Missing White Woman

February 5, 2024
In the entertaining latest from Crime Writers of Color cofounder Garrett (Like a Sister), 30-something Breanna Wright believes she’s finally found the perfect boyfriend in successful financial adviser Tyler Franklin. When he suggests the couple spend a few days away from Baltimore in an upmarket Airbnb in Jersey City, N.J., where his company has offices, Breanna jumps at the chance. After they arrive, however, she wakes one morning to find Tyler gone and the dead body of a slim blonde woman lying in the entryway, her face so bruised and bloodied she’s unrecognizable. The corpse fits the description of Janelle Beckett, a professional dog walker in the neighborhood, and the police name the missing Tyler a person of interest in her murder. Speculation about the case runs rampant on social media, much of it fueled by a TikTok creator intent on boosting her engagement. Breanna, who had a dust-up with police as a college student, has no faith in the local cops and decides to investigate on her own, hoping to clear Tyler. Garrett remains remarkably sharp on matters of race, recasting such crime fiction tropes as police interrogations and tabloid frenzy through the eyes of a Black woman whose interactions with such forces are more fraught than her white counterparts’. Despite a few plot holes, this is a winner. Garrett’s fans will be thrilled. Agent: Michelle Richter, Fuse Literary.