When Death Comes Stealing is still my favorite among the seven mysteries in the series. I have often lamented that the Tamara Hayle series has become stories about a private investigator rather than bonafide mysteries. Dying in the Dark is the seventh installment in the series and the first published under Ballantine’s One World imprint. After more than a decade since the inception of the series, Valerie Wilson Wesley is moving closer the procedural form I enjoyed in her debut novel.

As children, Celia Jones and Tamara Hayle were inseparable. Their friendship endured through high school and young adulthood. Their close sisterhood ended abruptly – in a dispute over a man. In the years since their parting, Tamara hadn’t given Celia much thought. When Dying in the Dark begins, Tamara is shocked when she reads a newspaper story about Celia’s brutal murder on New Year’s Day. According to published reports, there were no suspects and no leads. Days later, there were no follow-up stories. Celia Jones’ death was just another statistic, an act of senseless violence.

Shortly afterward, Celia starts to visit Tamara in a series of recurring dreams. Tamara suspects either unfinished “girlfriend business” or the reintroduction of pork into her diet for the strange nocturnal occurrences. Dietary suspicions are ruled out when Cecil Jones, Celia’s teenage son asks Tamara to find out who killed his mother. He has sought Tamara out because his mother had written Tamara’s contact information in her address book -- and the book was open to that page on the day Celia Jones died.

Although police are reluctant to devote resources to solving Celia’s murder, Tamara agrees to help Cecil. However, her newest client is himself murdered before the investigation can begin. Tamara continues to pursue the case – “for old times’ sake.”

Tamara painstakingly follows leads. But the trail often leads to dead ends – or dead suspects.

Dying in the Dark picks up all the familiar elements in the series – dysfunctional families, unresolved questions regarding Tamara’s brother’s suicide and her murky relationship with Jake Richards. Conspicuous by his absence is the mysterious Basil Dupree who always adds another dimension to the story and characterization of Tamara Hayle.

Dying in the Dark brings Valerie Wilson Wesley and her popular detective back in synch. It’s worth a look.

--Gwendolyn Osborne