A lush and haunting novel of a city steeped in decadent pleasures . . . and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal.
It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d'Orleans when the evenings festivities are interrupted—by murder.
Ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city's finest company, has...

"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and...

A confrontation with a teacher and a family crisis force high school senior Cerulean Gene to drop out of twelfth grade and derails their dreams of moving cross-country and living off the grid.

On Kwanzaa's eve a young boy cannot hold in his delight, as his family gathers together and lights a candle for each Kwanzaa night.

"Sidney Thompson tells the story of the early career of one of the greatest deputy U.S. Marshals in American history, Bass Reeves, and his life as a slave before he became a lawman"--

Now back at Riverbend Middle, social media loving tween Hasani tries to prove her former friend, and fellow witch, LaToya, is responsible for the recent chaos at school.

Sixteen-year-old Ebony is devastated when her family moves from Houston to her grandmother's house in the country, but in her new small Texas town, she pushes her boundaries until she realizes she may have gone too far.

"Sophomore Kalvin Shmelton has finally perfected his underground candy-selling hustle at school. He keeps his prices reasonable, his inventory fresh, and himself out of the drama. But when a heartbroken Sterling Glistern, Kal's longtime crush, barges into the storage closet where he keeps his candy supply, a new source of income unexpectedly presents itself: relationship therapist. He only meant to help Sterling realize she's dating a jerk, and maybe...

"In Atlanta, Kenny Bomar is a biochemist-turned-coffee-shop-owner in denial about his divorce and grieving his stillborn daughter. Chemicals killed their child, leaching from a type of plant the government is hiding in Black neighborhoods. Kenny's coping mechanisms are likewise chemical and becoming more baroque--from daily injections of lethal snake venom to manufacturing designer drugs. As his grief turns corrosive, it taints every person he touches....

During Black History Month, Ryan learns more about her ancestors and local Black pioneers, and their hopes for her generation.