I really love a good private eye story and this one was really a great read. Check out my review of And Now She’s Gone

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall. Published on September 22, 2020 by Forge Books. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.

Synopsis: Isabel Lincoln is gone. But is she missing? It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family. Featuring two complicated women in a dangerous cat and mouse game, And Now She’s Gone explores the nature of secrets — and how violence and fear can lead you to abandon everything in order to survive.

Review of And Now She’s Gone

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I love mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, and all things suspenseful. Like many people, I’m also trying to read more authors of color, especially Black authors. So I Googled “Black mystery writers” and found Rachel Howzell Hall. I’m so glad I did. I can’t believe she wasn’t on my radar before!

And Now She’s Gone was just what I look for in a mystery. It has strong female characters, a really twisty plot, great writing, and an atmospheric setting.

Grey Sykes works for a Los Angeles investigative firm behind the scenes, writing reports and doing research. Then she’s assigned her very first case in the field: a local doctor wants to find his missing girlfriend and their dog. Gray interviews him and gets started, but quickly discovers that nothing and no one in this case are what they seem.

Gray was such a great protagonist. She’s a Black woman trying to make it in a white man’s profession, but has a lot of strong female colleagues she relies on for advice and favors. She’s smart, and trades on the fact that she’s often underestimated (even outright disparaged) by her clients and the world at large.

The twists and turns in And Now She’s Gone were great. The story started out as a dual timeline, and then the two converged. And the surprises in the missing person case just kept coming.

I absolutely loved And Now She’s Gone. Can I please have more Gray Sykes books? Or a Netflix show? I’m hooked on this character and I want more!