A Toast Before Dying is the second of four Mali Anderson mysteries. While it, as well as the others, can be read independently or out of order, it is more enjoyable to read the series in the order published. The first book, If I Should Die, gives the best background of Mali and establishes important relationships as Mali tries to find the murderer of the director of the Uptown Children's Chorus. In the third volume, No Time to Die, Mali solves the murder of her old friend Claudine. The newest addition, Do or Die has Mali searching for the killer of the daughter of an old friend of her dad's.

Three other Black female authors feature female Afro-American sleuths. Valerie Wilson Wesley's Tamara Hale is a former Newark, NJ police officer, now a private eye. Penny Mickelbury's Carole Ann Gibson is a Los Angeles...