


Books in series

#1
Bury Me When I'm Dead
2016
Charlene “Charlie” Mack runs one of the most respected private investigation firms in Detroit—not bad for a smart and savvy black woman struggling with her sexual orientation and a mother with early-onset Alzheimer’s. When Charlie and her crack team of investigators head to Birmingham, Alabama in search of a missing person, what should be a routine investigation turns into a complex chase for answers. They come across a double murder, shady locals, and a southern patriarch with dark secrets dating back forty years. And when Charlie is attacked on a quiet neighborhood street, the case suddenly becomes personal and potentially deadly. It seems like everyone has a secret to hide, including Charlie.
Note: Bury Me When I'm Dead was previously self-published as Trouble in Birmingham.

#2
Wake Me When It's Over
2018
Charlie Mack and her crack team of private investigators must use every trick in the book to find out who’s behind a evil plot to bring death and destruction to the Detroit Auto Show.

#3
Catch Me When I'm Falling
2019
Someone is murdering the homeless in Detroit’s Cass Corridor―by immolation. These horrific crimes wouldn’t require an investigation by Charlie Mack and her crack team investigators, except one of the burned bodies is her mother’s friend. There’s a lot wrong with this the police won’t admit a serial killer is on the loose, drug trafficking intersects with the deaths, and a rogue cop is involved. The timing also couldn’t be worse―Charlie and Mandy are finally moving in together. This case becomes the most difficult of Charlie's career when she transforms herself into a street person, and mixes with the corridor’s gangs, do-gooders, and the down-and-out to uncover evidence the police can’t continue to ignore.

#4
Judge Me When I'm Wrong
2019
When a guilt-ridden client has an unexpected change of heart, the Mack team’s careful preparation for his grand jury testimony is blown to smithereens. Now, Charlie and Gil must pull out all the stops to defend him from his new enemies and the estrangement of his father. Meanwhile, Charlie reports for jury duty and unwittingly begins to unravel a disturbing plan to alter the outcome of a crime lord’s conspiracy trial. Before she knows it, Charlie’s dangerous meddling lands a bull’s-eye squarely on the intersection of her personal and professional lives, putting all that she holds dear in jeopardy.

#5
Find Me When I'm Lost
2020
When Charlie Mack is hired by her ex-husband’s new wife, things get awkward quickly. Her ex, Franklin, has been charged with his brother-in-law’s murder. Charlie and Pamela both believe he didn’t do it; it’s the only thing they will ever see eye-to-eye on. But he’s also in hiding for some reason neither of them understands. To the police, it adds up to guilt, but to Charlie, it indicates that Franklin has stumbled into an unplanned, and perhaps life-threatening, complication. Charlie wants proof the case doesn’t involve a double cross, and when the Mack Investigations team throws all their assets at the case, Charlie's girlfriend, Mandy demands assurance that Charlie’s all-out efforts to find Franklin aren’t driven by lingering romantic feelings. In the end, everyone involved learns that loyalty often runs much deeper than love.

#6
Warn Me When It's Time
2021
A hate group operating in Oakland County, Michigan has claimed responsibility for a six-month-long string of arson fires and robberies at mosques, temples, and black churches around Detroit, eluding police and federal agencies. The most recent fire, at a mosque in Dearborn, kills a respected imam. His children—suspicious of law enforcement’s treatment of Muslims and afraid of reprisal—hire Charlie Mack and her team of investigators to find their father’s murderers. The Mack team begins to hunt down the clues in this local hate crime, but they aren’t prepared when they realize that those clues are pointing to a widespread conspiracy that runs through elected state officials and up to the highest levels of national leadership. FBI agent, James Saleh, returns to help the Mack Agency infiltrate and take down a homegrown militia hell-bent on starting a race war in America. Warn Me When It's Time is a finalist for the 2022 Anthony Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original/E-Book/Audiobook Original Novel and was awarded an Independent Publishers (IPPY) Silver Medal for Great Lakes Regional Fiction.
Author

Cheryl A. Head
Author · 9 books
She/Her. I write the Anthony Award nominated Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series-two-time, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Goldie Winner, Next Generation Indie Award Finalist. I live and write in DC with my partner and two dogs. Introvert, solver of puzzles, righter of fictional wrongs. Look for Time's Undoing, published by Dutton Books in 2023