(credit: Gray & Co)

“The Cleveland Creep” – Les Roberts
Available at Grey & Company

Think Cleveland and mystery and the name Les Roberts is sure to come to mind. The latest installment in his Milan Jacovich series is titled “The Cleveland Creep,” and it’s one you won’t want to miss. What do you get when you combine an aging private investigator and his flamboyant new assistant with the thread of a missing-person case which seems to be leading deep into the underbelly of organized crime? You’ll have to grab a copy of Roberts’ novel to find out.

Related: Best Comic Book Shops In Cleveland

(credit: Gray & Co)

“Cleveland’s Greatest Disasters” – John Bellamy
Available at Barnes & Noble

John Bellamy has been called the Edgar Allen Poe of Cleveland. Read his work and you’ll find out why. John has written a series of books relating numerous real-life crime stories from the city’s past. These begin in 1995 and lead up to his most recent title — “Cleveland’s Greatest Disasters,” published in 2011 — which takes from all of his previous books and presents the tale of 16 of the most terrible tragedies in Cleveland history.

(credit: Knopf Doubleday)

“Beloved” – Toni Morrison
Available at Barnes & Noble

Toni Morrison was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio to a black, working-class family. She made her debut as an author in 1970 and has since gone on to become a Pulitzer-Prize winner in 1988 and a Nobel-Prize winner for literature in 1993. Her 1987 novel “Beloved” – winner of the Pulitzer — is based loosely on the true story of an 18^th-century slave woman who murders her daughter rather than allows her to grow up in a life of slavery, and was recently made into a movie by Oprah Winfrey.

(credit: caseydaniels.com)

“Don of the Dead” – Casey Daniels
Available at Amazon.com

“Don of the Dead” is Cleveland-native Casey Daniel’s first novel. The book features Pepper Martin, an “inexperienced, ex-rich girl,” who is thrown by her circumstances into a job as a tour guide at an historic Cleveland cemetery. After an unfortunate run-in with an unforgiving headstone, Pepper awakens to the sudden realization that “she sees dead people;” in particular, the ghost of a whacked mafia don who insists that she help hunt down his killers. Don’t just imagine where the story might go from there, grab a copy and find out for yourself.

Related: Best Places For Women’s History In Cleveland

(credit: macsbacks.com)

“I Write the Grasses” – Ken Gradomski
Available at Mac’s Backs Books

“Hard-wired into the human experience is the ability to touch others through creativity and metaphor. It is in that effort that I have spent my entire life,” so says Ken Gradomski. Gradomski is the author of “I Write the Grasses,” a chapbook full of poetry that was composed in 2000 initially for the benefit of his grandchildren. Aside from writing, Ken also maintains an art studio, including a digital documentary of all his work, which can be viewed online. He continues to write and perform original poetry annually at Mac’s Bookstore in Cleveland Heights.