Cheryl A. Head Books In Order

Publication Order of Charlie Mack Motown Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Cheryl A. Head also wrote the novel “Long Way Home” which is currently out of print.

Cheryl A. Head
Cheryl A. Head, who is originally from Detroit, Michigan, lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C., where she’s navigated a successful career as a filmmaker, writer, television producer, broadcast executive and a media funder.

When Cheryl isn’t busy writing fiction, she posts on Facebook, tweets, and consults on all manner of diversity issues. She solves puzzles, rights fictional wrongs, and is an introvert. In order to get through writer’s block, she does some physical work. Painting, gardening, housecleaning, and exercise; anything that gets her sweating.

She currently is the Director of Inclusion for the board of the Golden Crown Literary Society, whose goal is education and the recognition and promotion of lesbian literature.

“Long Way Home” was a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist in both the Historical Fiction and African American Literature categories. Her “Charlie Mack” series was a 2017 Lammy finalist.

Cheryl’s debut novel, called “Long Way Home”, was released in the year 2014 and was self-published. Her work is from the mystery and historical genres.

“Long Way Home” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2014. Georgette Newton’s future looks to be a predictable one. She’s gonna marry her high school sweetheart, work on the family farm, and continue the tradition of raising crops and kids in rural North Carolina. However she wants to see the exciting places that she reads all about in Look magazine, and she infuriates her mom and dad when, during the second world war, joins the exclusive US Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

LeRoy Dowdell is a rather sensitive male, and a misfit in both his community as well as his family. He is a world-class musician, and longs to play in a big band like Duke Ellington or Tommy Dorsey. He lies about his age so he can enlist in the army, to escape a disapproving dad and the rumors of his small town. He hopes his soldier’s uniform is going to be his ticket to travel abroad where Negro jazz performers are actually revered.

The year is 1943 and America’s involvement in World War Two is at its peak. The paths of these two dreamers will cross on the segregated army base close to Tuscon, Arizona where they fall in love, make some new friendships, fight their own personal battles, and finish their journeys of self-discovery.

Close to a million black soldiers served during WWII however a lot never faced combat. This novel imagines their daily lives and sacrifices that these women and men, far from the front lines, whose triumphs and struggles paved the way for the civil rights in America.

“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 is a private investigator in Detroit. Charlie was born and grew up in the city America forgot, and has built a highly respected private investigations firm with his smart decisions, hard work, and relentless ambition. Her team of investigators are trustworthy and highly skilled, however she secretly struggles with her sexual orientation and a mom who has early-onset Alzheimer’s.

When Charlie and her ace team go to Birmingham, Alabama searching for a missing person, what should just 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, including Charlie.

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

“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 appears to be an impossible case, to identify and stop an attack on the upcoming Detroit Auto Show. It takes an incentive worth one hundred thousand dollars and the aid of twelve freelancers for Charlie and her team to unravel quite the twisted plot that runs through many several countries and even more bank accounts.

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

“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 homeless people in Detroit’s Cass Corridor and doing so by immolation. These horrific crimes wouldn’t usually require Charlie and her ace team of investigators to investigate, however one of the burned corpses is identified as friend of her mom.

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

“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 unexpectedly, the Mack group’s meticulous preparation for his testimony in front of the grand jury is wrecked. Charlie and Gil have to pull all the stops out to defend him from his new enemies and the estrangement with his dad.

At the same time, Charlie shows up for jury duty and unwittingly starts unraveling a startling plot to alter the outcome of some crime lord’s conspiracy trial. Before she even knows it, her dangerous meddling lands a bull’s-eye right on the intersection of her professional and personal lives, putting everything she holds dear in jeopardy.