Land of Shadows

This is another first read for a previously unknown author, Rachel Howzell Hall, but I will definitely look for subsequent books; this is the first of a series featuring Black female detective Elouise Norton, known as Lou to her colleagues in the south L.A. homicide squad. There are 3 further installments featuring this character as well as several other thrillers with different protagonists in Howzell Hall's body of work, many of which have received notable mystery prize nominations.

Library Journal says this about the book: "Lou Norton's life changed irrevocably the day her older sister went missing from their Los Angeles ghetto neighborhood. Decades have passed, but Norton, now a homicide detective with the LAPD, is still haunted by and fixated on the unsolved crime. When Lou is called to her old neighborhood to investigate the death of a young girl, she becomes convinced that the crime was committed by the same person who took her sister so long ago... Hall's ... promising series debut introduces a black, female lead in the male-dominated world of the LAPD. The author has fun playing with stereotypes and has developed a strong and likable protagonist. The story shines during Lou's flashbacks to her childhood, which are filled with heart-wrenching memories that make the wisecracking detective more accessible." 

Publishers Weekly praises, "A racially explosive Los Angeles provides the backdrop for this exceptional crime novel from Hall (A Quiet Storm). Elouise "Lou" Norton, an LAPD homicide detective known on the street as "Lockjaw," has solved 90% of the cases she's led. She's a smart, sassy black woman, "sweet as apple pie... laced with arsenic and rusty razor blades," bedeviled by the 25-year-old disappearance of her sister, Tori, and torn asunder emotionally by her straying husband, Greg. Lou is also saddled with a brash newbie partner, Colin Taggert, in a case involving a murdered Jane Doe that Lou suspects is tied to her sister's fate. Dead-on dialogue and atmospheric details help propel a tale full of tormenting moral issues. If the bad grow so close to the good, how do the cops weed them out? And how do we right all these wrongs? Lou, a brave lady in a brave book, does the best she can."

Booklist describes the protagonist this way: "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. ...here she moves easily into the suspense genre where hopefully she... will stay for a long time to come."

Kirkus concludes their brief review, "This first procedural from Hall (A Quiet Storm, 2002, etc.) combines a conflicted, gutsy heroine and a complex, many-layered mystery." 

Two Times Murder: A Quiet Teacher Mystery

Never read anything by Adam Oyebanji, but who can resist a book where the author description on the back cover says, "was born in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. He recently took the big step of moving east to Edinburgh by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York: a necessary detour, because the traffic otherwise is really, really bad. A graduate of Birmingham University and Harvard Law School, Adam works in the field of counter-terrorist financing, helping banks choke off the money supply to rogue states, narcotics empires, and human trafficking networks."

Moreover, the cover description of the protagonist is this, "Greg Abimbola is many things. He's Black, British and fluent in Russian. He's a snappy dresser, a reasonable teacher, and an unenthusiastic sports fan. But most of all, he's exceptional at keeping secrets. Like, who he really is, and the things he's done." Abimbola is a Russian--and occasionally French--language teacher at a private boys' school in Pittsburgh. He has been relocated there under the Witness Protection Program, but he has recently been found by a Russian agent and who knows where that will lead--probably to hell, he figures, given his background. This is the 2nd book in his "A Quiet Teacher" series and previously he defended an assistant janitor at the school in a murder case by finding the actual culprit. She is a computer whiz and forever in his debt, which is good, because he's a total Luddite when it comes to anything technical. When the police come calling to ask for his assistance in identifying a murdered man pulled out of the river, he is reluctant as he may actually know too much about the victim. But his discovery by Russian agents and then a seemingly unrelated 2nd murder pull him inexorably into the investigations.

Publishers Weekly offers these observations: "Oyebanji...serves up a fun if far-fetched second thriller featuring spy--turned... teacher Greg Abimbola. ...Greg remains a unique and appealing protagonist--a Black Russian with a keen eye for detail and conflicted feelings about his homosexuality--and Oyebanji utilizes him well, especially when Greg explains his deductions like a 21st-century Miss Marple. The plot's locked-room mystery and espionage thriller elements make uneasy bedfellows, however..."

Kirkus is more unreservedly praiseworthy: "as in Abimbola’s first foray into detection proved in A Quiet Teacher (2022), his code of honor makes it impossible for him turn his back on those who need him. Oyebanji makes the unimaginable not only credible but compelling by exposing Abimbola’s rich inner life and setting it against the struggles of those who rely on him for help, most of whom can’t get out of their own way, but nevertheless command readers’ sympathy for their challenges. Oyebanji’s puzzles are well-crafted and his solutions ingenious, leaving readers with both a sense of satisfaction and an appetite for more. Not to be missed."

Booklist says, "It's a pleasure to watch the deductive razzmatazz, but readers can't forget that dying can hurt: amidst the drama is a solemn moment of discovery where we get to see the heart's behavior during the fall, impact, and death. The first novel of the series was presented, and received, as a mix of John le Carré and Agatha Christie, and now Oyebanji adds some Arthur Conan Doyle into the mix."