Open Books Challenge 2025: BIPOC Mystery Author

Updated December 26, 2024
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Dead dead girls
Afia, Nekesa
Paper Book
Louise spends her days working at Maggie's Cafe and her nights at the Zodiac, Manhattan's hottest speakeasy. When a girl turns up dead in front of the cafe, Louise is forced to confront something she's been trying to ignore - several local black girls have been murdered over the past few weeks....
Firekeeper's daughter
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! A Printz Medal AND Morris Award Winner! Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.
It's elementary
Bryant, Elise
Paper Book
A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant. Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter...
The family Chao : a novel
Chang, Lan Samantha
Paper Book
The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant's delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and...
Runner
Clark, Tracy
Paper Book
"Lapel-grabbing and provocative...Clark writes with purpose, her sense of social justice never venturing into dogma but remaining fully rooted in Raines's actions and personality." - The New York Times Book Review "Clark has a unique voice in the P.I. genre, one that us...
Looking for smoke
Cobell, K. A.
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a thriller that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word. A must-pick for readers who enjoy books by...
Razorblade tears
Cosby, S. A.
Paper Book
*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* One of Barack Obama's Recommended Reads for Summer * New York Times Notable Book * NPR's Best Books of 2021 * Washington Post's Best Thriller and Mystery Books of the Year * TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books...
Missing white woman
Garrett, Kellye
Paper Book
A "propulsive page-turner" (Alyssa Cole) and "thriller not to be missed" (Michael Connelly) from the award-winning author of Like a Sister, in which a woman thinks she's waking up to a romantic vacation--only to find a body in her rental home and her boyfriend gone. ...
The storyteller
Hobson, Brandon
Paper Book
From National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson, a kaleidoscopic middle-grade adventure that mixes the anxieties, friendships, and wonders of a Cherokee boy's life with Cherokee history and lore. Ziggy has ANXIETY. Partly this is because of the way his mind works, and how overwhelmed he...
Blackwater Falls
Khan, Ausma Zehanat
Paper Book
From critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, Blackwater Falls is the first in a timely and powerful crime series, introducing Detective Inaya Rahman. "A gripping and compulsive mystery, but much more than that: an exploration of faith, prejudice and fear of...
Sheine Lende : a prequel to Elatsoe
Little Badger, Darcie
Paper Book
Best of the Year: NPR - Common Sense Media - BookPage - Kirkus Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can't afford to pay. Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago...
Guide me home
Locke, Attica
Paper Book
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Amazon Books, Kirkus Reviews, The Guardian, and Crime Reads In this stunning culmination of the award-winning Highway 59 trilogy, Detective Darren Mathews is pulled out of an early...
Arsenic and adobo
Manansala, Mia P.
Paper Book
In the small town of Shady Palms, Illinois, Lila Macapagal and her relatives run Tita Rosie's Kitchen, serve delicious Flipino dishes, and solve crimes on the side.
The widows of Malabar Hill
Massey, Sujata
Paper Book
Bombay, 1921: Perveen Mistry, the daughter of a respected Zoroastrian family, has just joined her father's law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, Perveen also has a tragic personal history that makes her especially devoted to championing and...
Tristan Strong keeps punching
Mbalia, Kwame
Paper Book
Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the finale of Kwame Mbalia's trilogy, in which Tristan Strong faces off with his archenemy, King Cotton, once and for all. "Imagine if you combined Anansi the Spider, John Henry, and Marvel into, like, one book."--New York Times best...
The Bangalore Detectives Club
Nagendra, Harini
Paper Book
A "">New York Times Notable Book of the Year The first in a charming, joyful crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband Ramu. Perfect for fans of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies...
Sugar Town queens
Nunn, Malla
Paper Book
From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals. When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her...
The verifiers
Pek, Jane
Paper Book
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF THE YEAR * Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people's online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until...
Goldie Vance : the hocus-pocus hoax
Rivera, Lilliam
Paper Book
Move over, Nancy Drew -- there's a new detective in town! Inspired by the beloved comic series, Goldie Vance is ready to sleuth her way through never-before-seen mysteries in this second original novel by Lilliam Rivera featuring 8 full-color comic pages! ...
Secret identity : a novel
Segura, Alex
Paper Book
From Anthony Award-winning writer Alex Segura comes Secret Identity, a rollicking literary mystery set in the world of comic books. It's 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn't care. She's an assistant at Triumph Comics, which doesn't...
Harvest house
Smith, Cynthia Leitich
Paper Book
NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith delivers a thrilling cross-genre follow-up to the acclaimed Hearts Unbroken. Deftly leading readers to the literary crossroads of contemporary realism and haunting mystery, Cynthia...
This town sleeps : a novel
Staples, Dennis E.
Paper Book
A "tender, suspenseful, irresistible first novel" that explores Indigenous legend, queer relationship, and the power of landscape and lineage to shape our lives (Louise Erdrich, author of The Round House). An unsolved murder becomes the fixation of an Indigenous...
Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers /
Sutanto, Jesse Q.
Paper Book
A USA Today bestseller Edgar Award Winner for Best Original Paperback Audie Award Winner for Mystery Libby Award Winner for Best Mystery A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by...

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