society

Date: July 13, 2019

Day: Saturday

Time: 2 PM

Title: What I saw in America

Author: G. K, Chesterton

Pomodoros and Chocolate: Motivation and Productivity for the Writer

Saturday, January 26, 2019, 11 a.m.

Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore, 7419 Madison St., Forest Park, Illinois

Sisters in Crime national vice-president (and SinCC chapter member) Lori Rader-Day leads an interactive session on tips and tools for improving your writing productivity, keeping yourself motivated, and getting the help you need to finish your next project. Bring a notebook and pen, your calendar, and your best idea for building discipline and making and meeting goals. Free and open to the public.

Lori Rader-Day

Mary Higgins Clark Award- and Anthony Award-winning author of

 The Black Hour (2014), Little Pretty Things (2015), The Day I Died(2017), and Under a Dark Sky (2018)

A lifelong Chicagoan who attended School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University, L. D. Barnes has blogged about jazz for ChicagoSmooth internet radio, was published in Revise The Psalm, Work Celebrating The Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, The BAC Street Journal, and the Tallgrass 'Home' Anthology.  She lives with her retired Chicago Policeman husband and her cat Cleopatra.  She is a member of FLOW(For Love of Writing), Longwood Writer's Guild and Mystery Writers of America - Midwest Chapter.

The 107th St.Murder

In mid-October of 1978, the body of a young blonde tumbles from a garbage truck parked at the edge of the landfill, Mt. Trashmore, on Chicago's southeast side.  Newly paired partners Rachael Culpepper and Tony Breese of the Chicago Police Detective Unit are assigned the case. They navigate the twists, turns, and lies of 107th Street to find her murderer.  This 70's era Chicago murder-mystery presents a realistic portrait of the south side communities of Beverly and Mt. Greenwood with their legendary class rivalries as Culpepper and Breese follow a trail that leads inexorably to the shocking culprit.

Join us as we welcome L.D.Barnes for

her mystery ,The 107th St.Murder

on January26 at 2 p.m.

Author Discussion & Signing with Val Bruech

Title: Judicious Murder

Date: August 5, 2018

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 PM