Rachel Howzell Hall | And Now She's Gone

The Book:

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall, 2020

The Characters:

Gray, PI
Isabel, missing girl

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

Isabel Lincoln is gone.

But is she missing?

It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family.

Click here for book spoilers for And Now She's Gone

Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read And Now She’s Gone, I suggest you turn back now.

The Twist:

Isabel never existed and Gray never met the real Tea (btw, thank god for audiobooks or I would have been mentally pronouncing this like the beverage the whole time). The woman posing as Tea was named Deanna and was actually part of an elaborate scheme of life insurance money and stolen identities.

The Ending:

Gray and Nick ended up together.

The Review:

I was really excited to get approved for this book on NetGalley, but then had a really hard time getting into it once I received it. I usually love PI/missing persons stories, but this one just didn’t pull me in. It sat on my NetGalley shelf for a long time, and finally got an audiobook copy from Scribd that allowed me to finish it pretty quickly.

Once I got further into the story, I really did like Gray. While comically green at being a PI, she refused to let the mystery get the better of her as she worked to figure out the truth behind Isabel’s disappearance. She was a strong, independent character willing to do anything to protect herself. The most interesting part of the book was the mystery around Gray’s own past.

I’m not generally afraid of “long” books (and I don’t really consider this one long–to me, 500+ pages is long and this one clocks in at around 400), but I have a hard time reading on screens as is, so when I start reading a digital copy and it tells me I have ten hours remaining in the book it’s a little disheartening. Add that to the slow beginning of this book, and that’s why it sat for so long. Thank goodness for audiobooks!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.