The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum (paperback)

At the darkly glamorous height of the Roaring Twenties, an independent Black intellectual and her biracial foster child are drawn into the vibrant world of the Harlem Renaissance—and a shocking murder on Striver’s Row—in this gripping Jazz Age mystery for readers of Nekesa Afia, Jacqueline Winspear, and Avery Cunningham’s The Mayor of Maxwell Street.

1926: Harriet Stone, a liberated and educated Black woman, and Lovey, the orphaned biracial 12-year-old she is determined to protect, are headed to Harlem in search of a new and hopefully less traumatic chapter in their lives. They have been invited to leave Connecticut by Harriet’s cousin, Junetta Plum, who runs a boardinghouse for independent-minded single women.

It is a bold move. Harriet has never met Junetta, but the losses of the Spanish flu and other tragedies have already forced Harriet and Lovey to confront their worst fears. With little left but each other, they arrive at Junetta’s impressive brownstone hoping for a fresh start.

Junetta’s sharp manner immediately unsettles Harriet. Still, after retiring for the night, she eventually falls asleep—only to awaken to the sound of Junetta arguing with someone downstairs. The next morning, Harriet makes a horrifying discovery at the foot of the stairs.

What follows forces Harriet to question Junetta’s very identity—and to wonder whether she and Lovey are in danger as well. Her investigation soon connects her to five strangers, one of whom may know the truth. What Harriet does not yet realize is that one of them will become crucial to solving her cousin’s murder, that the others are tied to her in ways she could never have imagined, and that her own life is about to take a startling new direction.