Sabrina Ross sits down for a Q&A with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. Are you ready? Let’s get to know Sabrina.

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What is your full name?
Sabrina Marie Ross, but everyone calls me Brina.

How old are you?
37

What is your profession?
I’m a private investigator. I co-own and manage the Ross Detective Agency in New York City.

Do you have a significant other?
Yes.

What is his name and profession?
Shelba Julio Rook. Close friends call him SJ. I stick with Rook. He’s my professional partner and the third detective in our agency. Rook joined our firm two years ago after a ramshackle career that included a stint in the army, lots of dead-end jobs, and an ugly divorce. He never talks about his ex-wife, but my guess is Rook let anger and a disastrous tour in Iraq crash his marriage. He’d hit rock bottom when he landed on our doorstep. I admit I fell for him faster than I should have. A wiser woman would have waited, checked the goods, learned the territory, played it cool. But that’s not me. I’m all or nothing at all, straight down the line. Rook is smart, tough, and funny. He’s hot too, but he doesn’t know it, so don’t you dare tell him. Our relationship is very much a work in progress.

Do you have any children?
No.

Do you have any siblings?
No.

Are your parents nearby?
As close as can be. My father, Norment Ross, is the lead investigator in our detective agency, which he founded thirty years ago. We work seamlessly together – he brings the neighborhood contacts and insights; I handle the operations and finances of the firm. My mother, Jayla Dream Ross, disappeared twenty-five years ago. One night she walked out of our apartment and out of our lives. My father searched for Dreamie for months but never found a solid clue. To this day, he will see a woman on the street and flinch in half-recognition, still hoping that Dreamie has returned. The painful irony of a private investigator powerless to find his own wife has been an unhealed wound in our family ever since she vanished.

Who is your best friend?
Pinky Michel is a bank teller by day, a blues and jazz singer by night. She performs her original compositions as well as old standards in neighborhood clubs and bars. We met as teenagers and have been fast friends for decades. When I need a home-cooked meal or an uncritical hug, I can count on Pinky’s large family of Haitian aunts and cousins for support. A year ago, Pinky married Rook’s best pal, Archie Lin, a NYPD homicide detective. So, our foursome is tightly bound, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.

Do you have any pets?
No. Under duress, I’ll cat-sit for Rook’s pet, Herb. I call him the Yellow Monster. I’m sure Herb has equally unflattering names for me.

What town do you live in?
New York City.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
New York is the biggest stage in the world. And our community, Harlem, is the most diverse, dynamic neighborhood in the Big Apple.

What type of dwelling? And do you own or rent?
I rent a one-bedroom apartment in a walk-up building in Harlem. It’s about fifteen minutes’ drive from our office.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I love curling in my overstuffed armchair with a book and a glass of wine. I was going to say: my bed, on a Saturday morning, with Rook beside me. But that sounded unambitious, so I’ll stick with the chair-and-book answer.

Favorite meal and dessert?
My dad makes an amazing fried chicken dinner (a buttermilk-and-cornmeal recipe passed down from his grandma) and his peach cobbler is tops.

Do you have any hobbies?
Is balancing the company books a hobby? I love it when we land in the black at the end of the month. If not, I’ll go with my weekly practice sessions on the firing range with my father. I’m not as good with a gun as Norment, but then few people are.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Our annual road trips to visit my dad’s family in South Carolina are a fantastic way to unwind from a year’s worth of tension and turmoil. One summer maybe I’ll invite Rook to join us.

What music do you listen to?
I like hip-hop and R&B, but with my friend Pinky’s guidance, I’m getting into classic blues and jazz too.

Do you have a favorite book?
My favorite is always what I’m reading at the moment. Right now, I’m reading the new collection of short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick. Next up, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. As a Black female private eye, I never miss the latest mysteries by Tracy Clark and Cheryl A. Head.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Hood Feminism, but the title is already taken.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Professional. My partners are my father, Norment Ross and my boyfriend, SJ Rook. Claustrophobic? For sure. Complicated? You bet. But we make it work. Mostly.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
Granola and Ethiopian Highland coffee start my morning at home. In the office by nine at the latest, I spend the morning preparing invoices, paying bills, wrangling with creditors, and running down delinquent clients. If Rook or Norment have turned in case reports, I’ll update those files. Afternoons I spend interviewing clients, witnesses, and suspects. In the evenings, we may serve as security guards at town meetings and family gatherings. I’m the office receptionist, so I field walk-in inquiries, often two or three a day. The Ross Agency provides fix-it services to people in our hard-scrabble neighborhood. As free-range detectives we offer security, confidence, and protection to clients whose lives often lack those basic comforts. Most of our clients have lost something – a check, a document, personal property, a loved one. In our neighborhood, these cases fall below the radar of the police. Sometimes it’s because the authorities can’t be bothered with the ordinary problems of humble Black lives. Most often it’s because the people don’t trust the police. Our job is to find what’s lost. And to restore dignity and peace-of-mind to our clients. Murder isn’t our beat. But sometimes death finds us anyway. When it does, we rise to meet the challenge. Our neighbors count on us. We always deliver.

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Murder My Past, Ross Agency Mystery #5
Genre: Private Investigator
Release: February 2021
Purchase Link

Harlem private eye SJ Rook wants to forget his past. Ex-soldier, ex-drunk, ex-tramp are titles he’s eager to bury. He’s building a new life at a neighborhood detective agency. And he’s working on a solid relationship with his crime-fighting partner, Sabrina Ross. But without warning, Rook’s past returns with a vengeance in the enticing form of his ex-wife. Visiting New York for a convention, Annie Perry is a self-made millionaire with more than business on her mind. She’s confident, alluring, and ready to rekindle feelings Rook thought he’d left far behind.

When Annie is murdered shortly after their reunion, her death sends Rook over the edge. To find her killer, he must delve into her past, even if it hurts. There’s the oily vice president and the angelic business associate, plus the three thousand people who attended the conference. But Rook’s suspicions focus on a clutch of university professors who buzzed around his ex-wife. Driven by grief and distracted by jealousy, Rook digs into fraught campus politics and buried scholarly history in his search for the truth. Violence and betrayal dog his investigation. Rook learns that envy, greed, and fraud are not merely academic.

As he hunts Annie’s killer, Rook’s relentless quest uncovers clues to another mystery from the past, a case that strikes even closer to home. His boss’s wife was talented, volatile, and troubled. She vanished without a trace twenty-five years ago. Her disappearance stunned veteran detective Norment Ross and devastated their daughter Sabrina. If Rook solves this ice-cold missing person case, can he restore peace to Norment and closure to Sabrina? Rook wants the truth, for his boss and for his lover. But the only clues to this strange puzzle are hidden in the addled mind of a lonely widow. As the old woman’s memory blurs, Rook is running out of time to solve the case of the detective’s lost wife.

Faced with old grudges and buried lies, unsettled desires and secret promises, Rook races to untangle the threads of these twisted cases. Can he bring the killers to justice before the past fades forever?

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About the author
Delia C. Pitts is the author of Murder My Past, the fifth entry in her contemporary noir mystery series featuring private eye SJ Rook. Her short story, “The Killer,” was published in the Chicago Quarterly Review, Vol. 31. She contributed the story, “A Deadly First,” to the new holiday crime anthology, Festive Mayhem. Delia is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. After working as a journalist in her home town, Chicago, she earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. She is active in Sisters in Crime and in Crime Writers of Color. Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey, too far from their twin sons in Texas. Visit Delia online at deliapitts.com and on Instagram at @deliapitts50.

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Delia has generously offered to give away one signed paperback copy of Murder My Past. To enter, please leave a comment below. One entry per person and the giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only. Giveaway ends February 18, 2021. Good luck everyone!

All comments are welcomed.