Lockdown Blues

Tai Randolph doesn’t like to be stuck inside. Not even with Trey, who can be distracting in close quarters. And especially not with spring beckoning just outside the window.

But when a simple favor turns into something more mysterious—and more challenging—Tai realizes that crime doesn’t stop during a quarantine . . . and neither does her penchant for sleuthing.

Author’s Note: Spring of 2020 was one of the most difficult seasons in my memory—isolating, frustrating, and heartbreaking.

What is a fictional story in the face of all this real conflict? A moment of refuge? Maybe. A way to think about hard truths in safety, get our minds and hearts straight with that truth before we wade into the wide and chaotic world? Perhaps. I hope it is also a reminder that we are all connected in ways deep and strange and surprising. All connected. All of us. All.

"Lockdown Blues” is something of a locked room mystery in reverse—instead of the crime taking place in a locked room, the solving of the crime happens within four walls, with Tai and Trey stuck in his apartment on the 35th floor.

The story exists out of narrative order, much like the spring of 2020. Consider it a sideways flashback.