What is the title of your latest release?
EDGE
What’s the elevator pitch for your new book?
Chicago cops hunt the source of a tainted party drug called EDGE that has bodies falling right and left in the city. Tensions rise as the case hits far too close to home, impacting one of their own.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
No decision. I write crime novels set in Chicago. Write what you know, right?
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
I would, and I’d feel as safe as houses, seeing as Det. Harriet Foster is highly capable and a real bad ass. Also, she’d be interesting to talk to, if she’d take the time.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Tenacious, intelligent, principled.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Every time I write a book I learn how to write a better one. The more you write, the better you get at it. I’m always pleased to find another way to build a better mousetrap.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I’m pretty careful while drafting, cleaning up as I go along, so that at the end, I don’t have a big mess staring me in the face. Consequently, I write very slowly.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Don’t have one. I’m no foodie. I have the palate of a five-year-old. Give me a good Chicago hot dog and a bag of Jays potato chips and I’m good.
Describe your writing space/office!
I write in my den. My desk is there, my laptop, a couch, a printer, my books, my swivel chair, my rubber duckies, tchotchkes, my tub of writing Twizzlers. All I need.
Who is an author you admire?
Oh, so many. Honestly, I admire all authors. As a kid, I thought writers were magical people. I now realize they’re just human beings capable of creating entire worlds in their heads. It’s work, a craft, but they’re all really cool. Soft spot, though, for Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Eleanor Taylor Bland. Oh, the list could go on and on. There are so many wonderful writers out there.
Is there a book that changed your life?
To Kill a Mockingbird. This is hands down my favorite book. I keep a copy close. I re-read it often. It’s good storytelling, but the cadence, the rhythm of the sentences, the vibrancy of the imagery always blows me away.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was at work, and an email came in from my agent that said “we have a deal.” After more than 20 years of querying and nothing happening, after finally getting an agent, after weeks of a bidding war for that first novel, which I, honestly, didn’t understand, we had a deal. I got up from my desk, took a little walk to let it sink in. I was going to be published. Finally. I breathed a sigh of relief, I smiled but kept the news to myself in the office. Then I called my Mom, then she called everybody in the family. Then I was off to the races.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Crime fiction, traditional mysteries, suspense. Anything with a puzzle, anything with a dead body staked through the heart with pruning shears in a good, solid Agatha Christie, something darker, twistier, grittier with a serial killer on the loose or something with an intrepid PI or determined, flawed cop in it. But I’ll read just about anything, if it’s good.
What’s your favorite movie?
I’ve got a lot, but I can watch The Ghost and Mr. Chicken starring Don Knotts every time it airs. It’s silly, but it’s fun. By now, I know most of the dialogue but it still makes me laugh.
What is your favorite season?
Fall, definitely. Sweater weather. Apple cider, crisp fallen leaves, a blustery wind. LOVE it. I am not a summer person. That’s my least favorite season. I grin and bear it, but perk up mid-October. Winter is my second favorite season.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Without all the hoopla. A nice dinner, a nice cake, let’s wrap this up, already, Murder, She Wrote is on at six.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I really like Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast. It’s clever, funny. I’m a big Poehler fan. I’m just now reading Tess Gerritsen’s The Spy Coast. It’s fantastic. There’s a sequel I can’t wait to get to.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
It used to be Chinese food. As a kid, I could have eaten it every day. Now at my advanced age, I’ve had my fill. I enjoy seafood, though.
What do you do when you have free time?
Read, read, read. Hang out with friends and family that I’ve neglected while writing. Watch old movies. Get my car washed. Or I’ll pop in one of my Broadway cast albums and sing along. I’m partial to Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe, but I like the newer stuff too.
What can readers expect from you next?
My next novel, YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME, comes out next year. It’s my first standalone, and it’s a cat-and-mouse with, hopefully, a lot of interesting twists and turns. I say, hopefully, because I never know how a book’s going to turn out until I’ve finished it. Fingers crossed.
Detective Harriet Foster #4
When a tainted drug starts claiming lives across the city, Detective Harriet Foster and her team race to track down the source…before it takes one of their own.
Chicago’s finest are scouring the city for a tainted new opioid making the rounds, but they’re coming up empty. With five people already dead—a college kid, a new mother, and three poker players—all they really know is the drug’s name: Edge. Where it’s coming from is still anyone’s guess.
Detective Harriet Foster doesn’t have time for guessing games. She needs answers. And when the next overdose hits Homicide where it hurts most, Harri is determined to get what she wants. But keeping her eyes squarely on the prize proves harder than expected.
Still reeling from her last case (and the stain of suspicion it left on her career), Harri finds herself at a tipping point. The drug isn’t the only edge she needs to worry about. If she can’t come back from her own, there’s no telling whether this investigation will lead to a satisfying conclusion…or her own demise.
Multicultural African-American | Thriller Political | Mystery Police Procedural [ Thomas & Mercer, On Sale: December 2, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781662517358 / eISBN: 9781662517341 ]
A native of Chicago, she works as an editor in the newspaper industry and roots for the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks equally. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writer of Color, and Sisters in Crime, and serves on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference.
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