Trouble in Queenstown

Audiobook

English language

Published July 16, 2024 by Macmillan Audio.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-35059-6
OCLC Number:: 1446435332
ASIN:: B0CKLY7ZQZ
Audible ASIN:: B0CKLZVYXY
Goodreads:: 214479226

(1 review)

With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, and family with thrilling results.

Evander “Vandy” Myrick became a cop to fulfill her father’s expectations. After her world cratered, she became a private eye to satisfy her own. Now she's back in Queenstown, New Jersey, her childhood home, in search of solace and recovery. It's a small community of nine thousand souls crammed into twelve square miles, fenced by cornfields, warehouses, pharma labs, and tract housing. As a Black woman, privacy is hard to come by in "Q-Town," and worth guarding.

For Vandy, that means working plenty of divorce cases. They’re nasty, lucrative, and fun in an unwholesome way. To keep the cash flowing and expand her local contacts, Vandy agrees to take on a new client, the mayor’s nephew, Leo Hannah. Leo wants Vandy to tail his wife …

With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, and family with thrilling results.

Evander “Vandy” Myrick became a cop to fulfill her father’s expectations. After her world cratered, she became a private eye to satisfy her own. Now she's back in Queenstown, New Jersey, her childhood home, in search of solace and recovery. It's a small community of nine thousand souls crammed into twelve square miles, fenced by cornfields, warehouses, pharma labs, and tract housing. As a Black woman, privacy is hard to come by in "Q-Town," and worth guarding.

For Vandy, that means working plenty of divorce cases. They’re nasty, lucrative, and fun in an unwholesome way. To keep the cash flowing and expand her local contacts, Vandy agrees to take on a new client, the mayor’s nephew, Leo Hannah. Leo wants Vandy to tail his wife to uncover evidence for a divorce suit.

At first the surveillance job seems routine, but Vandy soon realizes there’s trouble beneath the bland surface of the case when a racially charged murder with connections to the Hannah family rocks Q-Town. Fingers point. Clients appear. Opposition to the inquiry hardens. And Vandy’s sight lines begin to blur as her determination to uncover the truth deepens. She’s a minor league PI with few friends and no resources. Logic pegs her chances of solving the case between slim and hell no. But logic isn’t her strong suit. Vandy won’t back off.

1 edition

Phil in SF reviewed Trouble in Queenstown by Delia Pitts (The Vandy Myrick Mysteries, #1)

Starts interesting but gets increasingly more dumb

2 stars

Evander Myrick is the daughter of revered Queenstown police officer Evander Myrick, now a resident in a memory care facility. She's a former police officer herself, now starting a private investigations business. She's hired to find out if the wife of the mayor's nephew is cheating on him. She's wants the job because the mayor's connections will get her business for years to come. Just as she's about to report that nothing much is happening, the wife is murdered and the nephew has killed the murderer.

The villains are mustache-twirlers. They are also intent on monologuing their crimes to Evander. She is intent on not fucking recording them when they monologue. Or even investigating. Of course, neither are the police. So the big baddy is going to get away with it!

But then, the Lex Luthor of Queenstown inexplicably decides to make a run for it even though they are …

Evander Myrick is the daughter of revered Queenstown police officer Evander Myrick, now a resident in a memory care facility. She's a former police officer herself, now starting a private investigations business. She's hired to find out if the wife of the mayor's nephew is cheating on him. She's wants the job because the mayor's connections will get her business for years to come. Just as she's about to report that nothing much is happening, the wife is murdered and the nephew has killed the murderer.

The villains are mustache-twirlers. They are also intent on monologuing their crimes to Evander. She is intent on not fucking recording them when they monologue. Or even investigating. Of course, neither are the police. So the big baddy is going to get away with it!

But then, the Lex Luthor of Queenstown inexplicably decides to make a run for it even though they are winning. Thus sealing their guilt. OK, they're leaving town and getting away. But then... they turn around and come back, also for no reason except the author needs to have a big confrontation with the big bad guy.

But then, right after that her father (yes, he's there for the confrontation) remembers her name for the only time in the book. This is the emotional piece that Evander needed to feel complete, despite that never really being part of the emotional chasm that is our main character. Lots of other stuff is melodramatically and emotionally wrong with her at strange times, and usually when a side character that Evander has no reason to unload on, is present.

The plot is only coherent as a series of movie scenes where nothing lines up between them. I have no idea why this got a featured blurb in the Washington Post. This is not for readers. It's for someone who wants B-movie scenes in a book.

Lists

Passes the "Bechdel Test"