Land of Shadows
Homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton knows that the young black woman hanging in the closet of an unfinished Los Angeles condominium complex isn’t a suicide. She also knows that the development belongs to Napoleon Crase, the last person to see her sister alive before she disappeared 30 years ago. With a wet-behind-the-ears new partner to train and a husband who’s blaming the time difference while away on business for missed phone calls, Lou already has a lot on her plate. But nobody’s going to get between her and this murder. Lou is a good cop and fun to watch—great instincts, a no-nonsense interviewing style, and uncompromising in her efforts to catch the bad guy. She’s a well-rounded character who can keep her sense of humor even when her work hits painfully close to home. As she tells her partner, “I’m sassy, but not Florence-the-Jeffersons’-maid sassy.” Hall’s first book, A Quiet Storm (2002), was a domestic drama about a family facing mental illness; here she moves easily into the suspense genre—where hopefully she and Officer Norton will stay for a long time to come. --Karen Keefe