Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes

Book excerpt: Riding high on the success of his critically acclaimed mystery debut, Up Jumped the Devil, and his dazzling second novel, Hidden in Plain View, Blair S. Walker continues the adventures of sleuthing Baltimore newspaperman Darryl Billups. In Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes, appearances can be deceiving . . . and just as deadly. Every two months for the last seventeen years, the payments for unit number nine at a storage facility in West Baltimore have arrived without fail. After the money orders mysteriously stop, a grisly surprise is found inside the abandoned space: the mummified remains of black socialite Adrienne Hudson. The victim’s husband was none other than Charles Hudson, one of Baltimore’s greatest business leaders, who has since remarried a much younger woman. Adrienne’s disappearance during an apparent robbery in 1984 shocked and saddened the people of Baltimore. Now her murder has reopened old wounds, and cast a shadow of suspicion on a pillar of the community. Into this lurid state of affairs steps Baltimore Herald reporter Darryl Billups, who is set to marry his long-time, live-in girlfriend, Yolanda, and become an instant father to her wonderful four-year old son. Nervous about the upcoming wedding after thirty-three years of bachelorhood, he welcomes any distraction and eagerly throws himself into the sordid case. Yet after receiving sensitive inside information from a contact in the police department, Darryl discovers there’s much more to the story than meets the eye. Maneuvering through a world of lies and deception, privilege and power, Darryl uncovers secrets and bombshells which will lead him to an unlikely suspect–one who will shake the foundations of a proud city . . . and one that just may cost Darryl his life. Seamlessly blending action, romance, comedy, and relentless suspense, Blair S. Walker has written a stunning mystery full of unexpected twists–and featuring a hero fans will delightfully welcome back and new readers will adore. From the Hardcover edition.