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Following the phenomenal success of her novel, Still Dirty, reigning urban fiction queen and Essence bestseller list fixture Vickie M. Stringer will keep fans riveted again.  With her savvy thriller DIRTIER THAN EVER (Atria Books; On-sale February 16, 2011; $16), the third installment featuring the baddest of bad trio Raven “Red” Gomez; Bacon, her abusive and ruthless on again-off again kingpin boyfriend; and Quentin “Q” Carter, the true love of Red’s life who is desperate to get out of the street game, Stringer’s success and growing fan base is certain to continue.

Red, the stunning, fearless, and calculating heroine of Detroit’s streets, is still up to her old tricks:  orchestrating con games and serving up dishes of revenge for those who have double-crossed her.  Her propensity for a glamorous, blinged-out lifestyle at any cost is fueled by the childhood abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather—and nonstop trouble trails Red at every corner.  Tagged scandalous and dirty over and over by family, friends and foes alike, Red uses her beauty and body as a commodity to be traded for money and power and for squashing her enemies.

When Bacon is finally released from prison and catches up with Red, his initial thought is to kill her for her betrayal of him and for the insults she hurled at him in letters while he was incarcerated.  As Bacon’s “wifey,” Red was supposed to have remained loyal to her man but instead, she stole his money and property and became the lover of his cohorts.  Bacon decides beatings, torture and degradation are choicer punishments for Red than death and in a botched twist of fate, Red ends up shooting Q—the only man she’s ever loved—rather than her intended target, Bacon, who is witness to the crime.

Q’s shooting and subsequent coma prove challenging for Detective Thomas who had planned to interrogate him about the murder of Q’s best friend, Zeke.  Meanwhile, Bacon lords Q’s shooting over Red’s head and forces her into submission.  After tying a naked Red to a chair in a rat-infested motel room for several days without food or water, Bacon feels he has broken her and Red makes him believe this to be true.  However, once she regains her strength and mental acuity, Red begins to devise an elaborate plot to repay Bacon for his cruelty and in the process, adds others to her payback list:  Kera, the bank teller who has stolen thousands from her; Terry, a former friend; and Catfish, who murdered her friend, Sasha.  Even Detective Thomas, who falls madly in love with Red, isn’t spared her evil wrath.  In a domino effect, each, one by one, falls prey to Red’s demonic plan by being arrested, having careers and reputations destroyed, losing custody of children, and having fortunes stolen.  Leaving ruined lives in her wake, Red triumphantly abandons Detroit to restart her life in Arizona and thinks she has outsmarted her enemies.  However, one person meets her match and Red quickly realizes that even in the desert and thousands of miles from the harsh street life of Detroit, her troubles and the threat of danger are far from over.

Filled with the gritty details and surprising plot twists that only Stringer can deliver, DIRTIER THAN EVER combines real headlines of day with a can’t-put-it-down writing style that her fans have come to expect.  Following in the footsteps of her previous work, DIRTIER THAN EVER proves why Stringer is in a league of her own.

Vickie M. Stringer is the publisher of Triple Crown Publications, one of the most successful African American book publishers in the country and abroad.  She has been featured in many magazines and newspapers such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Essence, and Black Enterprise.  She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her son and newborn baby.

You can order your copy of DIRTIER THAN EVER on Amazon.com, HERE!

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