My Readers Guide for We Don’t Talk About Carol discusses this new family suspense story featuring a former journalist who’s drawn into a family mystery. My guide will have Jen’s Quick Take, a brief plot summary plus spoilers. I hope you’ll try this new title and support a Black Woman Author!
Readers Guide for We Don’t Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry
We Don’t Talk About Carol has a lot of interesting elements: family secrets, a journalist detective, a tragic string of disappearances of young Black women in 1960s North Carolina, and the main character’s fertility journey.
Jen’s Quick Take on We Don’t Talk About Carol
- One part Family Secrets Suspense, one part journalist/amateur detective story, and one part personal journey
- This book calls attention to the fact that while Black Americans make up 14 percent of the country’s population, they represent 36 percent of all missing persons. In addition, as many have pointed out, missing people of color often get less media and police attention.
- For fans of cozy mysteries (due to the focus on the main character’s personal life and family), The Missing Half with a little bit of Black-Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin.
- Filled with real places in and around Raleigh, NC, if you’re familiar with the area!
- Publication date: June 3, 2025. Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review
Plot Summary and Spoilers for We Don’t Talk About Carol
It’s not the best time for Sydney “Sydney” Singleton, a former crime reporter, to be leaving L.A. for Raleigh, NC to help her mom and sister clean out her Grandma Effie’s house, but family comes first.
Syd finds an old photo in a drawer of her Aunt Carol, who mysteriously disappeared as a teenager. And who strongly resembles Syd. After Carol never turned up, the family assumed she went to Detroit to pursue a music career.
Even more disturbing is the fact that Carol was only one of a number of teen girls who went missing in the 1960s in the neighborhood: Marian Bradbury, Bettie Brooks, Sally Dunn, Loretta Morgan, and Geraldine Williams also vanished mysteriously.
Syd and her husband Malik are in the process of their third IVF cycle, something that makes Syd physically unwell and emotionally fragile. But the reporter in her comes out and she starts researching.
Syd starts investigating
Very little media attention was paid to the girls at the times, but their families never forgot. Syd finds Carol’s diary hidden in the house, which mentions a boyfriend named Michael.
But Syd is also wondering about the connection of the missing girls to nearby Walnut Creek Wetland Park, a park near post WWII communities built for Black residents during segregation.
Syd connects with Carol’s old babysitter, Yvonne Hall, and Geraldine’s sister Barbara and Sally’s brother Stanley.
Syd’s husband Malik is concerned that all this investigating is going to upset Syd at an already stressful time in the IVF process, but she believes that she’s the one who can get answers for the girls and their families.
Syd locates a possible Michael
Stanley and Barbara mention that as a high school student, Carol used to attend parties at nearby Shaw College. They mention a memorable fight that Carol had at a party with Yvonne Hall, who had a brother named Michael.
All this forces Syd, who has been in therapy for years, to recall the difficult relationship between her mother and her father, Larry, a professional athlete who had dark moods, an alcohol abuse issue, and died in a car accident. We also learn that Syd left her reporting beat ten years ago after being deeply disturbed by a story she covered about a man who drove his family off a cliff.
Syd leaves a phone message for Michael Hall and combs through police records given to her by Barbara. She learns that Geraldine and Sally were seen getting into a sedan the days they disappeared.
Syd posts the girls’ cases on a website for missing people
Michael, now a law professor, calls Syd and says that he loved Carol but that they fought and he, like many others in the community, thought she’d run off to Detroit to pursue her dreams of being a singer. He says he filed a police report on Carol’s disappearance, but the police records indicate that report was cancelled by Yvonne.
Syd and her sister Sasha fly to Detroit and meet Michael and his wife Rosa. Michael has a trunk of Carol’s things, which he offers to ship to Syd. She also sees pictures of him with his friends Perry, Douglas, and Raymond, who owned a sedan similar to the one that Geraldine and Sally were seen getting into.
Syd finds Sally Dune’s charm bracelet in Carol’s trunk and begins to investigate Raymond. He’d been tragically orphaned and was remembered in the neighborhood as an odd and awkward person. Barbara insists Raymond was very suspicious and made creepy remarks to her about deadheading his hydrangeas.
Syd learns that the police did look into Raymond
But Raymond had an alibi for the time Geraldine disappeared. Syd returns to Raleigh, where Barbara tells her stories of growing up in the Jim Crow South. They visit the site of Raymond’s house, now a vacant lot that still has hydrangeas.
Barbara and Syd host a gathering for families of the missing women, who provide more connections between the missing girls and Michael Hall. Everyone agreed how disturbed Raymond seemed.
Syd is convinced that Michael and Raymond worked together. One of Raymond’s former neighbors saw him burying something in his yard.
At Thanksgiving, Syd’s sister Sasha tells her that she did a DNA test.. Syd also learns that the Raleigh police plan to excavate Raymond’s yard.
The girls are found
But not all of them. Geraldine, Sally and Marian are found. But Bettina, Carol and Loretta are not among the bodies recovered.
Sasha’s DNA test reveals that she and Syd have a cousin, Wesley Jones. He’s sixty, which means Carol could have had him as a teenager. Syd, Sasha and Malik head to New York City to meet him and are shocked to learn that Carol is alive.
We Don’t Talk About Carol: The Ending Explained
Carol confesses: she helped Michael and Raymond. First, she witnessed Loretta being buried by Michael and Raymond in the wetland woods.
She knew Michael and Raymond were luring girls into Raymond’s car, but they threatened her into silence. She felt so guilty about it that she hid Michael’s ring with Sally’s body as a clue.
When Raymond attacked Carol she killed him, buried his body in the woods, and then fled town.
Epilogue
A memorial to the five girls is built near Walnut Creek. Michael was convicted of the murders. Syd is invited to host a podcast on the case. Carol was not prosecuted due to her age, but some of the victims’ family members disagreed. Syd and Malik are the proud parents of baby Nia.
Let’s discuss! What questions do you have? Here are mine:
Who is Wesley’s father? Carol vanished in 1965 and he is sixty. There’s a scene of Raymond assaulting her, but it seems like she fought him off. Was it Michael?