(Originally published November 2011)
Fans of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club will love Rachel Howzell's newest title.
Along the ever changing border of gentrifying Los Angeles, seventeen year old Monique Darson is found dead at a condominium construction site, hanging in the closet of an unfinished unit. Homicide detective Elouise "Lou" Norton's new partner, Colin Taggert, fresh from the comparatively bucolic Colorado Springs police department, assumes it's a teenage suicide. Lou isn't buying the easy explanation.
For one thing, the condo site is owned by Napoleon Crase, a self made millionaire. . .and the man who may have murdered Lou's missing sister, Tori, thirty years ago. As Lou investigates the death of Monique Darson, she uncovers undeniable links between the two cases. But her department is skeptical. Lou is convinced that when she solves Monique's case she will finally bring her lost sister home. But as she gets closer to the truth, she also gets closer to a violent killer. After all this time, can he be brought to justice. . .before Lou becomes his next victim?
Review
"Howzell is the Sue Grafton of her generation, with a bit more social conscience and street cred. Like Grafton's Kinsey Milhone, Syeeda is determined to be her own woman, solving crimes and facing down danger, and protecting her own body -- and heart -- as ferociously as she hunts down bad guys." - Nina Sankovitch, Read All Day and Huffington Post
About the Author
RACHEL HOWZELL HALL is a writer/assistant development director at City of Hope, a national leader in cancer research and treatment. LAND OF SHADOWS , the first in her new mystery series, received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly __ and was a selection for Los Angeles Times' 143 Books for the Summer (2014). She lives in Los Angeles.