Such an interesting book. It’s my first by this author and I think I will go back and read the first in the series! However, I don’t think it’s necessary in order to enjoy this book about Vandy and her ex.

Being a Jersey girl myself, this series called to me. And it has not disappointed. Vandy is one heck of a strong female protagonist. Your emotions go up and down along with her story as well as the mystery as it unfolds. I also love the fact that we have a protagonist of color that represents and delivers in the series. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Death of an Ex by Delia Pitts takes us back to Queenstown and PI Evander Myrick, named after her police detective father, Evander Myrick, and known as Mandy. Mandy is still recovering from the death of her daughter, Monica, two years early in a ghastly and totally preventable accident. She had sued and won, but Monica was still dead. She ran into Monica’s father, Phil, the man she had divorced early in her pregnancy. He was a cheater, still was. She took him to Monica’s grave, learned some interesting things about interactions between him and her father, and took him home to bed. She was helping him cheat. She had watched him be a total jerk to his son, Monica’s half-brother, the other night and still could not resist. The next day he was dead. Her guilt forced her to investigate, for free. She needed to know who had killed him and why.

Vandy is a great character. She is clever and knowledgeable. She learned from her father, who is now in the throes of dementia and doesn’t even know her most days. She works for people who love her but are disinclined to put up with her nonsense. What she discovers while investigating shocks even her. A tangled mess of financial misdeeds, including laundering of money and extortion, reminiscent of the pay-for-college-acceptance scandal a few years ago. But, even knowing this and more, she still missed Phil and knew many other women did as well. Good plot, interesting characters. Excellent main character. Good read.

I was invited to read Death of an Ex by St Martin’s Press. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #StMartinsPress #DeliaPitts #DeathOfAnEx

Private investigator Vandy Myrick has been mourning the death of her daughter for the past three years. Her ex-husband Phil suddenly reappears in her life. He had cheated on her during her pregnancy and they divorce before Monica was born. Shortly after they reunite, Phil is murdered. When Vandy begins to investigate Phil’s death, she discovers his involvement in a college admissions scandal. She will work to uncover which players are responsible for his death and realize he is the same Phil she left years ago.

#bestestbookclubever

Death of an Ex by Delia Pitts is the second book in The Vandy Myrick Mysteries. The author does provide a lot of background information at the beginning for those who did not read Trouble in Queenstown. The author, though, I was expecting a cozy mystery, but Death of an Ex is definitely not cozy. I tried several times, but I was unable to get into the story. It takes a while for the story to get moving. The pacing is slow (the snails were waving as they passed). I am not a fan of Vandy who is beyond messy (the author does warn readers). She is annoying as well. I liked that we get to see a middle-aged woman who is lively and vibrant. The author shows the attitudes and behaviors of some wealthy (and entitled) individuals towards education. They feel their money will grease the wheels for the little darling to get into a prestigious university (sound familiar). The mystery may appear complicated, but identifying the guilty party is a cinch. I knew the identity of the guilty party before the murder took place. Vandy uses her private investigator skills to uncover secrets and zero in on bad guy. There are many improbable elements to the whodunit. The reveal was unrealistic. I found myself rolling my eyes often (which gave me a migraine and made my eyes hurt). I’m sorry, but Death of an Ex is not my cup of tea.

I really liked the first book in this series and was excited to receive an ARC of this installment. It did not disappoint. I’ll be sticking with this series to follow the adventures of Vandy and her associates.

Vandie Myrick, a private investigator with a messy life and a penchant for silent snark and plain speech out loud, finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when her ex-husband gets shot in her Queenstown office parking lot. After a one night “reconciliation.”
Vandy jumps at the chance to assist the police, not only to find Phil’s murderer, but also to clear her name and get to know her dead daughter’s half brother. But as she digs into Phil’s life, she realizes everyone seems to be a suspect.
Full of twists and Vandy’s world-wise observations, Pitts has written another smash hit of a detective novel.
Beach, plane, train or department of motor vehicles line, you won’t care where you read this. You won’t want to put it down!

A well-written, multi layered novel that presents as a mystery but in truth is more a story about life, death and everything in between. I hope to read more work by Delia Pits

Death of an Ex A Vandy Myrick Mystery by Delia Pitts

Vandy Myrick is a private investigator in Queenstown, NJ, who takes on a dead man as her client. As it happens, the dead man, Phil Bolden, is her ex, and the father of her daughter who passed away 20 years ago.

Vandy, our narrator, is very seif-aware and isn’t afraid to share her strengths and weaknesses with her readers. She realizes that there are many facets to Phil’s life that need investigating to find his killer.

Along the way, Vandy uncovers money schemes which involve the Rome School, a trendy, long established college prep academy, with which Phil also has ties. There are other side stories, including an attempt on Vandy’s life, which eventually tie everything together in this easy to read and well put together story. I’ll give this one four stars as I await the next Vandy Myrick mystery.

Vandy Myrick is a character you will not soon forget. She leaves an impression on you. She is sassy, tough, brash and super smart. She is definitely someone you want in her corner.

This mystery hits close to home for Vandy, but she knows she must work this case. The mystery was interesting and not an easy one to solve.

This book was not bad, but book 1 was better. I still gave it 4 stars just because the mystery itself was good.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the second book in the Vandy Myrick Mystery series by Delia Pitts, with the audiobook narrated by Bahni Turpin. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4 stars!

Vandy is a private investigator in Queenstown, NJ. She's still coping with the grief of losing her only daughter when her ex-husband, Phil, comes back into her life. But just as quick as he enters, he is murdered and Vandy decides to investigate.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, Trouble in Queenstown, but the author gives plenty of background so that this one works perfectly well on its own. I like Vandy's grit and determination to uncover the truth, even when it hits close to home. Pitts creates multi-faceted characters and there are plenty of suspects to consider for Phil's murder, as well as other plot lines. I enjoyed the audiobook production and ended up mostly listening to it. Will be looking forward to the next in this series!

Death of an Ex is the second book in the Vandy Myrick Mystery Series but the first I have read written by Delia Pitts. PI Vandy Myrick is working to overcome the death of a child and all the regrets a parent would have. Since she was unable to save her own college child, she has a tender protective side with other teenagers. I like that about her as well as some of her new rules for herself. While she is not at fault for her daughter’s death it doesn’t stop recovery from being difficult. I appreciated that the author did not gloss over her mental anguish. There is much to like about this hard-hitting look at a black woman in a men’s work world, her father, her mother’s life, her other relationships and her emotional state.

Vandy’s greatest mistakes have to do with her ex-husband but now it is his death that she is determined to solve. The story is convoluted with his own illegal actions as well as some others in the story. The trail of deception continued to grow and grow. I did not guess the murderer until Vandy did. The ending is as complete as it could be with a lesson of live life the best you can right now. So authentic and real it made my heart hurt at times, but also such that I could not stop reading. A crime thriller fiction story that makes you think and care.

This is the second book in the Evander "Vandy" Myrick series. This time, Vandy, the only Black female P.I. in Queenstown, NJ, is investigating the death of her ex-husband, Phillip Bolden. Vandy is helping the police figure this one out as no one in Queenstown is paying her to find Phil's murderer. However, Vandy still has a soft spot for Phil, and because of this, and their shared grief over the loss of their daughter, Monica, Vandy stops at nothing to find Phil's killer. This will keep you guessing until the very end.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this digital e-arc.*

Phil was not a nice man. Phil, dead, is now out in front of the world as a not-nice man. Vandy harbors the sentimental fondness for the man she had her only child with, and she also harbors the very very recent memory of the fabulous ex sex they had hours before his murder.

Vandy's new enough in her return to Queenstown (see link above for the first book's review) that the cops, although they must interview her, do so without the usual presumption of guilt such a connection to a fresh murder would bring. Suspicion of her, probing her possible motive, but not a full-on attack on Vandy the person. Since we see the entire proceedings from inside Vandy's head, that felt startling to me. I'd expect to feel very defensive if I was being asked these questions! But Vandy, ex-cop, present-day PI as well as person of interest, sees from a perspective I won't have. And that is why I so enjoy these stories.

Vandy, thinking with her gonads, retains a fondness for the man she impulsively, and disastrously, married long ago. He was and is a skilled lover which clouds her cop-judgment. It doesn't hurt that he fathered her now-dead daughter, and that he's intelligent, articulate, and knows how to say the right thing.

This is the profile of a successful con man, as well...and Vandy's trawling through Phil's life after he left her life lets her know how close to a much bigger disaster than she was in she came. A single mother has hurdles...the wife of a con man has mountains to climb, much like Phil's current wife does. Did she take Justice into her own hands? A slick front with a slippery, dishonest man behind it could make any honest woman mad enough to do the unthinkable...or is she all that honest...? What Phil knew, how he knew it, all the secrets and skulduggery, could be known to her....

Every turn of Vandy's investigation is like that. She has access to the Black community the white police guys don't, and she isn't under the same time pressure to clear the case off the books. Not to mention the fact that the great and the good of Queenstown do not want the dirt Phil knew or the way it connects to them to be revealed. Even if it means some innocent outsider takes the fall for what she did not do.

It's a solidly constructed mystery with fair-play clues and a seriously sharp social conscience. Vandy confronts the prejudices within the racist US system, proving humans will do anything to be able to look down on their fellow humans. Vandy chooses the guilt/innocence dichotomy as her perch. And repeatedly gets knocked off it...proving that Delia C. Potts is a worthy successor to Barbara Neely in the social-realist PI/amateur sleuth genre. If there's a better mystery out in 2025, I haven't found it yet.

So where'd that fifth star go? There are stylistic details I found diminishing my pleasure in the read, like repetitions of revelations and what amount to "when last we met..." chapter summaries. I can, in context, see how these made sense to Author Pitts; I do not like them.

Not enough to skip the next book, though. Soon, please.

While I enjoyed the setting and the characters, this one did not hold my interest as well as the first one. This started off well and then seemed to drag in the middle and then picked up again for the reveal of the guilty party. Vandy is still a fun character and I love her grit and determination as well as getting to know more about her life prior to the first novel but the inconsistent tempo made it difficult to stay absorbed in the story. Still, I look forward to more in the series.

This book is so amazing! It’s very well written and a great, exciting read! The thrills started from the beginning all the way through to the end of the book! There were also a bunch of twists that I didn’t see coming. I didn’t want to stop reading the story until I knew how it was going to end!

Death of an Ex is a smart, emotionally layered mystery that introduces readers to Vandy Myrick, a private investigator whose return to her hometown is marked by grief, loss, and the shocking murder of her ex-husband. Pitts paints Queenstown, New Jersey, as both claustrophobic and intimate—a town where everyone knows your name but not your secrets. Vandy is a compelling and refreshingly complex lead; she's navigating deep personal pain while trying to uncover the truth behind a crime that’s as tangled as the man at the center of it.

This isn’t just a murder mystery—it’s also a character study and a meditation on love, regret, and resilience. The investigation is absorbing, but it’s Vandy’s internal journey and her nuanced relationships with Phil’s son, his widow, and the community that really elevate the story. Delia C. Pitts delivers a gripping, thoughtful, and distinctive addition to the genre. I’ll be eagerly watching for more from this series.

Big cities have nothing on small towns in terms of lies, secrets and crime. In Death of an Ex, Vandy, a former cop turned PI investigates, her ex-husband’s death and in so doing digs up all sorts of dirt on the fine citizens of Queenstown, New Jersey.

Vandy Myrick, the main character and narrator, is a private investigator and former police officer who is still mourning the death of her daughter. When Her Philandering Ex-husband, Phil Bolden, is found murdered she feels compelled to find the perpetrator.

The narration tone is chatty and casual, providing detailed descriptions of meals, clothing, feelings and local flavor. Author Delia Pitts seems to use slang, colloquialisms to portray differences in race and class.

What seems like it will be a straightforward cozy mystery becomes more complicated as the number of characters directly and tangently involved with Phil Bolden increase. These characters add some spice to the story, and some are perfectly placed red herrings. Author Pitts also makes the story more intriguing by bifurcating the story arc into a couple of story lines, with surprising developments as the story reaches its zenith.

Death of an Ex is a fun, quick read with a satisfying ending for the murder mystery a hopefully future for Vandy.

Don't worry if you missed the first book which introduced Vandy Myrick, a police officer who left the job and became a PI after the death of her daughter Monica because Pitts gives you all the background you need to appreciate Vandy's latest case. Phil Bolden might have been Monica's bio-dad but the couple split when she was a baby and he was never present for her. Now, though, Phil's back in Vandy's life, at least for the moments before he's murdered. In classic cozy fashion Vandy discovers that there were many people who were angry with Phil, from the school headmaster (interesting man) to his wife and son to a whole bunch of others. This takes Vandy through the topical issue of college admissions among other things. I like Vandy-Pitts has a way with creating characters-and the mystery is nicely twisty. Know that as with the first book, this sometimes veers into purplish noir prose but that it's entertaining. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

"Death of an Ex" by Delia Pitts is a phenomenal addition to an already excellent series. This book effortlessly draws you in with its compelling plot, making it nearly impossible to put down. The characters are well-developed and continue to grow, adding depth and richness to the story. Delia Pitts masterfully blends intrigue with easy-to-read prose, allowing the plot to shine without overwhelming the reader. The pacing is spot-on, keeping you engaged from start to finish. If you're a fan of gripping mysteries with strong character dynamics, this book is a must-read.