Read More about Valerie Wilson Wesley

Valerie Wilson Wesley's Tamara Hayle Mysteries

Wesley, a contributing editor to Essence magazine, has filled a major niche in the world of mystery fiction with her Hayle novels.

"Move over, Kinsey and V.I., to make room for Tamara." —Carolyn G. Hart

Dying in the Dark: A Tamara Hayle Mystery
Click to order via Amazon

ISBN: 0345468066
Format: Hardcover, 240pp
Pub. Date: September 28, 2004
Publisher: One World

Valerie Wilson Wesley’s Tamara Hayle mystery series featuring Newark, New Jersey’s number one private investigator are loved for their smart, sexy protagonist who “has a way with a wisecrack that is positively lethal” (Washington Post). Now in Dying in the Dark, Hayle is entrenched in a sinister investigation that will demand her best detective work yet.

Tamara Hayle’s past has come back to haunt her–literally. She’s been plagued by terrifying dreams about Celia Jones, an old friend whose walk on the wild side led her to a horrible death. Celia’s teenage son, Cecil, begs Tamara to find his mother’s killer . . . only to end up dead himself, stabbed through the heart.

The search for Celia and her son’s killer pulls Tamara deep into her friend’s troubled love life, where everyone adored her but somebody held a murderous  grudge. There’s her bullying thug of an ex-husband; a handsome ex-lover who woos Tamara with charm and lies; and an angry, jealous woman who claims that Celia broke her heart. And those were just the obvious people with axes to grind.

Despite her better judgment and the admonitions of the police department, Tamara refuses to back away from the mystery surrounding her old friend’s death and the tragedy that met her son. All clues lead to the past Tamara shared with Celia Jones, and Tamara fears that that past will threaten her own son. But she uncovers more than she bargained for–and unearths secrets someone would kill to keep in the shadows.

When Death Comes Stealing (A Tamara Hayle Mystery)
(Click title or book to buy On-line Now)

Author:  Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher:  Avon Books
Date Published:  June 1995
Format:  Mass Market Paperbound

First in the series

Former policewoman Tamara Hayle is a single mother trying to raise her son while carving out a new career as a private investigator in the urban jungle. Her ex-husband shows up in serious trouble--someone is killing his sons, one-by-one. The police believe the deaths are accidental. With her own son's life in jeopardy, Tamara investigates before the killer strikes again.

Devil's Gonna Get Him (A Tamara Hayle Mystery)
(Click title or book to buy On-line Now)

Author:  Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher:  Avon Books
Date Published:  May 1996
Format:  Mass Market Paperbound

Tamara Hayle's sleuthing skills are put to the ultimate test when her newest, very well-heeled client turns up dead only hours after he hires her. Lincoln Storey, one of the richest, rudest black men in the state of New Jersey, is Tamara's latest client - until he drops dead at his own ritzy fund-raiser the very night he's put Tamara on retainer. When Wyvetta Green's baby sister is charged with the crime, Wyvetta hires Tamara, her friend and upstairs neighbor, to find out who really did it. The problem is that everyone, including baby sister, had a motive, from Storey's not-so-loving wife, to his two jealous mistresses, to his angry stepdaughter, to his resentful partner, to Tamara's ambitious ex-lover - each of whom is better off with Lincoln Storey dead.

Where Evil Sleeps (A Tamara Hayle Mystery)
(Click title or book to buy On-line Now)

Author:  Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher:  Avon Books
Date Published:  May 1997
Format:  Mass Market Paperbound

Tamara Hayle is after some much-needed R&R down in sunny Kingston, Jamaica, when she is befriended by a chatty fellow tourist from Jersey. Against her better judgment, Tamara joins her new friend, Lilah Love and Lilah's two male traveling companions for a night on the town; the result is murder. Tamara suspects Lilah, although that lead eventually turns very cold. More murder, mayhem, and a tryst with a man from her past all put Tamara in the path of a killer, until she finally finds the spot where evil sleeps.

No Hiding Place (A Tamara Hayle Mystery)
(Click title or book to buy On-line Now)

Author:  Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher:  Avon Books
Date Published:  August 1998
Format:  Mass Market Paperbound

When Newark hoodlum Shawn Raymond is killed, his mother, Bessie, hard-earned money in hand, begs Tamara to look into the unsolved murder. According to Bessie, the cops just didn't give a damn, but Tamara is enough of a realist to know the sad truth that gangsters usually end up getting what they deserve. Yet she can also remember a time when Shawn Raymond was an innocent boy, loved and mentored by her dead brother, Johnny. She knows that the void left by Johnny's suicide may have contributed to the bad choices Shawn made. Tied to the Raymonds by grief and memory, Tamara finally agrees to take Shawn Raymond's case. But Tamara finds that the path to the killer leads not only through the city's mean streets and threatened middle class but into her personal life as well, in a terrible, shattering way. More blood will be spilled before Tamara learns her bitter lesson that when it comes to murder and the evil in people's hearts, there truly is no hiding place.

Easier to Kill
(Click title or book to buy On-line Now)

Author:  Valerie Wilson Wesley
Publisher:  Avon Books
Date Published:  July 1999
Format:  Mass Market Paperbound

The fifth novel in the series

Hardcover, 208pp.
Publisher: The Putnam Publishing Group
Pub. Date: June  2000

Tamara Hayle goes undercover in the casinos of Atlantic City to track a runaway teen in this gripping new mystery.

Hailed as one of the best ethnic and female sleuthing mystery series, Valerie Wilson Wesley's Tamara Hayle novels are consistent standouts. "She keeps peeling back layers and layers with a skill and determination that recall Ross MacDonald," says Kirkus Reviews. Now, in her sixth Hayle mystery, Wesley mines the intersection of African-American rich and poor caught in the crossroads of Atlantic City.

Darnella Desmond, stepdaughter to wealthy Foster Desmond, leaves her plush home for the wilds of Atlantic City, eschewing all contact with her family. When Darnella's last-known roommate is murdered, apparently by a serial killer stalking Atlantic City's vulnerable runaway population, Darnella's mother hires Tamara Hayle to track her daughter down.

As her investigation brings her closer to Darnella, Tamara discovers that at the heart of the young woman's disappearance lie two generations' worth of familial perversity--and a legacy of betrayal that threatens to undo the Desmond family.

Rich in the vices and delights of Atlantic City, freighted with characters whose passions too often lead to murder, The Devil Riding finds Valerie Wilson Wesley at her tempting best.