Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.

-The rise of the Chicago Blues scene fairly shimmers with verve and intensity, and the large, diverse cast of characters is indelibly portrayed with the perfect pitch of a true artist.---Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue The bestselling author of White Collar Girl and What the Lady Wants explores one woman's journey of self-discovery and love set against the backdrop of a musical and social revolution....

When nine-year-old Clem's father dies in the Port Chicago Disaster he is forced to navigate his family's losses and struggles in 1940s Chicago.

"Franny Steinberg knows there's powerful magic in laughter. She's witnessed it. With the men of Chicago off fighting WWII on distant shores, Franny has watched the women of the city taking charge of the war effort. But amidst the war bond sales and factory shifts, something surprising has emerged, something Franny could never have expected. A new marvel that has women flocking to comedy clubs across the nation: the Showstopper. When Franny steps into...

When her best friend Lydia disappears, Piper Sail goes searching for answers in the dark underbelly of 1924 Chicago, uncovering deep corruption that may lead back to her affluent neighborhood.

In 1923 Chicago, seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody rebels against her upcoming society wedding by visiting a speakeasy, while her Pennsylvania cousin, Clara, hides similar tastes and her best friend, Lorraine, makes plans of her own.

"This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English countryside and back. Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by Oldrich Exley's attempts to control the Von Harmons. When the long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just Clive and Henrietta's vows of love. Stanley and Elsie's relationship...

In 1928 Chicago, eighteen-year-old Ruby, daughter of the state attorney, uses her ability to read minds as a vigilante to hunt out murderers and kill them even if they have not yet committed the crime; Guy works in the morgue, and wants to understand the human body, because maybe then he will learn how it is that he is able to shapeshift into other people--something Ruby plans to use because someone is out to get her father and she is pretty sure...

"Eve Mann arrives in Ideal, Georgia, in 1972 looking for answers about the mother who died giving her life. A mother named Mercy. A mother who for all of Eve's twenty-two years has been a mystery and a quest. Eve's search for her mother, and the father she never knew, is a mission to discover her identity, her name, her people, and her home. Eve's questions and longing launch a multigenerational story that sprawls back to the turn of the twentieth...

"Spirited female sleuth Elizabeth Fairchild is drawn into Chicago's growing jazz scene - and murder - in this compelling 1920s mystery. July, 1926. When Elizabeth Fairchild's beau, Fred Wilkins, suggests going to Chicago's Sunset Club to see Louis Armstrong, the world's best trumpeter, in action, she faces a dilemma. The burgeoning jazz scene in the city is proving to be controversial, associated with gangsters and scandal. Even her dear friend Susannah...