Ten top crime books by writers of color

Tracy Clark is the author of the highly acclaimed Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving African American PI who works the mean streets of the Windy City dodging cops, cons, and killers. Clark received Anthony Award and Lefty Award nominations for her series debut, Broken Places, which was shortlisted for the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Broken Places has since been optioned by Sony Pictures Television. Clark’s short story “For Services Rendered” appears in the anthology Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors. She is the winner of the 2020 and 2022 G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award, also receiving a 2022 nomination for the Edgar Award for best short story for “Lucky Thirteen,” which appears in the crime fiction anthology Midnight Hour.

Clark's new novel is Hide.

[Q&A with Tracy Clark; My Book, The Movie: What You Don’t See; Writers Read: Tracy Clark (July 2021); The Page 69 Test: Runner; The Page 69 Test: Hide]

At CrimeReads she tagged "a few of the crime books by writers of color readers should not miss out on. I say a few because this list doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. The bench is deep." One title on the list:

Winter Counts, by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Weiden, a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, brings us a heart-thumping story of vigilantism on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When Virgil Wounded Horse’s nephew nearly dies of a heroin overdose, Virgil sets out to find who’s bringing the drug into his community to save his family and his people, and he doesn’t do it pretty. Tough, visceral, unapologetic, Weiden pulls no punches here, and it’s a wild ride.

Read about another entry on the list.

Winter Counts is among Erin E. Adams's seven novels that use mystery to examine race, S.F. Kosa's top ten psychological thrillers, Stephen Miller's favorite crime fiction of 2020, Molly Odintz's six favorite titles from the "new wave of thrillers where the oppressed get some well-earned revenge," and Jennifer Baker's top twelve mystery novels featuring BIPOC protagonists.

The Page 69 Test: Winter Counts.

My Book, The Movie: Winter Counts.

Q&A with David Heska Wanbli Weiden.

--Marshal Zeringue