A Glimmer of Death

by Valerie Wilson Wesley

Overview

Award-winning author Valerie Wilson Wesley launches a thrilling new mystery series set in New Jersey, featuring a multicultural cast, and starring a caterer-turned-realtor with the gift of second sight...

In the first of a thrilling new series, one woman's extraordinary psychic gift plunges her already-troubled present into chaos—and puts her future in someone's deadly sights...

Until now, Odessa Jones' inherited ability to read emotions and foretell danger has protected her. But second sight didn't warn her she would soon be a widow—and about to lose her home and the catering business she's worked so hard to build. The only things keeping Dessa going are her love for baking and her sometimes-mellow cat, Juniper. Unfortunately, putting her life back together means taking a gig at an all-kinds-of-shady real estate firm run by volatile owner Charlie Risko...

Until Charlie is brutally killed—and Dessa's bullied co-worker is arrested for murder. Dessa can't be sure who's guilty. But it doesn't take a psychic to discover that everyone from Charlie's much-abused staff to his long-suffering younger wife had multiple reasons to want him dead. And as Dessa follows a trail of lies through blackmail, dead-end clues, and corruption, she needs to see the truth fast—or a killer will bury her deep down with it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496727787
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Series:	An Odessa Jones Mystery
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	113,181
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Valerie Wilson Wesley is the award-winning author of the Blackboard bestselling Tamara Hayle Mystery Series and the Odessa Jones Mysteries, as well as adult fiction, children's books, and paranormal romance (under the name Savanna Welles). She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Excellence in Adult Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the National Association of Black Journalists Griot Award, the Amigirls Book Club Author of the Year and the Literary Beacon Award from the national Go On Girls Book Club. A former executive editor of Essence® Magazine and Sisters in Crime board member, she is currently an artist-in-residence at the Cicely Tyson School of Performing Arts in East Orange, New Jersey. Wesley is a graduate of Howard University and holds master's degrees from the Bank Street College of Education and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is married to noted screenwriter and playwright Richard Wesley and has two adult daughters. She can be found online at ValerieWilsonWesley.com.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for A GLIMMER OF DEATH

“There's crispness in Wesley’s plotting and sparkle in the supporting characters, notably Dessa’s feisty, elderly aunts – both possessed of extrasensory gifts –  and a possible love interest in ex-cop Lennox Royal. There’s also something oddly comforting about a Black woman in fiction who isn’t weighed down by societal pathology and who can appreciate a good glass of Merlot and reruns of “Downton Abbey” as much as the next woman. In between heavier mystery fare, this unicorn of  a Black cozy is a welcome palate cleanser.” - The Los Angeles Times 

“The creator of Newark private eye Tamara Hayle dials back the wisecracks and bumps up the paranormal hints to launch a new series featuring a widowed African American realtor whose workplace is a hot mess.”- Kirkus Reviews

​“Widow Odessa Jones, the psychically gifted narrator of this strong series launch from Wesley, can see glimmers, auralike colors that correspond to a person’s emotional state…Wesley perfectly captures her protagonist’s emotions, including the lingering melancholy she feels for her late husband…Readers will hope to see a lot more of kind, empathetic Odessa.”- Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2020-11-18
The creator of Newark private eye Tamara Hayle dials back the wisecracks and bumps up the paranormal hints to launch a new series featuring a widowed African American realtor whose workplace is a hot mess.

Losing her husband and their baking partnership, D&D Delights, a year ago was a double blow to Odessa Jones. Her job with Risko Realty in the fictional New Jersey suburb of Grovesville hasn’t begun to make up for her losses; as her boss, Charlie Risko, constantly reminds her, she has yet to sell her first house. On the plus side, she has second sight. To the frustration of her Aunt Phoenix, the “glimmer girl” who’s her authority on all things extrasensory, Dessa hasn’t learned to manage her gift. But it does seem that when she smells nutmeg, as she does one day at the office, death is in the air—in this case, the death of Charlie Risko, shot with the gun he was always playfully waving at his agents. There’s no lack of suspects, since Charlie was a tough man to like, and his much younger widow, Tanya, shows up at his memorial service with an array of bruises. The local cops, finding young realtor Harley Wilde’s fingerprints on the murder weapon, promptly arrest him, but Dessa can’t believe he’d pull the trigger despite his bouts of PTSD. Dessa’s no better an amateur sleuth than she is a paranormal conduit, and justice isn’t done until after two more of her colleagues die.

Less detection than baking—but the baking is nearly as urgent as in Mildred Pierce.

Kirkus Reviews