Skip to main content
Book Review
Reviewed: 29 January 2024

Trouble in Queenstown

by: Della Pitts

A Mystery

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starstar outlinestar outline (3/5)

The more they try to stop her, the more PI Vandy Myrick wants to find out the truth

Vandy, a black female private investigator in Queenstown is working to solve the murder of Ivy Hannah and Hector Ramirez. Though having grown up in the area, she’d been away, only returning a few months earlier. She’s got a lot on her plate, her new PI business, seeing her dad is taken care of, and healing after a personal tragedy.

As she works the case, she bonds with Ivy’s father and Hector’s sister. Unfortunately, this bond puts them, her friend Mavis, and her father, for whom she was named after, in peril.

Old friendships and plain ole street smarts help Vandy find the killer, plus a few other secrets someone doesn’t want her to uncover.

The book was well written with themes of community, not judging a book by its cover, grief, and more. 

For me, I didn’t connect as much with Vandy as I had hoped. That being said, because of the story and other characters, if there is another, which was hinted at, I would continue. My curiosity on how Vandy and others evolve, especially what’s next for them (you’ll see what I mean when you get to the end). I also would like to see more of Elissa and Belle, Vandy’s partners who mostly vanish from the second half of the book.

Thank you to #NetGalley  for the opportunity to do an early read and share my thoughts on the story. 

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 16-July-2024
Female Sleuth, NetGalley, Mystery

Plot Summary

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.