The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum (A Harriet Stone Mystery)
After all her family dies, Harriet Tubman Stone cannot maintain her life in Hartford, Connecticut. Twenty-six and educated as a teacher, she doesn’t have a job and is responsible for twelve-year-old Lovey, taken in by her father seven years earlier after she was orphaned. While worrying about their next move, Harriet receives a letter from her father’s cousin, Junetta, inviting her to come to Harlem, where she runs a boarding house for single women, adding that everything is new in Harlem. Since Harriet and Lovey have no place else to go, they use the money Junetta sent to travel to New York City. When Junetta collects them at Penn Station, they don’t know what to make of her. Harriet is surprised at the shabbiness of her house, but at least they have a place to sleep for the night. In the early hours she hears an argument downstairs, and next morning Junetta is found dead at the bottom of her staircase.
“Nothing is as it seems” could be the bywords of this book. The colorful cast of characters includes the boarders Hoyt, a token Black policeman; Junetta’s lawyer, who lives next door with his wife and takes Lovey under his wing; and friends whose relationships to Junetta are hazy. To her shock, Harriet inherits Junetta’s brownstone. The murder mystery unfolds along with her confused sense of obligation. She hesitates to ask prying questions, yet there’s much she needs to know. Valerie Wilson Wesley creates a vivid portrait of Harlem in 1926, where new music, culture, and possibilities for Black people (then called Negroes) flourish, but danger is ever present. By the end, Harriet has mastered enough sleuthing skills that Hoyt suggests she become a private investigator, so a sequel will be forthcoming. Includes discussion questions.
