Registration
Tuition for this book club is $30. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
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This program is for those 18 and older.
Book Club Genre: Harlem Renaissance Mysteries
Celebrate the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance by rediscovering talented mystery writers from the era, and then engage with recent mystery novels set in early 20th-century Harlem. This season of The Body in the Library will showcase collection objects from the Rosenbach’s books and manuscripts, documenting the vibrant Black literary, artistic, musical, and social scene in New York and beyond in the early decades of the 1900s.
Description
This is the third and final session of this series of The Body in the Library Book Club. During this session we will be focusing on Nekesa Afia’s, Dead Dead Girls (2021)
Harlem, 1926. Young Black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead.
Following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal when she was in her teens, Louise is doing everything she can to maintain a normal life. She’s succeeding, too. She spends her days working at Maggie’s Café and her nights at the Zodiac, Harlem’s hottest speakeasy. Louise’s friends, especially her girlfriend, Rosa Maria Moreno, might say she’s running from her past and the notoriety that still stalks her, but don’t tell her that.
When a girl turns up dead in front of the café, Louise is forced to confront something she’s been trying to ignore—two other local Black girls have been murdered in the past few weeks. After an altercation with a police officer gets her arrested, Louise is given an ultimatum: She can either help solve the case or wind up in a jail cell. Louise has no choice but to investigate and soon finds herself toe-to-toe with a murderous mastermind hell-bent on taking more lives, maybe even her own….
Image credit: Oliver Herford, “The Bibliofiends,” artwork featured on the cover of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, The Unpublishable Memoirs, (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1917), Rosenbach call no. Ro1 917a copy 2.
Book Purchase
The Rosenbach has partnered with The Head & The Hand Books (H&H Books) to supply copies of book club selections at reasonable prices. Order your books here. Learn more about H&H Books here.
Facilitators
Dr. Petra Clark is a librarian, educator, literary historian, and lifelong fan of the mystery genre. Her first bookish obsession as a child was the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, and the opening sequence of PBS’s Mystery! is etched into her brain. While she did not grow up to be a detective, Petra’s career path still lets her flex her investigative muscles. She earned a Ph.D. in Victorian literature and art in 2019, and she currently works in the Special Collections department at the University of Delaware Library. Tracking down clues while conducting historical research is one of the things she likes best about her work as a scholar and librarian—and it has the benefit of not (usually) involving murder! She looks forward to discussing fictional plot twists and red herrings with all of you.
Dr. Samantha Nystrom has been an avid fan of mysteries since childhood, with Scooby Doo introducing her to the genre. She learned to interrogate what makes a good mystery during her time at the University of Delaware, where she received her Ph.D. in English Literature. There she became an archival detective, going into special collections to uncover traces of information lost to time. While at UD, she taught classes ranging from film studies to British Literature to composition, guiding students how to unlock clues in a text to better grasp a complete picture of what the work is doing. She currently lives in New Jesey and is a writer at Thomas Jefferson University. When she isn’t reading and writing, she can be found playing Scrabble, coloring, going on a walk, or investigating the goings-on of local birds with her bumbling, feline sidekick, Percy.
Dr. Alexander Lawrence Ames, Director of Outreach & Engagement at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, has been eagerly reading mystery novels since his teenage years, with an early interest in the Hardy Boys followed by a teenage fondness for Agatha Christie’s signature characters: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. He holds an M.A. in American material culture, an M.A. in history, and a Ph.D. in history of American civilization and museum studies from the University of Delaware. At the Rosenbach, he works with his colleagues on gallery exhibitions, tours, and programs including book clubs like this one. When not facilitating book club discussions or leading Behind the Bookcase tours, you’ll likely find Dr. Ames sleuthing in the Rosenbach’s incredible collections, magnifying glass in hand, trying to solve some historical mystery. Dr. Ames is definitely not the culprit, and you can absolutely trust him.