And Now She’s Gone

And Now She’s Gone is a gripping, fast-paced thriller told from the fresh perspective of a Black female detective. Greyson Sykes is reluctant to find a doctor’s missing girlfriend and his dog because, by all appearances, Isabel Lincoln was abused by him. And Grey know all about that. She knows what it’s like to run from a man she once loved because one of these days, his temper might kill her. The closer she gets to finding Isabel, the the more Isabel and her friends push Grey away.

I was taken by the character’s voice as much as the story. Grey is as real as any woman you meet and aware of her flaws. She is resilient and smart, and in the face of adversity, she is determined to solve this case.

Five stars, all the way!

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Female Detective Grayson Sykes is on an assignment – to find a missing woman named Isabel Lincoln and a dog named Kenny G – hired by her boyfriend, a prominent Cardiologist in Los Angeles. As Gray gets deeper into the investigation, the more questions arise and the twistier it gets. u2063
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Told in two timelines, we discover so much about Gray’s troubled past. The writing of her character is just so well done, I am hoping to read more of her in a sequel. Unlike most thrillers, this one was just a little different with a special flair, from the humor, the dialogue and deep themes of race and domestic abuse, there is such a great read with a great balance and enough twists to keep my interest piqued. u2063
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The audio book was narrated by Je Nie Fleming (The Boyfriend Project) and really brought the characters and dialogue to life. I highly recommend it. u2063
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I’ve heard so many good things about AND NOW SHE’S GONE, and now I know why; it is certainly a wild ride! PI Grayson Sykes is hired to locate a missing woman named Isabel, but as Grayson looks into Isabel’s past, which, in many ways, mirrors her own, she begins to wonder if it would be better if Isabel stayed missing. I am honestly flabbergasted as to how Rachel Howzell Hall even came up with this story! It is so intricately plotted with twists and turns in nearly every chapter, and I’d love to go back in time and hop inside her brain as she was creating the story because I am fascinated by all the threads she conceived and then wove together. With every new chapter, I had an entirely new theory about what had happened, and of course I was completely wrong about all of them! The final twist at the end really surprised me, and I liked how I was never completely sure who the villains in the story were (besides one of the characters who is quite obviously a villain from the very beginning). The prose is engaging and clever, and Grayson herself was an intriguing character that I had a lot of fun following. Now I can’t wait for whatever Rachel writes next!

Once again, Rachel Howzell Hall digs deep to write real characters with real issues struggling through extraordinary circumstances. Twisty, mundane, intriguing, surprising, AND NOW SHE’S GONE delivers a unique and satisfying read!

3-3.5 stars!

Okay, so the bones of this story are good. I was a little bored during the first third but the last third definitely made up for that. I think the twist at the end is good, it just took a heck of a lot to get there. I appreciate the author’s story telling style, and while I personally would do things a little differently (more on that in a bit) I liked that it was a woman telling a female PI’s story. PI work can be messy, so I appreciate a woman doing the work, especially a woman with a closet of skeletons like Grayson had.

My biggest beef was with formatting and maybe this is more of an editing complaint than writing but if you’re going to have a lot of text messages in a book you have to format it in a way that reads easy. It was hard to discern what was a text and what was a thought and many times Grayson thought something and didn’t say it or text it but sometimes she thought something and did actually say it or text it but it wasn’t clear what was what. I had to really think and work through these types of conversations and it was kind of exhausting. When I read, I read to be entertained (like most readers of fiction.) Changing the formatting to make these text exchanges and conversations flow more seamlessly would have improved this book and reading experience tremendously! I’ve read several books where the formatting for texting was actually a highlight of the book so I know it can be done. I received an ARC of this from Netgalley so maybe it’s just the ARC copy? I dunno, but it’s the third quarter of 2020 and I’m tired. I didn’t need or want to work this hard for a book I’m reading for pleasure.

I love a good detective story and Grayson Skyes (love that name) is a great character. Strong, sarcastic, and smart… all the “S” words. I never figured this one out, even though I thought I had, and despite its longer length than most thrillers, it kept my attention. The setting of the west coast and tension was done so well and the mystery was enthralling. I highly recommend for fans of female-driven detective stories.

I read a fair amount of thrillers, and the majority of them tend to follow the same script: middle class white women trapped in an unhappy marriage with a cheating husband who now have a drinking problem as a coping mechanism. Yeah…no one’s got time for that.

Rachel Howzell Hall has blessed us with Grayson Sykes, an overweight Black female who is dedicated to rescuing battered women from their abusers. Grayson has finally worked her way up to her first real PI gig (technically her first gig was hunting down a chihuahua named Cheeto, but she’d rather forget that), which is to locate Isabel Lincoln at the request of her boyfriend Dr. Ian O’Donnell.

Now, Gray is a TERRIBLE PI, so don’t go into this one expecting her to be the next Sherlock Holmes. That’s not to say that she isn’t dedicated or isn’t learning from her mistakes. Every time Gray learns more information about Isabel, nothing seems to add up. Gray also makes assumptions in places that she shouldn’t. To make matters worse, skeletons in Gray’s personal life start to become entangled in the case. Oh, and she has some complicated feelings towards her boss. So yeah, Gray has a lot going on, so it’s no surprise that Isabel’s case is kicking her butt.

What really elevated this story for me unlike the majority of thrillers that I read was how the nuances of Black culture was infused throughout the entire plot. This was seen in the pop culture references, the food, the language (code switching), etc. The author does a phenomenal job of showing these experiences from the viewpoint of Gray rather than an outside perspective. Furthermore, the author really dives into discussions of race when it comes to Gray interacting with non-Black characters. Gray’s interactions with Ian made me want to throw Ian off of a cliff. His microaggressions and gaslighting were bad enough, but when he said that he was “post-race”, I swear I almost lost it right then and there.

Overall, if you’re looking for a thriller that offers lots of twists and turns but doesn’t follow the typical formula for the genre, definitely check out And Now She’s Gone.

Thank you to Tor/Forge for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.