Take Hart
- Judith D Collins
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Corey in Los Angeles #2
Narrator: Sarah Naughton
ISBN: 978-1662531750
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 08/04/2026
Format: Other
My Rating: 5 Stars (ARC)
Between her LAPD consulting gig, fledgling indie news blog, and postpartum panic disorder, former TV journalist Corey Tracey-Lieberman is barely keeping it together. Then a mother named Sonja Hart vanishes in her Highland Park neighborhood, and the case is all but ignored. Sparked by maternal fury, Corey’s investigative instincts come roaring back to life.
To see the truth clearly, Corey must stop taking the meds that keep her anxiety at bay. Forced to confront her own failing marriage, she struggles with her growing feelings for her crime-fighting partner. Strapping her fourteen-month-old son to her chest, she follows a trail that leads from a suspicious house fire to the furtive activities of new neighbors.
The more she 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…
Buy the Book
Corey in Los Angeles Series
Vicious Cycle #1
Take Hart #2
Praise
“Both a canny procedural and a heartfelt ode to the trials and triumphs of motherhood.”
—Publishers Weekly
“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
“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 L.A. 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
“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 Los Angeles Times Books Prize
“With radical honesty, Take Hart 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, author of Palomino and Romance In The Age Of The Space God
About the Author
Jaime is a writer, podcaster, and professor of film and television at Montclair State University. She is the author of the gripping thriller, “Vicious Cycle: A Corey in Los Angeles Mystery,” and is the creator and host of the true crime investigative podcast, The Girl with the Same Name as well as the hilarious podcast about side-hustles, Make That Paper. Jaime lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and fur babies. WEBSITE
My Review
"Motherhood. Corporate Greed. An Unflinching Noir."
Stickle crafts a lean, cinematic mystery that challenges how we view maternal duty and community displacement. If you loved Vicious Cycle, this evolution will leave you breathless.
Intro
In Take Hart by Jaime Parker Stickle, the author delivers a searing, atmospheric work of gentrification noir that strips away the romanticism of early motherhood to expose the raw mechanics of psychological survival. Set against the sun-bleached, anxious landscape of a rapidly changing Los Angeles, this sophomore installment operates as a lean, hyper-vigilant procedural fueled by cinematic urgency and sharp sociopolitical critique.
Following the harrowing events of Vicious Cycle, this second entry cements Corey Tracey-Lieberman as a brilliantly fractured protagonist whose unmedicated postpartum reality transforms her hyper-vigilance into her sharpest—and most dangerous—investigative tool.
The Hook
A visceral exploration of systemic erasure, where the chemical suppression of maternal trauma becomes the only barrier between an amateur investigator and a calculating predator operating in plain sight.
Elevator Pitch
In the shadow of a rapidly gentrifying Highland Park, former TV journalist Corey Tracey-Lieberman is anchoring her fractured reality with prescription pills to combat severe postpartum panic disorder. When her neighbor, Sonja Hart, vanishes into thin air without a trace or an LAPD response, Corey makes a high-stakes calculation: she halts her medication to reclaim her razor-sharp investigative instincts. With her fifteen-month-old son strapped physically to her chest, Corey steps into a labyrinth of suspicious real estate developments and neighborhood secrets. As her marriage deteriorates and professional boundaries dissolve, her hyper-vigilance uncovers a terrifying truth: the architect of the displacement is tracking her every move.
Setting
~Time & Place: Present-day Highland Park, Los Angeles. A neighborhood trapped in the friction of commercial capitalism and historic preservation.
~Atmosphere: Claustrophobic, feverish, and socially fractured. The heat of Southern California mimics the sweltering, unmedicated panic of early motherhood.
The Vibe
Urban neo-noir intersecting with intimate psychological domesticity.
Genre
Gentrification Noir / Psychological Procedural / Feminist Noir Thriller / Amateur Sleuths / Domestic Thriller
Themes
~The Weaponization of Urban Space: How corporate real estate developments exploit human vulnerabilities, treating marginalized communities and missing persons as mere obstacles to capital accumulation.
~The Pathology of Maternal Duty: The devastating trade-off between psychological self-preservation and the visceral instinct to protect or seek justice for another mother.
Standout Character
~Corey Tracey-Lieberman: A brilliantly flawed protagonist whose primary investigative tool is also her undoing. Her hyper-fixation is driven not by heroic altruism, but by a raw, unmedicated postpartum reality that leaves her exposed to external threats.
Author Writing Standout
Jaime Parker Stickle leverages her film and television background to construct a masterclass in narrative ruthlessness. Her prose operates with a cinematic economy, bypassing traditional filler to build tension through structural pacing and sensory escalation. Stickle treats Corey’s unmedicated anxiety not as a narrative gimmick, but as a formal constraint. The prose tightens or fractures depending on Corey’s psychological state, utilizing short, sharp sentences during panic-induced sequences to simulate hyperventilation on the page.
Takeaway
Society frequently pathologizes maternal anxiety while remaining willfully blind to the corporate, systemic violence that genuinely threatens communities.
Title Significance
~Literal: The direct directive to find and investigate the sudden disappearance of neighbor Sonja Hart.
~Metaphorical: A command to Corey—and the reader—to summon raw emotional endurance (to take heart) and look directly at systemic decay without blinking, even when survival requires narrative ruthlessness.
Metaphor
The fifteen-month-old child strapped to Corey’s chest serves as the novel's mechanical and structural metaphor. The infant is both a physical anchor to the material world and a constant, literal weight that limits her speed, alters her center of gravity, and increases her stakes during dangerous confrontations.
Why You Should Read
This is a sophisticated option for readers who demand crime fiction with sociopolitical teeth. Stickle rejects the clean resolutions of traditional procedurals, opting instead to dissect the psychological toll of municipal indifference and modern motherhood.
My Thoughts
"A masterclass in urban anxiety and narrative ruthlessness."
In Take Hart, Jaime Parker Stickle turns Highland Park into a brilliant canvas for gentrification noir. A missing mother case meets the raw, unmedicated reality of postpartum panic. This isn't your average procedural—it has sociopolitical teeth.
Reading Take Hart after Vicious Cycle felt like watching a brilliant filmmaker tighten their focus. I tore through the 301 pages in a single, breathless sitting, captivated by how accurately Stickle captures the dizzying reality of early motherhood without romanticizing it. The decision to have Corey drop her medication forces the reader into an uncomfortably intimate proximity with her psyche.
Be sure and read the first book in the series to learn the background!
Verdict Rating: 5 / 5 Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
"A brutally sharp, unflinching noir that exposes the dark underbelly of neighborhood displacement through the lens of unmedicated maternal hyper-vigilance."
Audio 🎧Standout
The audiobook production of Take Hart succeeds entirely due to the sophisticated vocal mechanics of narrator Sarah Naughton, (a favorite) who also voiced Vicious Cycle. Naughton displays absolute command over tonal pacing, subtly raising her pitch and accelerating her delivery during Corey’s unmedicated anxiety spirals to mimic a rising heart rate. Her transitions between internal monologue and dialogue are clinically precise, shifting effortlessly from the breathy, internal exhaustion of a postpartum mother to the hardened, professional cadences of Corey’s investigative voice.
Special thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollions | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Aug 4, 2026
August 2026 Must-Read Books
Recs or Read Alikes
While the "Corey in Los Angeles series" (Vicious Cycle & Take Hart) is similar to Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich) and Finlay Donovan (Elle Cosimano), with wit, sluething, and female leads which lean heavily into over-the-top, breathless capers; Corey is a former TV journalist and indie news blogger consulting with the LAPD. Corey’s narrative leans a bit harder into the raw, radical honesty of postpartum anxiety and local L.A. gentrification issues.
~The Deep, Deep Snow by Brian Freeman: Mirrors Stickle's execution by utilizing a deeply localized community mystery to expose the internal psychology and personal traumas of a relentless female investigator.
~Long Bright River by Liz Moore: Features a female beat cop navigating a hyper-localized crisis, where her investigative drive is deeply personal while balancing single motherhood and systemic institutional indifference.
~Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman: Follows a former journalist turned investigator, serving as an elite comparison for its deep-rooted focus on urban geography, political deception, and real estate exploitation.
