Trouble in Queenstown

February 1, 2024

The author of the "Ross Agency" mysteries starts a new series featuring a Black woman named Vandy who once worked as a cop but is now working as a PI. Her main beat is divorces, including that of the mayor's nephew--who lands her in the middle of a high-stakes case. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2024

It's hard enough to be a Black woman cop, but then Vandy Myrick's world was shattered, spurring her to move back to her hometown of Queenstown, NJ, to become a private investigator. In one of her many divorce cases, Leo Hannah, the mayor's nephew, asks Vandy to spend a week following his wife, Ivy. He gives her several reasons: she might have a lover; he's thinking about a divorce; she has a stalker; no, maybe Leo is the one with the stalker. The morning Vandy is to turn in her report to Leo, she walks in on a tragedy at his house. There's a dead man on the floor, Ivy is dying, and Leo says he killed the stalker, a Latino taxi driver. The police quickly close the case because the mayor wants it resolved. But Vandy has two paying clients who want to know the truth behind the deaths. Her loved ones and her life are threatened, but she's determined to find the answers in a murder case that reeks of racism and political corruption. VERDICT The author of the "Ross Agency Mysteries" introduces another damaged character in an intriguing private eye story that examines family and roots.--Lesa Holstine

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Starred review from May 13, 2024
In this promising series launch, Pitts (the Ross Agency Mysteries) introduces PI Vandy Myrick, the self-described “toughest bitch” in Queenstown, N.J. After her daughter died of an overdose at a college party, Vandy quit the Philadelphia police department and returned home to Queenstown. Her detective agency is a downgrade from her police work—most of her cases involve collecting evidence against philandering spouses—but it pays well and keeps her busy. Things go south, however, after she’s hired by Leo Hannah, the nephew of Queenstown’s mayor, to gather information about his wife, Ivy. When Vandy arrives at the Hannahs’ home to deliver her report, she finds a bloody crime scene. Leo says he found a man—taxi driver Hector Ramírez—attacking Ivy with a hammer and shot him, but not before Ivy was killed. Vandy isn’t convinced the answer is so straightforward and sets out to investigate. In the process, she reconnects with her high school flame, who’s now Queenstown’s chief of police, and learns discomfiting truths about the racial tensions rippling through her hometown. With an indelible lead and a richly rendered setting, Pitts sets this series up for success. Readers will clamor for the next installment.

June 1, 2024
Pitts launches a new series with an apparently routine case for a Black New Jersey private eye that morphs into another case, and then another and another, as she struggles to keep up with its twists and turns. Leo Hannah, deputy head of research at ArcDev Pharmaceuticals and the unofficial prince of Queenstown, wants Evander Myrick to follow his wife because he's convinced she's in danger. Except she isn't; he really wants Vandy to follow Ivy Mae Hannah because he thinks she's cheating on him. His worries are soon ended by an episode at his home that leaves Ivy dead along with Hector Ram�rez, the intruder who Leo says was beating her to death when Leo shot him. None of this smells right to Vandy, and the fact that Leo's aunt, Josephine Hannah, has been the mayor of Queenstown forever just makes it smell worse. So she's fine to take on a new client--Ivy's father, Professor Samuel Decker--who hires her to prove that Leo killed his daughter, and still another client, Hector's sister, 16-year-old Ingrid Ram�rez, who hires her to clear her brother's name. Unsurprisingly, there turns out to be trouble aplenty in Queenstown, and it reaches deep into the mayor's office. The surprise is how closely it's connected to Vandy's own family, especially to her father and namesake, a former cop who's now in a nursing home where you'd think he'd be entitled to a much quieter life than his author has planned for him. A darkly atmospheric debut whose heroine just might want to reconsider her decision not to carry a gun next time.

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June 1, 2024
Pitts introduces us to Private Investigator Vandy Myrick in this start to a new mystery series set in fictional Queenstown, New Jersey. Vandy is a Black woman who left home, intent on never looking back, but returned to start over after a personal tragedy. To expand her clientele, Vandy decides to accept a case from Leo Hannah, the mayor's nephew. Leo needs evidence for divorce proceedings against his wife, Ivy, and Vandy believes the case will be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, the case explodes when Ivy and a mysterious man are found dead in the Hannahs' home. The case is closed quickly, but Vandy is forced to look at her own biases and mistakes when she is hired to uncover the truth by multiple clients, all of whom are connected to Ivy. Vandy is determined to seek justice, even if that means making some powerful enemies. Vandy is a realistic, tough woman who refuses to quit, and her inner thoughts are fun to read. Although this is a mystery novel, it also deals with grief, race, classism, and family.

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