My name is Charlie Mack and I want to thank Dru for letting me borrow her musing space to muse about a few things of my own. Including working as a private investigator, and living in Detroit.

Detroit is a city of dichotomies. Rich / poor; eastside / westside; downtown / neighborhood; black / white. The either / or polarity drives the city’s conflicts and controversies. There’s way too much of that. But, Detroit is also adaptable–its creativity and innovation lies in that super power.

In the 70’s, when Mayor Coleman Young warned the worse elements of the city to hit Eight Mile Road, he drew a line in the sand–a boundary fortified by white flight and a ‘my way or the highway’ mentality. Three decades later, rapper Eminem used that same stretch of road to create a film and anthem about class, and the colorblindness of poverty. That’s what I mean about adaptability.

I poke around in Detroit’s polarities all the time, rubbing elbows with corrupt officials, murderers, thieves, cheating husbands, missing persons, and the occasional lost soul. Some of these people are bad men and women. Some are hard to label. By the way, I don’t really like labels. Maybe because folks are always trying to ascribe one to me.

I have a lot of responsibilities: I’m the lead partner in my four-person agency; my mother has early-onset Alzheimer’s; and I have this hyper-acute sense of fair play. I do admit that I’m a type-A personality, so it’s good to have colleagues who keep me flexible. I also have a new love, Mandy. She’s helped me be more accepting of who I am. We’ve moved in together and adopted a rescue dog. We named him after us: M and C, and of course Hammer had to follow. Hamm teaches me patience.

There are a few immutable values that drive me–work is character, education is key, bills should be paid, and you never, ever hurt children. I’m ambitious, independent like my mom who refuses to let me take care of her– and I have two black belts which means, well, I can kick ass when needed. I also like to solve problems. I’m good at that. Mandy says I’m prone to take on other people’s burdens. My partner, Don, just calls me a control freak. Whatever.

I have two smart partners. I already mentioned Rutkowski–Don’s a former police officer. The other is Gil Acosta. He’s the brother I never had, but he’s moving to Washington, DC with his new wife. I’m very happy for him. I think. The fourth team member is our office manager, Judy Novak. She’s a middle-aged wife and mother, a people person, a top-notch researcher, and she can weave a web of lies like nobody’s business. That last talent comes in handy.

Mack Private Investigations is well connected in the city and we have a good reputation. Gil and I were part of the first class of agents in the local Homeland Security office. That gives us some chits with the feds, but we use them judiciously. Don still has a lot of pals at police headquarters, and I used to run a PR firm so I know a lot of people in the region. Each year we’re hired for two or three big jobs which keeps the agency afloat. Mostly because, as an African-American woman, I know how to straddle Detroit’s dichotomies.

There’s one more thing you should know about me. Last year I killed a man. I mention that only because I still feel guilty. It happened during a case, and the guy was a terrorist, but. . . Don tells me to just get over it. Thankfully, I have a therapist who’s a bit more helpful. So that’s all you need to know for now. It’s my turn to take Hamm for a walk before I head to the office.

Justice hangs in the balance when two court cases, spiraling out of control, drop a bull’s-eye squarely on Charlie’s personal and professional life. Judge Me When I’m Wrong, Book 4 of the Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries, released October 15, 2019 (Bywater Books).

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 bulls-eye squarely on the intersection of her personal and professional lives, putting all that she holds dear in jeopardy.

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About the author
Cheryl Head spent twenty years in public television and radio before turning to fiction writing. Her first book, Long Way Home: A World War II Novel–a 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards double finalist–is a story of black soldiers’ experiences on a segregated U.S. army base. Head writes the Charlie Mack Motown Mysteries, published by Bywater Books. The first in the series, Bury Me When I’m Dead is a 2017 Lambda Literary Awards finalist. The other books are, Wake Me When It’s Over (2018); Catch Me When I’m Falling (2019); and Judge Me When I’m Wrong (October 2019). Head is Director of Inclusion at the Golden Crown Literary Society whose mission is to increase the visibility of lesbian-themed literature. She was named to the 2019 Hall of Fame of the Saints and Sinners LGBTQ Literary Festival. She resides in an 1870 rowhouse on a diverse street in Washington, DC’s Capitol Hill.

To learn more about Cheryl, visit her website at cherylhead.com.

All comments are welcomed.