EXCERPT:
I pull away from the kiss, more confused than ever.
“I-I’m sorry,” I say.
“Corey, I’m not going to give up on you. Or us,” Evan says. The dark circles under his eyes are visible even now, in the twilight of early morning. The growth of a beard defines his chiseled jaw. The lines on his forehead are a little deeper, adding to the rugged nature of his new look—Outdoorsy Guy. Mountain Man. He could pass as a host for any Mount Everest travel show. It’s such a contrast from his Monday work look—skinny work slacks and button-down—his marketing job uniform. It also contrasts with his new electric Volvo. Predictable, stable, handsome—the first three words that come to mind when I talk about Evan in therapy.
But then there’s the judgment. Quick to make sure I know who he believes is solely at fault for our separation. I’m not going to give up on you. He believes, maybe he has to, that it is me who is broken, and so I need to be fixed. It is me doing this to our family—to him. I’m the problem in our marriage. And he is not going to give up on me.
“Jacob is going to be up soon. I need to get ready for work—” Before I can finish my sentence, my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out and read without hesitating.
Chris: There’s a missing woman.
Me: Where?
Chris: From Highland Park. No last whereabouts yet. Son reported it.
That hits me in the chest. Her son reported her missing. I say a quick prayer in my head to the universe, and to any god and goddess listening, to please never burden my son with the need to call the police to report me missing.
Chris: Corey, I know her.
I’m not surprised—the community is small, and Chris is even more connected to it than I am. But how well does he know her? And Is she more than a friend? is the question.
Me: You okay?
From the official press release about the book:
Acclaimed novelist, actor, professor, and popular podcast host Jaime Parker Stickle is a natural storyteller. Her series of timely, relevant, and relatable “Corey in Los Angeles” crime novels is putting LA’s trendy Highland Park neighborhood on the map of iconic crime neighborhoods in fiction. And now her latest novel, Take Hart, is primed to introduce even more readers to their new favorite private investigator. Corey Tracey-Lieberman is a former television journalist who’s determined to bring justice to her corner of Los Angeles, while balancing an increasingly challenging modem day-to-day reality: consulting for the LAPD; coping with the anxiety of parenthood; filing stories for an indie news blog; processing the failures of her marriage; meeting with her therapist; and navigating the romantic feelings for her crime-fighting partner, all while solving the mystery of yet another missing woman in the city of angels. Reader, it’s a lot.
Corey Tracey-Lieberman is barely keeping it together. And then a mother named Sonja Hart vanishes in her neighborhood, and the case is all but ignored. Sparked by maternal fury, Corey’s investigative instincts come roaring back to life in the second “Corey in Los Angeles” series, following the release of the series debut, Vicious Cycle.
In order to see the truth clearly, Corey must stop taking the meds that keep her anxiety at bay. Strapping her fourteen-month-old son Jacob to her chest, she follows a trail that leads from a suspicious house fire to the furtive activities of new neighbors. The more Corey digs, the more she uncovers about the secret toll of gentrification—and the closer she comes to the verge of a breakdown. And the horror dawns that the killer she’s been chasing has been watching her all along . . .
Jaime Parker Stickle’s prose packs a punch and her insights about motherhood and marriage come from her own lived experience, as a mother who was diagnosed with Postpartum Panic Disorder after the birth of her own son. In addition to writing novels and essays, teaching film and television at Montclair State University, and acting, Jaime Parker Stickle produces and hosts not one but two podcasts, including The Girl with the Same Name, a popular true-crime show that investigates the unsolved murder of a woman… named Jaime Stickle.
“I am often asked why I write in the crime genre and it throws me off, because I don’t consider myself a genre writer,” said Jaime Parker Stickle. “I write about the human experience. When a tragedy strikes, the victim and the community left behind so often have no voice to tell their story. That’s what my books and the podcast are about – giving a voice to all humans involved.”
Sometimes comedic, sometimes satirical and always laser-focused on the inequities of life in urban America, Jaime Parker Stickle’s stories deftly balance truth with fiction. Like Aimee Molloy’s The Perfect Mother, Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, and Maria Hummel’s Still Lives, Jaime Parker Stickle’s novels are compulsively readable, taut thrillers that linger in your mind long after you’ve finished the story.
Here’s what people are saying about Jaime Parker Stickle’s Take Hart:
“Jaime Parker Stickle knows the streets of L.A. as well as she knows the people who live on them. Take Hart is tense and tender in equal measure. I couldn’t get enough of it!”
— Ivy Pochoda, author of Ecstasy, and Sing Her Down, winner of the LA Times Books Prize
“Take Hart deftly balances a whip-smart plot with an unforgettable protagonist to create my favorite kind of mystery— a book that honors the genre but is fearless in pushing it forward. I loved spending time with the messy, relatable, and lively Corey as she unravels a deadly mystery. Jaime Parker Stickle has created a fresh and witty crime novel that doesn’t pull punches or mince words, which we all need right now.”
— Alex Segura, bestselling and acclaimed author of Daredevil: Enemy of My Enemy, Alter Ego, and Star Wars
“Take Hart, Book 2 in the “Corey in Los Angeles” series, takes readers on a witty romp through urban LA as a relatable anxiety-ridden journalist navigates a love triangle with her baby strapped to her chest, and investigates the mystery of a missing community activist. Stickle’s plot is suspenseful and intriguing, with a visceral intensity.”
— Caitlin Rother, New York Times bestselling author of 17 books, including Staged, Hooked, Down to the Bone, Body Parts, Death on Ocean Boulevard, Naked Addiction, Dead Reckoning, Hunting Charles Manson, Lost Girls, and Secrets, Lies, and Shoelaces
“Take Hart hits you in the feels with Corey Tracey-Lieberman, a former television journalist, who tries to keep her life from shattering to pieces. A consulting gig with the LAPD mixed with a failing marriage and a dash of postpartum panic disorder, all drive Corey to the edge when searching for a missing mother. Corey might rescue herself in the process, or lose everything. A tightly woven plot with characters you feel like you’ve known for years, Take Hart will leave you breathless.”
― James L’Etoile, award-winning author of Illusion of Truth and the Detective Nathan Parker series
“With radical honesty, Take Heart invites you in—to an East Los Angeles so true to life you can taste it, and into the mind of Corey Tracey-Lieberman, an investigator whose empathy is so relentless it wraps you in the very texture of being human. “
— Stephan Franck (Palomino; Silver; Romance In The Age Of The Space God)
Thomas & Mercer will publish Take Hart by Jaime Parker Stickle on August 2, 2026, ahead of the new season of The Girl with the Same Name debuting later this year. For more information, follow Jaime Parker Stickle on Instagram, TikTok and subscribe to her Substack .