And Now She’s Gone was such a great read, featuring a new up and coming private investigator grappling with a complicated past of her own. The book is filled with lies, secrets, and more twists and turns than I ever anticipated, all while seamlessly weaving in important discussions around race and gender. I was stumped until the very end. This is a must read for fans of thrillers and suspense.⁣
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Thank you so much to @forgereads for the gifted advance copy. This book will be released 9/22/20. ⁣

Grayson Sykes, a private investigator working in Los Angeles has been given her first missing persons case to investigate. A doctor Ian O'Donnell is looking for his missing girlfriend Isabel Lincoln who ran off with his dog Kenny G.

Grayson is running from a dark past herself and the more she looks into this woman she realizes Isabel is hiding some of her own dark secrets. As the case goes on, Grayson realizes that Isabel doesn't want to be found. Things are not adding up and now Grayson’s past seems to be closing in on her too.

This was a slow build mystery with a lot of twists. It is a lengthy read with the timeline jumping around quite a bit but the ending was so satisfying. I loved the final twist and would love to read more about this private investigator.

Thank you NetGalley and Forge Books for this advance reading copy.

This one was a hard for me to get into. It's full of flashbacks and metaphors which sometimes caused me to miss what I read and I had to go back and re-read. The pacing was also slow and I was expecting something more fast paced. Plus I found myself detached from most of the characters. I don't necessarily need to relate anyone in a story but I do need to find them entertaining enough to spend several pages with.

This story follows PI Grayson(Gray) Sykes who is a PI on her first solo case. She's already stumbling through it when she finds herself relating to the missing woman Isabel Lincoln in several ways. This case brings up many horrible haunting memories for her that she's been trying to escape ever since rebuilding her life after leaving an abusive relationship. The threat of her ex is always looming over her as he still tries to She early on projects much of herself onto Isabel. And she's not the most prepared PI since she meets with her client without being ready to take notes, where's very bright colors on stakeouts, and makes careless mistakes. Just when you think you understand how this book is going to go it takes an unexpected twist.

I wish this book would've cut down on some of the descriptions of everything Gray ate and drank. She also suffers from chronic pain and at times feels like her body will shut down. This is depicted with several mentions of her popping pills followed by her downing alcohol to try and dull her internal pain. I know authors do that to build up atmosphere but it tends to be repetitive after the umpteenth time it happens. At times the plot was too slow moving and contained some filler which I'm not a fan of in mysteries.

For me the book didn't start to really pick up until after the 60% mark. After that I found the pacing to be steady and the action was continuous. Though that manic anxious feeling present throughout the story still remained.


See review here
https://womenofcolorreadtoo.blogspot.com/2020/09/and-now-shes-gone-by-rachel-howzell-hall.html

I've been in a weird reading funk with other things going on in my life and it took me 4 days to finish this book. If you know me, I'm a one-sit binge reader. So many shiny things and my own brain seemed to have plotted against me because I absolutely LOVED this book and am mad I took so damn long to finish it! But I DID - so YAY, SUCCESS!!

Grayson, I'm sending you a crate of pens. I'm never naming my dog Kenny G. And, I want to put on record that while Mrs. Kim, the Korean old lady, may have always cooked Korean food that smelled musky, not ALL Korean food smells like this! Haha - I'm mostly kidding, because there were definitely times I felt like my parents house smelled like a musky ox so I totally understand how even more terrible this can be for people not used to it! All jokes aside.... I really LOVE Grayson. The further I got into this book, the more my heart went out to her. What a strong ass woman. And the case that she's on..... WHAT... THE .... FUCK. I'm 85% in the book and I STILL have no clue what is going on or what direction it's going in but I also am finding Isabel a genius of a woman herself. Cat, meet mouse.... a worthy opponent. GIMME!

The build up that leads to the reveal is brilliant. I will say that I found some of the metaphors used within the writing a bit odd at times... but mostly I found them humorous and took them more as a nod to Grayson's personality, and as such, appreciated the uniqueness of it all. I did notice that the text messaging could be a little hard to follow at times due to the lack of differentiation in font and format most of the time. It did not take away from the enjoyment of the novel however.

I'll be honest, I was hovering between a 3.5 and 4 star review throughout my read but when that ending came and the culmination of everything that was set up throughout the story erupted, I nodded and was like "MMM HMMM..... THAT'S IT! YES!" So yeah, absolutely bumping up to this 5 star ramble of a review. I really need to know what happens next though - WILL THERE BE A SEQUEL? Turn this into a series? How will I ever know if _____ get what ______ ______?! 😉

Read this book.

This book was good. The plot was great, but it moved at a glacier pace at times. The middle of the book went on and on. And to be honest, some of the flashbacks weren’t necessary.

Thank you NetGalley and forge for a free ADC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved how this story was told in two different time frames. I enjoyed the flashbacks the most. That helped me understand why Grayson wanted this case. I liked the little clues throughout the story. And I also loved how strong Gray came across.

I found this to be a very long book and at points I had a hard time focusing or wanting to pick up due to its size.

I should have known this book wouldn't be for me when I had to restart it a few times because I kept losing focus. The story itself sounded interesting but I ended up DNF around 40%. It felt so long and while it wasn’t necessarily BAD, I just couldn’t get into it!

When I hit 30% I was like wow I still have a ways to go. 40% was when I realized I wasn’t even halfway done and didn’t care to finish it. I ended up spoiling the ending for myself and I think I would have liked this had I stuck around and it was shortened a bit.

Something about the main character I just didn’t care for.

But I think others will enjoy it more than I did.

This was a super fast read for me. I received it yesterday afternoon and stayed up well past midnight to keep reading. I felt the plot and the characters were really thought out. I did predict the end result from the start so that wasn't super original, for me at least. Honestly, I think had the end result been a bit more surprising, I'd give it a much higher rating.

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.

3.5 ⭐️‘s
Grayson Sykes has a past, a past she’s been running from for years. A past that haunts her. As the newest PI for Radar Consulting, Gray finally has her first case. The more Gray digs to find Isabel, a missing person, the more she finds to investigate. Is Isabel a women on the run from an abusive situation? As Gray delves deeper, there is much more to the story and the simple case turns deadly just as Gray’s past finds her. But this time she’s not going to run. This time she’s going to stand her ground and take care of business.

I was completely blown away by the vitality of Grayson Sykes, the PI protagonist of AND NOW SHE'S GONE. She's smart and wry and very much relatable as a woman on her own in the world. Vulnerable when it counts, and courageous when it's called for. I was rooting for her from page one.

Grayson, raised primarily in foster homes, is a private investigator looking for a woman who's doing her best to be invisible. At the same time she's looking over her shoulder, trying to be invisible herself to a man who tried to kill her many, many times. With thriller pacing and a complex mystery, the story unfolds in surprising, satisfying ways.

Hall gives Grayson a wonderful cast of girlfriends--women who love her for who she is, even though they can't really know her. The scenes in which they come together and tell stories and support each other are some of the warmest of the book. Each of Hall's characters is vibrant and distinct, drawn neatly and unapologetically. The same can be said of L.A. and Las Vegas, which are characters in themselves.

Also...Thank you, Rachel Howzell Hall for giving us a heroine who is curvy yet still sexy. Badass chicks come in all sizes!

I really love PI stories and this one was excellent! Gray is a newly promoted PI who is given the case of a missing woman. But things quickly get more and more complicated. Is Isabel really missing or is she hiding? And how does her case bring Gray back to a painful part of her own past.

I loved the writing in this, loved the LA setting, and thought the mystery was really well-crafted, with lots of twists and turns. Definitely putting Rachel Howzell Hall on my list when I'm looking for mystery/suspense!

Grayson (Gray) Sykes is a PI who is hired to find her client's missing dog and girlfriend. The trouble is, the missing girlfriend, Isabel Lincoln, is alive and communicating with Gray and she doesn't want to be found. Then there is the investigation itself. The further and further Gray gets into this case, the more complex and messed up it becomes. We also get a glimpse into the past of Gray's own life. We see how she came to this moment in time and how that impacts her abilities in trying to find Isabel.

What I really loved about this book was that it was written exactly for this moment in time and the story stands out from a lot of other books in the mystery/thriller genre that kind of start to sound the same after a while. (I do want to stress that this is not true of all books in the genre, but I think you know what I mean.) I thought Gray's character was phenomenally written and I grew very fond of her. She was smart, tough, complex, yet also vulnerable and had her own adversity to contend with. She had a dry sense of humor (which I always love) and I eagerly flipped the pages during the ups and downs of this investigation. I thought the ending was extremely satisfying as well. Overall, it was a crazy and wild ride, but it always kept me guessing!

What I struggled with were some pretty jarring moments between the current and past tense. You would just get your footing and then you'd be thrown back and have absolutely no idea what was going on or who we were talking about. Once I hit about the 30% mark, I was able to finally make sense of everything going on and I didn't mind it as much. It was also confusing in the beginning keeping everyone straight. Gray has a group of female friends that were all introduced very quickly and while they didn't play a huge role, it was still challenging trying to keep everyone straight. Couple that with some characters having multiple names (it makes sense so don't let this deter you), but when you're starting any new book you are trying to put the pieces together to figure out the narrative and this one was more challenging than others.

Despite this, I still think this is a very strong book and I urge you to give it a try. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it definitely was mine and I am hoping for a follow up!

Thank you to Forge Books for the print galley and Netgalley and Rachel Howzell Hall for the egalley I was able to read to provide an honest review.

Review Date: 09/23/2020
Publication Date: 09/22/2020

So much in this book—sexism, racism, domestic abuse—give depth to a new mystery from the author of the Black LAPD homicide detective, Elouise “Lou” Norton. Now Rachel Howzell Hall turns her attention to a new private investigator. Her first case involves an issue with which she is familiar, disappearing and creating a new identity. As Gray takes on her new case, she also reflects on how difficult it is to disappear. Howzell Hall has created an interesting detective with a different spin on life than many other detectives. I look forward to more in this series.

This is a crime thriller told in dual timelines. It is a slow burn (clocks in at over 500 pages) and gradually picks up until you are very invested in it and can't put it down. This is written so smartly with breadcrumbs woven carefully, lots of twists, and it was very entertaining and suspenseful. Gray is a layered character, strong female detective, and I loved peeling away her history and secrets. I really enjoyed following along and putting on my detective pants to uncover Isabel's case and kept wondering if she wanted to be found. I am so hoping this becomes a series!

This was my first Rachel Howzell Hall and it won't be my last. It is rare to find mystery/thrillers written by Black womxn and I loved the journey this book took me on.

Grayson is a PI who has finally been given her first missing person case - Isabelle Lincoln is was reported missing by her shady doctor boyfriend and Gray has to find her. But as Gray unravels this case, she is forced to confront her mysterious past.

Grayson is my favorite - I hope this turns into a series with Grayson as the lead because she is amazing. She's strong, vulnerable, clumsy, makes a ton of mistakes, but just wants to live and be happy without knowing what happiness is. She is lonely and scared and projects much of her past onto mysterious Isabel. It's hard to talk about this book without giving any spoilers (which I won't do) , but overall the mystery of where Isabel is, and ultimately WHO Isabel is, is absorbing. There's some filler, internal monologuing, and slow plot lines that can be frustrating, but not enough to take away from the tension that Howzell Hall builds. Also I loved that this is a thriller led by a Black woman than dives into loneliness, death, domestic violence, passing, and the subtle racial abuse that Black women often face.

This is a must read - diversify your thrillers and dive into this story of two complex women.

4 1/2 stars! Couldn’t put this read down as everything about it hit a home run for me. Loved Grayson and the way Hall peeled back her layers oh so slowly, giving insight into her thoughts and decisions. Her own background served to help her in her latest PI task for Rader Consulting, finding a missing possibly abused fiancée. Sean was such a pompous fool! So many twists and hairpin turns later, the ending is so satisfying! My biggest confusion was the continuous use of Nick and Dominic. Took me a while to determine they were one and the same. Also loved the setting...LA and the So Cal desert, where I currently reside! Many thanks to Rachel Howzell Hall, Forge Books, and NetGalley for affording me the pleasure of reading an ARC of And Now She’s Gone, actually published today! Don’t miss this read!

Gina Carey once said, “A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink.” And Now She’s Gone is a story about the many different kinds of adversity and adversaries women face in their lives and how learning to leave the battlefield bloody and bruised but victorious is the most important skill we can ever acquire.

Gray (Grayson) Sykes has just been promoted to investigator at Radar Consulting and is excited to tackle her first missing persons case. Isabel Lincoln has disappeared, vanished seemingly without a trace. Her boyfriend Ian, a rich cardiologist, initially thought this was just Isabel being Isabel – she has been known to take spontaneous trips before, going away for days and upon returning offering the excuse that she just needed to be alone. But this time she’s been gone months, not days and she took Ian’s beloved dog Kenny G with her. He’s hired Gray because he wants Isabel found, wants photographic proof that she’s alive and okay and most of all, he wants his dog back.

Gray begins her hunt for the missing Isabel by interviewing that lady’s co-workers and receives some disturbing information – the kindly doctor may not be the wonderful man he claims to be. One of the women says Ian had been physically abusive throughout the relationship and has probably killed Isabel. Another tells Gray, “She did what she had to do, cuz that’s us women. Doing what we gotta do to survive. And sometimes? That ain’t nice. Sometimes, that ain’t easy. But we get to be above ground for one more day.”

Concerned, Gray changes the focus of her search to include the possibility that the man who hired her to find Isabel might actually want her to muddy a future criminal investigation. But there is no evidence of foul play at Isabel’s condo and a neighbor saw Isabel happily getting into a black truck with a suitcase. Everything seems to point to a woman who willingly took off. Yet Isabel’s home is filled with all manner of personal memorabilia, the types of things people always take with them when relocating. Her car is still in the driveway. Her breakfast dishes are still in the sink. There may be no signs of a struggle, Isabel might have entered that truck with a packed bag and cheerful countenance but had she truly intended to stay away this long?

When she’s through examining the condo, Gray begins texting the list of Isabel’s friends Ian gave her. Few of them answer, but she makes appointments to speak to the ones who do. And then she receives a strange message from an unknown number, one she definitely didn’t reach out to: “Please let me be missing.” A few frustrating exchanges later and she knows she’s dealing with the missing Isabel. So why won’t the woman just give Gray the dog, a picture proving she’s okay and let both of them get back to their lives?

Gray is the perfect person to handle Isabel’s case because no one could understand better about the need to start over. She had once been Mrs. Natalie Dixon, the beautiful society wife of a rich, successful man. A man who began beating her by their first anniversary and who left her with a battered body, broken heart and scarred face. She knows she needs to handle this search with all the finesse she can muster because while she may have a legal obligation to the doctor, she has a moral obligation to Isabel. If the woman is in danger, Gray needs to help her stay gone.

I loved that Gray wasn’t just sympathetic to Isabel’s plight but that she was careful, meticulous and thorough in her examination of the details surrounding the woman’s disappearance. It would have been so easy for her to make assumptions based on her own past experiences but she refuses to jump to conclusions and follows every miniscule clue until she’s gathered all the pieces of information she needs to come to the right denouement. The author did a great job of showing us what makes Gray a terrific sleuth and how her personality – a mix of compassion, cleverness, conscientiousness, and thoroughness – contributed to her vocational success. We live in a career oriented world and I absolutely love it when this aspect of a story is done right.

The mystery here has a lot of nice twists and turns. Until close to the end of the book we are unsure of what exactly is happening and what it all means. Almost everyone involved in the case is lying to Gray in some way, shape or form and watching her pick her way through all the prevarications to the truth is engrossing. The story is told very much in the fashion of a cat and mouse game, with Gray chasing a very elusive prey and I loved that I wasn’t sure of who was who and what was what until almost the end of the book.

The author does a nice job with the secondary characters, most of whom are witnesses, suspects or leads. It is by listening to their stories and learning their backgrounds that we are slowly able to piece together the solution to the mystery, and the author cleverly uses their personalities to help us form an image of the missing woman. It’s true that we can be known by the company we keep and Isabel had some very interesting people in her life.

We also explore Gray’s previous life as a socialite and her own ongoing struggle to stay hidden. The book shows how a smart woman with good friends could fall prey to a predator and how we can convince ourselves to stay in a bad situation by thinking tomorrow will be a better day even when it never, ever is.

There are hookups here as well as an underlying romance possibility but the book concentrates more on telling us Gray’s past and taking us through the case than in fully exploring the relationships. The narrative ends with an HFN which I thought was perfect for the story.

And Now She’s Gone had a bit of a slow start and a few rather unbelievable elements but it’s an intriguing mystery with an excellent kickass heroine. I would recommend it to any fan of female detective stories.

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And Now She’s Gone
By: Rachel Howzell Hall
Forge Books

Private Investigator Grayson Sykes is on her very first case searching for missing woman, Isabel Lincoln. The PI firm Gray works for is hired by Isabel’s boyfriend, Cardiologist Ian O’Donnell. Ian may be a Doctor, but that doesn’t make him trustworthy. It truthfully seems like he doesn’t care too much that Isabel is missing, but more that she took his beloved dog, Kenny G with her.

As Gray investigates this case, we are taken on a journey between present and past tense; It’s a complex wild ride! The story zigs and zags between investigating Isabel’s whereabouts and the past abusive relationship of Natalie Dixon who is abused by her husband Sean. It’s really hard to explain these characters without giving too much of the story away! And the biggest question of all - Is Isabel alive and does she even want to be found!?

While at times Gray seemed sad, abused alcohol, and was on the brink of self destruction, I still found her to be a very likable and relatable character. I enjoyed her and her co-workers/friends at the PI firm.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I can’t recommend this book enough! It’s a wild ride and unpredictable right up until the end! Thank you to @netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge @forgebooks for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was beyond excited to see a new Rachel Howzell Hall book!!!! I first discovered Ms. Howzell Hall through her Elouise Norton detective series (so good!), and am excited to think that And Now She's Gone could be the beginning of a new series!!!!

This book centers around Grayson Sykes, a PI doing her first case, who is looking for Isabel Lincoln. In addition to the search for Isabel, the book also lets you into Grayson's story which is equally compelling. I really liked Grayson, and thought many of her observations were on point and, as it relates to the boyfriend of the missing woman, similar to my own views of him. The author did a good job of making the characters interesting, even the ones you don't like.

The book, aside from a fantastic PI story, touches on issues of domestic violence and does so in a real and compelling way. We follow Gray's investigation in the present, while also learning about the more personal story in the past. I thought that the strong story and real world issue of domestic violence made for an interesting, emotional and engaging read that had me thinking about the book long after I finished.

For those who have read Ms. Howzell Hall's past work, this book won't be a disappointment and is just as good as prior books. For those who haven't discovered Ms. Howzell Hall, you are in for a treat with another page-turner that definitely meets the definition of a great crime fiction read. Also, if you haven't read Ms. Howzell Hall's backlist, I strongly urge you to do so. (Especially if you want a good crime series to dig into!!!)

I would recommend this book as the perfect fall read, meant to be enjoyed with a cozy sweater, a hot beverage, and enough time that you don't have to leave before you read the entire thing in one sitting (believe me, you will want to!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for the opportunity to review this book before publication!