What is a day in my life like? Before I explain, you need to know a few things about me. First, I’m a recent widow. Darryl, my beloved husband, died a year ago, and I continue to mourn him. After his death D&D Delights, our catering company, nearly went bankrupt, which is how I ended up at Risko Realty—risk being the operable word here. Last but not least, I was born with what some folks call second sight; my mother’s people call it “the gift.”

I may look like your average middle-age woman patiently standing in line at a supermarket check-out or waiting my turn in a beauty parlor. Chances are you wouldn’t pay me much attention–just another hard-working woman going about her day. I may be hard-working, but I’m certainly not average. I can see, sense, smell, hear things others can’t. I get “readings” from people and, occasionally rooms, in the form of hazy auras my Aunt Phoenix (an expert on all things paranormal) calls “glimmers.” When bad things are coming, I often sense them. Yet sometimes I can’t. And therein lies the rub.

Take my husband’s sudden death. You would think I’d have been forewarned, that the gift would tell me that something devastating was going to change my life forever. There was no warning, no hint at all. I’ve come to mistrust this gift I’ve inherited. Yet I dare not ignore it entirely; it pops up just often enough to remind me.

So I have few predictable days. My morning usually begin with Juniper, my plump, mischievous cat jumping on my stomach to wake me up. I feed him, make myself some coffee, head to the office and settle into my cubicle. If my co-workers aren’t around, I solemnly greet the spirits who have lived—and died—in this space, and I know that they’re there. If I’m lucky, my morning will be spent doing what real estate agents usually do: searching for new clients, pleasing the old ones, looking for listings, following leads, mailing postcards. In the afternoon, I’ll woo possible customers and buyers, hoping for the best.

If the gift makes an appearance, however, everything changes, which brings me to the subject of nutmeg, a spice I once liberally sprinkled on hot cocoa, French toast, and eggnog, but no more. Whenever I smell nutmeg, I know death is on the way. I’ll suddenly get a whiff of it coming from nowhere, filling my nose, choking my throat. I’ll realize then that something bad is going to happen to somebody close by. And that makes my day anything but typical.

A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley, Odessa Jones Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: January 2021
Purchase Link

Until now, Odessa Jones’ inherited ability to read emotions and foretell danger has protected her. But second sight didn’t warn her she would soon be a widow—and about to lose her home and the catering business she’s worked so hard to build. The only things keeping Dessa going are her love for baking and her sometimes-mellow cat, Juniper. Unfortunately, putting her life back together means taking a gig at an all-kinds-of-shady real estate firm run by volatile owner Charlie Risko . . .

Until Charlie is brutally killed—and Dessa’s bullied co-worker is arrested for murder. Dessa can’t be sure who’s guilty. But it doesn’t take a psychic to discover that everyone from Charlie’s much-abused staff to his long-suffering younger wife had multiple reasons to want him dead. And as Dessa follows a trail of lies through blackmail, dead-end clues, and corruption, she needs to see the truth fast—or a killer will bury her deep down with it.

Meet the Author
Valerie Wilson Wesley’s books for children include the Willimena Rules series, Freedom’s Gift—A Juneteenth Story, the Afro-bets Book of Black Heroes, which she co-wrote with Wade Hudson. Her fiction for adults includes the popular Tamara Hayle Mystery series, three novels including Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do, for which she received the 2000 award for excellence in adult fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA), and two paranormal romances, When the Night Whispers (2013) and The Moon Tells Secrets (2015), written under the pen name Savanna Welles. Most of her mysteries and several of her novels have been published in Germany, France and Great Britain. She is a former executive editor of Essence magazine. Visit her website at ValerieWilsonWesley.com.

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