Trail of Echoes

March 21, 2016
When the body of 13-year-old Chanita Lords turns up in a duffel bag in a park early in Hall’s suspenseful third mystery featuring LAPD homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton (after 2015’s Skies of Ash), Lou and her partner, Colin Taggart, initially focus on a sex offender who’s a neighbor of the victim in the housing projects, but it’s soon obvious things are not quite what they seem. In the sprawling Los Angeles cityscape, racial tensions still run deep, and the dogged Lou, who grew up in the same projects as Chanita, is careful never to forget where she was raised and how far she’s come. She’s also witty, and the banter between her and Colin brings some welcome levity to the dark deeds they’re investigating. Meanwhile, recently divorced Lou is getting used to being single, and her father, who left her when she was a kid, reenters her life. Readers weary of the dour, pessimistic detectives so common to genre can relate to Lou. Those hungry for chills will be satisfied as the action builds to a surprising, terrifying climax. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

March 15, 2016
Talented African-American teenagers from a poor LA neighborhood are targeted by a serial killer. Elouise "Lou" Norton was once one of those aspiring teens, and now she's a homicide detective who still hasn't won the promotion she deserves. Beneath her tough exterior lurk some inner demons; she's just divorced her wealthy, unfaithful husband, and the long-ago murder of her sister was only recently solved. Now Victor Starr, the father who deserted the family when she was a child, wants to make amends. Lou's living with a newspaper-reporter friend and starting a tentative romance with DA Sam Seward when she catches the case of a dead African-American teenage girl found in a duffel bag in beautiful Martha Bonner Park. Lou and her white, Colorado-born partner, Colin Taggert, finally bond over the complex case as they find more victims apparently all killed by the same clever killer. Lou's even more disturbed when they discover that the first victim lived in the same crumbling apartment complex where she herself grew up. Lou's investigation reveals that several other missing black girls went to the same school as her victim, had the same guidance counselor, and were despised and sometimes attacked by their fellow students for being brighter and more talented than the rest. Although the missing girls are all eventually found in duffel bags in the park, they were killed elsewhere, moved several times, and injected with bug repellent. In a neighborhood where tensions between African-Americans and Mexicans are ratcheting up, a Mexican with a long record of child abuse is an obvious suspect, but there are plenty of others. Lou scrambles to find a killer who enjoys using coded messages and leaving statues of Greek muses on her car. Striving to solve her own personal problems while in the midst of her most difficult case will only make her stronger--if she survives. The third and best of a finely wrought series (Skies of Ash, 2015, etc.) that gives voice to a rare figure in crime fiction: a highly complex, fully imagined black female detective.

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Starred review from November 1, 2016

Hall's third series outing (after Land of Shadows and Skies of Ash) has African American detective Elouise "Lou" Norton returning to the L.A. housing project where she grew up to investigate the murder of 13-year-old Chanita, who appears to be one of several young victims, all girls and all exceptional: dancers, artists, scholars. (LJ Xpress Reviews, 5/6/16)

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2016
Homicide detective Elouise Lou Norton (Skies of Ash, 2015) is back in another smart L.A. procedural. A serial killer is murdering girls from poor neighborhoods who are, in spite of the odds, excelling in school and special interests. The killer begins leaving notes for Lou, identifying the girls as his muses. The girls all share a background not unlike Lou'syoung women of color from broken homes, who endured tough childhoods but possessed the will and talent to do better for themselves. As Lou and her colleagues interview all the adults who intersected in these girls' lives, they encounter gang members, an overly attentive teacher, and a recently paroled pedophile. Lou has a strong support system on the squad and from a group of girlfriends with whom she grew up. She also has a budding relationship with the assistant district attorney. This determined African American protagonist makes a wonderful addition to the genre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)