Charlie Mack Motown Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Charlie Mack Motown Mystery Books

Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series by Cheryl A. Head
Author Cheryl A. Head writes the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series. The series began publication in the year 2016, when “Bury Me When I’m Dead” was released.

The series stars Charlene “Charlie” Mack, who works in Detroit as a private investigator. Detroit is the town she was born and raised there.

The series was a finalist for a Lammy award in the year 2017.

“Bury Me When I’m Dead” is the first novel in the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series and was released in the year 2016. Charlene “Charlie” Mack works as a private investigator in the city of Detroit. Charlie was born and grew up in the city that America forgot about, and has built up her highly respected private investigations firm with her smart decisions, hard working, and relentless ambition. Her team of investigators are trustworthy and highly skilled, however she secretly struggles with her sexual orientation and a mother who has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

When Charlie and her team travel to Birmingham, Alabama searching for a missing person, what should be a routine case becomes a complicated hunt for answers. Some shady locals and one southern patriarch with some dark secrets that date back four decades are in their way. It appears that everybody has got something they want to hide, this includes Charlie.

The case turns lethal with a double homicide, and Charlie gets assaulted on some quiet neighborhood street, suddenly everything’s gotten personal. Who can she even trust, and is she ever going to solve any of the riddles of the Magic City?

Cheryl creates a complicated and exciting plot, and readers liked how diverse Charlie’s team is. It also feels like you are sitting around with the team as they attempt to solve the case. Charlie is brought to life and it’s easy to relate to the struggles she deals with as she tries solve a perplexing case.

“Wake Me When It’s Over” is the second novel in the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series and was released in the year 2018. Charlie and her group of investigators are asked to take on what looks to be an impossible case, to identify and prevent this attack on the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. It takes Charlie an incentive that’s worth one hundred thousand dollars and twelve freelancers helping for her and her team to unravel quite the twisted plot that runs through several countries and many more bank accounts.

Figuring out who is behind this intricate plot just solves half of the case. Charlie and her team are pulled into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. All while they attempt to find dozens of hidden bombs before they’re set off in an arena filled with hundreds of people.

This is an immersive novel with fever-pitch drama that Cheryl writes well. This is a complex, intriguing, and fast paced read that keeps you captivated while all of the layers unfold.

“Catch Me When I’m Falling” is the third novel in the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series and was released in the year 2019. Somebody’s murdering some homeless people in Detroit’s Cass Corridor and doing so by setting them on fire. These awful crimes wouldn’t normally require Charlie and her team of investigators work on the case, however one of the burned corpses is identified as her mother’s friend.

There is a bunch that is wrong with this case: the cops aren’t admitting there is a serial killer on the loose, there is one rogue cop’s involved, and there is drug trafficking intersecting with these deaths. The timing couldn’t be any worse, either as Mandy and Charlie finally move in together. The case gets the most difficult of her career when she goes undercover as a street person, and mixes with the gangs, do-gooders, and the down-and-out from the corridor to find evidence the cops cannot just continue to ignore.

Cheryl does a great job of incorporating her experience in Detroit while capturing the history and flavor of the Motor City in these books. These characters are developed further in this novel, and they are flawed, layered, and complex.

“Judge Me When I’m Wrong” is the fourth novel in the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series and was released in the year 2019. A guilt-ridden client has a change of heart suddenly, and the Mack group’s meticulous preparation for his testimony in front of the grand jury is destroyed. Charlie and Gil have to pull all the stops out in order to defend him from all his new enemies and the estrangement with his father.

Meanwhile, Charlie shows up for jury duty. She unwittingly starts unraveling a stunning plot to change the outcome of one crime lord’s conspiracy trial. Before she knows what’s happening, her dangerous meddling lands a bull’s-eye right at the intersection of her professional and personal lives, putting everything she holds dear in jeopardy.

Readers have come to care about these characters and worry when things don’t end up going their way.

“Find Me When I’m Lost” is the fifth novel in the “Charlie Mack Motown Mystery” series and was released in the year 2020. Charlie Mack’s hired by the new wife of her ex-husband, things get awkward fast. Franklin, her ex, has been charged with murdering his brother-in-law. Pamela and Charlie believe that he is innocent, and is the one thing that they will ever see eye to eye about.

He is also in hiding for a reason neither one of them comprehends. To the cops, this adds up to his guilt. To Charlie, this indicates that Franklin stumbled into something unplanned, and possibly life-threatening, complication.

Charlie wants to get proof this case doesn’t involve a double cross. While the Mack Investigations team throws all of their assets into the case, Mandy (Charlie’s girlfriend) demands some assurance that Charlie’s efforts to track Franklin down are not driven by lingering romantic feelings. By the end, everybody involved learns that loyalty usually runs a lot deeper than love.

Cheryl delivers some Motor City details which ring true, some characters that swagger off of the page, and a story that is bound to surprise even the savviest of readers.