Lost in the Garden of Eve

Nancy Drew meets P-Valley in a unique blend of thrilling crime fiction, timely social commentary, and the power of sisterhood in this captivating homage to the ＂lesser dead＂ for readers of Rachel Howzell Hall, Kellye Garrett, Wanda M. Morris, and Denise Mina. When former Atlanta stripper-turned-reporter Keke McCoy finds fame after solving the gruesome ritualistic murder of a fellow dancer, she’s tapped to investigate the unsolved disappearance of underage dancers from her teenage stomping grounds, The Pimp Palace.

Keke’s head is still spinning--and not just because of the hit she took securing a bombshell confession for her last story. On top of her full-time job with the Metro Journal, Keke now has an online column devoted to exposing unsolved murders of young people of color. She’s also freelancing as an investigative journalist in Indian Springs, where she maintains her rekindled relationship with her former employer and mentor, Honey Pot club owner Josephine ＂HoneyMama＂ Thibodeaux.

Keke’s Metro boss, Charlie, isn’t impressed with her extracurricular fame, but she’s soon back at her teenage stomping grounds, The Pimp Palace, where several off-the-books, underage dancers have gone missing under suspicious circumstances. When she unearths troubling connections between some of the cases, Keke calls on the assistance of Detective Drew Lewis--her former man, occasional lover--and maybe her future . . .

To up their game, Keke and Drew realize they need someone on the inside. Keke recruits Dulce, a talented Honey Pot dancer and one of the victim’s girlfriends who helped to crack the last case. Even HoneyMama is willing to put her neck on the line--again--to find out what happened, since several of the victims’ belongings included her contact information.

With a common mission, all involved dive down a very dangerous, very corrupt rabbit hole no one saw coming--except the mastermind who anxiously awaits their fall--especially Keke’s . . .

L. Divine is an educator and the acclaimed author of The Keke McCoy Mysteries and the YA series, Drama High. She is a Faucet Book Award-winner whose novels have been praised by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Essence, Ebony, and more. A former teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, she has as Master’s from UCLA in African American Studies and Educational Psychology and served as a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women. She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her daughter and son.