Böcker av Nikki Baker

A Virginia Kelly Mystery, Book 4 - Tensions at the investment firm where Virginia Kelly toils are through the roof: a lucrative buy-out offer from a competing company has partners and associates at odds. Easy street? You have to be on "the" list. Then, during a companywide merger pitch, Whytebread's CEO Wes Winslow falls ill at the podium and dies that evening. Food poisoning? Or murder? The entrance of police detective Cassandra Hope, an ex-girlfriend, puts Virginia in the middle of the investigation. If it's murder, the deal falls through. Virginia sees it as her duty to help solve the crime. Suspects multiply: plenty of people were angry with the CEO, including a charmingly flirtatious golden boy with excellent golf scores, a tediously jealous wife, and a cohort of fringe employees who are too old, too gay, too brown, or too female to be taken seriously at the firm. Cassandra wants the inside dirt and, though angered by her presumptuous demands, Virginia still can't say no to anything Cassie wants. With a multi-million dollar payoff at stake, Virginia agrees to be the detective's eyes and ears. But can Virginia trust anyone? Including rekindled flames for Cassandra? Nikki Baker, the first Black voice in lesbian mystery fiction, was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for The Lavender House Murder, the second Virginia Kelly title in this series."Like Baker's other books, The Ultimate Exit Strategy is too good to miss." - Megan Casey, The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel"Baker has produced a winning character in Ginny Kelly ... Read it by the fire one cold autumn night, then smugly recommend Nikki Baker to your friends." - Deneuve"In the Game marks the auspicious debut of a black writer who brings us a sharp, funny and on-the-mark murder mystery. " - Northwest Gay & Lesbian Reader

A Virginia Kelly Mystery, Book 3 - Lured to her midwest hometown for Christmas and a family reunion by a former flame, Virginia observes that nothing has changed. Her parents, still hoping a man will reclaim her from her lesbian path, do not see that she is in deep mourning for a man, who had meant a great deal to her and helped her accept her sexuality and identity, gay friend Emery Arkin, dead of AIDs before she even knew he was dying. But at her high school reunion, the painful past of being an outcast nerd is transformed to a much different present where she is now one of the best looking and successful graduates to return. Rosalee, who had called and written Virginia begging her to come, is now indifferent but another former classmate now named Spike determinedly pursues Virginia. The marriage of a friend turns out not to be as idyllic as it first appears. And former English teacher Harry Hobart has lost his wife in a drowning. But she was not the last to die and Virginia has to fight to survive. First published to acclaim in 1993, this new edition features a foreword by Cheryl A. Head (Charlie Mack Midtown Mysteries).

A Virginia Kelly Mystery, Book 2 - By night - the bars, the music, the sexual energy. By day - the beaches, the bay ... basking in the sun and the scent of suntan lotion. And everywhere the women of Provincetown.Among these women in the sun is Virginia Kelly, a woman of color, on vacation from the mostly white world of finance. Ginny has come to P-town with friend Naomi, and without lover Emily. They stay at Lavender House, a hotel for lesbians run by Sam, a woman with whom Naomi has had some dramatic history. Other inhabitants include Anya, who works for the inn; Joan, a writer and sometime guest; loud Barb and her quiet partner. And in P-town, Ginny is drawn to another woman. Then ... murder shatters the vacation bliss. For among the people brushing up against Ginny and Naomi for these few sensual days is a ruthless killer. And a victim whose death will change the lives of Ginny and Naomi.Nikki Baker, author of In the Game, is the first Black voice in lesbian mystery fiction.First published to acclaim in 1992, and nominated for Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, this new edition features a foreword by Ann Aptaker (Cantor Gold series).

A Virginia Kelly Mystery, Book 1 - When businesswoman Virginia Kelly meets her old college chum Bev Johnson for drinks late one night, Bev confides that her lover, Kelsey, is seeing another woman. Ginny had picked up that gossip months ago, but she is shocked when the next morning''s papers report that Kelsey was found murdered behind the very bar where Ginny and Bev had met. Worried that her friend could be implicated, Ginny decides to track down Kelsey''s killer and contacts a lawyer, Susan Coogan. Susan takes an immediate, intense liking to Ginny, complicating Ginny''s relationship with her live-in lover. Meanwhile Ginny''s inquiries heat up when she learns the Feds suspected Kelsey of embezzling from her employer. Nikki Baker is the first African-American author in the lesbian mystery genre and her protagonist, Virginia Kelly is the first African-American lesbian detective in the genre. Interwoven into the narrative are observations on the intersectionality of being a woman, an African-American, and a lesbian in a "man''s" world of finance and life in general. First published to acclaim in 1991, this new edition features a foreword by the author.