Chase Harlem

For fans of Terri Parlato's All the Dark Places and Kate Alice Marshall's What Lies in the Woods, a suspenseful mystery set in the heart of New Orleans, where an ex-FBI agent confronts crime, chaos, and dark secrets.

In the colorful chaos of New Orleans, Chase Harlem has three essentials for happiness: her trusted red Converse, a reliable taser, and a good sense of humor to survive it all. All she wants is a simple life – morning jogs in cemeteries, jazz that soothes the soul, and enough quirky cases to pay the bills without summoning her FBI past.

But when a priest waltzes into her office with a divine mandate to crack a grisly double homicide involving an LSU football star and his actress girlfriend, Chase's plans for peace get thrown out like last week's gumbo, especially when the priest's estranged son lands square in the NOPD's crosshairs.

With her best friend, a "maybe" boyfriend, and a teenage neighbor who's too curious for her own good, Chase dives headfirst into a case that reminds her why she took up drinking in the first place.

From jazz joints to voodoo shops, Chase Harlem's escapades through the Big Easy are a mix of mayhem and mirth as she juggles clues, cocktails, and the occasional alligator. Can she crack the case before it cracks her, or will she end up as the city's next ghost tour attraction?

In this puzzle through the Crescent City, author Elise Burke Brown serves up a gumbo of mystery, mischief, and a side of sass that'll leave readers thinking of the story long after the final page turns.

Elise comes from a family of detectives, including a grandfather who filled her childhood with true crime stories she learned not to repeat at daycare. Her debut novel won 2023 Killer Nashville Claymore Award for best unpublished investigator manuscript as well as the 2021 Monroe-Walton Award for best new author. She's had stories and poetry published in Sojourn Literary Magazine, Dewpoint Literary Magazine, The Moonlit Road, The Dark Sire Literary Magazine, and Southern Quill. She's also sold stories to the podcast, Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. She runs the popular book blog, https://coupleofbeesread.com/.