Of Blood and Sorrow

November 19, 2007
The desperate search for a missing child makes Newark PI Tamara Hayle's eighth outing (after 2005's Dying in the Dark
) a chilling, thought-provoking read. Gold-digging Lilah Love gave Tamara $30,000 years earlier after some shady doings in Jamaica. Now Lilah's sister, Thelma Lee, has Lilah's daughter, Baby Dal, and refuses to give her back. Lilah threatens harm to Tamara's son, Jamal, unless Tamara takes on her case. Tamara doesn't want to help Lilah, who sees Baby Dal as a bargaining chip, so she lets Treyman Barnes II, the child's wealthy, powerful grandfather, hire her instead. Then Thelma Lee disappears with the baby, and Lilah is found murdered in her car with Jamal's backpack in the rear seat. Tamara realizes she must find Lilah's child in order to protect her own. Wesley recounts Tamara's struggles with equal parts irony, compassion and insight.

January 15, 2008
In her eighth outing, PI Tamara Hayle ("Dying in the Dark") is hired to return a child to her mother, but soon mom is dead, and Tamara needs to untangle a web of secrets before the police arrest her teenage son as a material witness in the murder. Mystery readers looking for a compelling female African American protagonist will find the real deal in Tamara.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2008
Adult/High School-Tamara Hayle, detective and single mother of a teenage son, finds herself embroiled in a case that includes a missing baby, a 16-year-old girl, and some people who are nasty even for someone used to the hard-bitten streets of urban New Jersey. The plot gets rolling when an old acquaintance appears in Tamaras office threatening to blackmail her if she doesnt help find her babybut she seems to be motivated by something other than maternal anxiety. Tamara is no sooner on the case than shes up against the babys grandfatheran old gangsterand the childs aunt, a teenager who thinks her own sister isnt a fit mom. There are several offstage deaths, none of them gentle, and Tamaras son offers a subplot of plot-advancing rebelliousness that, readers will note, Tamara doesnt handle gracefully. This detective is a feisty but credibly anxious African-American woman with some street smarts and a large dose of self-doubt when it comes to both the men in her life and her own parenting skills. Urban fiction fans will find this relatively mildin spite of the series of murdersbut can enjoy a twisting plot that keeps both Tamara and her readers on edge and guessing the true identity and motive of the murderer right up to the final chapter."Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
Newark, New Jersey, PI Tamara Hayle confronts the past in her eighth adventure. One day Lilah Love, whom Tamara met on a Jamaican vacation, comes to Tamaras office seeking help in reclaiming her daughter. Lilahs sister has taken the child because she believes Lilah is an unfit mother. Tamara refuses to help, but meanwhile, the childs grandfather, whoalso hopes to claim the child, attempts to hire her. Tamara accepts the grandfathers retainer, butthe case quickly turns deadly when Lilah is murdered, and Tamaras teenage son, Jamal, is the last person to have seen her alive. As others die, Tamara must work to find the killer and the still-missing child, especially since her son is considered a suspect in Lilahs death. Tamara is a strong, independent woman whose family and personal lifea subplot here involvesher mixed feelings about her steady boyfriend and a man from her pastcontinue to vie for attention with her professional life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)