Persia Walker

Persia Walker is a New York-born novelist whose historical crime fiction blends the shadows of noir with the restless energy of 1920s New York. She is the author of several mysteries set during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, stories steeped in danger, ambition and the kind of glamour that comes with a price.

Lyrics of a Blackbird (originally titled Harlem Redux), the first in her Harlem Renaissance novels, follows civil rights attorney David McKay as he hunts for the truth behind his sister’s brutal death—only to find himself accused of murder. The book won a major book club award.

Goodfellowe House launched her Jazz Age mystery series featuring 1920s society reporter Lanie Price, who covers murder and betrayal among Harlem’s elite. It was followed by Black Orchid Blues, Backdrop to Murder, Dear Sister Dead, and Shards of Betrayal, each one with new faces but circling the same hard truths: the cops, the crooks, the liars and the lost.

Her short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and in anthologies published by the Mystery Writers of America.

She has worked as an Associated Press journalist and a U.S. diplomat, jobs that taught her a lot about people and the trouble they make for themselves. These days she lives in France, but there were long stretches in Germany, Brazil and Poland. All that wandering worked its way into her fiction.

Still, her sensibilities remain rooted in her hometown, most likely because, despite years spent living abroad, she remains a New Yorker at heart. “New York,” she says, “is like that old lover you can’t quite shake. You try to leave him, but he keeps pulling you back.”

Away from the page, she’s happiest with a good film noir, a smooth whiskey and a cat with opinions and a talent for talking back.