Who is Persia Walker, Mystery Author

"A murder mystery set among the black bourgeoisie, it is also the heady tale of a bygone era ... compelling family intrigue and a full, vibrant portrait of that storied era when Harlem's pulse was the rhythm of black America."
-The Boston Globe

"As much a story of lies, deceit and murder as it is a commentary on race and class, Harlem Redux is filled with colorful characters."
-Chicago Tribune

"Sexy."
-New York Daily News

It is 1926, the heart of the Roaring Twenties, and Harlem is the place to be. Four years after dropping out of Harlem Renaissance society, David McKay, a handsome lawyer from a prominent Strivers' Row family, returns to New York, devastated by the news of his sister's suicide.

Why did Lilian take her life? Why did she marry a stranger and him a claim to the family home? Why did she feel compelled to keep her marriage a secret?

Burdened by a secret of his own, McKay dares to stay in Harlem to stave off the threat to his family home and answer questions about Lilian's death. He rediscovers the world of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, a place of suffocating class strictures, seductive patrons, and aristocratic civil rights leaders. His inquiry takes him from the wealthy salons of Renaissance Harlem to the crowded tenements of its poor. He uncovers old loves and festering hatreds.

The deeper he probes, the closer he comes to unleashing forces that threaten to reveal his own crippling secret - one that could destroy or redeem him.

This gripping mystery book, taut and lyrical, brings toether elements of the suspense and hard-boiled genres, evokes the mystique of Harlem's most fascinating era. Absorbing and powerful, Harlem Redux combines incisive comment on race and class with a tragic tale of unrequited love.

"A page-turning thriller infused with pockets of romance."
--APOOO Book Club

"Lanie Price is not just Easy Rollins in a dress."
--Alan Symonette, Philadelphia

SYNOPSIS:

In December 1923, Esther Todd was a lovely young pianist, a rising star. One month later, she was on the Most Wanted List. She had vanished along the snowy streets of a stormy night in Harlem and thieves had hit the home of her society patron, pulling off a million- dollar heist.

Were the disappearance and the robbery coincidence or conspiracy? Somebody knew, but nobody was talking. Three years later, the puzzles remained unsolved.

As a crime reporter, Lanie Price covered the initial case. Now a frustrated society columnist, she's ready for a change. It comes in the form of Esther's sister, Ruth.

Desperate for closure, Ruth begs Lanie to dedicate her Christmas column to the case. Maybe someone, somewhere will remember something. Seeking fresh material, Lanie starts asking hard questions, dangerous questions, the kind just about guaranteed to get her killed.

AMAZON REVIEW

"Walker has the atmosphere of the Harlem Renaissance just right. She knows the time and place so well she appears to have been there and takes the reader along in trying to find a missing woman in the no-man's land between black and white.

"After a splashy, stunning opening, we travel many twists and turns through a socially careful Harlem, New York in which money, influence, and sometimes color, reign. A smart, courageous society reporter for a black newspaper, Lanie Price, cares not just about the missing Esther Todd, but the vanished woman's family. The story is Lanie's as she tries to find out what happened to Esther and if the black woman was involved in the spectacular, shocking robbery of wealthy guests of her white society mentor.

"[Darkness and the Devil Behind Me] is a compelling read providing all the ingredients of a top-flight mystery. Lanie Price is down-to-earth, authentic, and a heroine readers will want to follow throughout--along with other well-sketched characters.

Then, too, the book is expertly plotted, and the story isn't over until it's over, so anyone who picks up this novel won't be able to put it down.
-- G. Miki Hayden