Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett
I would like to thank Simon and Schuster and Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Simon and Schuster Uk
Published – Out now
Price – £16.99 hardback £7.99 Kindle ebook
Beautiful. Blonde. Missing. Murdered.
It was supposed to be a romantic getaway to New York City. Breanna's new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything – the train tickets, the sightseeing itinerary, the four-story Jersey City rowhouse with the gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline.
But then Bree wakes up one morning and discovers recently missing dog-walker Janelle Beckett dead in the foyer. Ty is gone, vanished without a trace.
A Black woman alone in a strange city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth. There’s only one person she can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past.
As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #Justice4Janelle, Bree realises that the only way she can stay out of jail is if she finds out what really happened that night.
But when people see only what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight?
The appetite for true crime is a strong one. People get excited by death, scandal and the tangle of a mystery that people cannot solve. With social media it’s tempting to swap clues, go down internet rabbit holes and convince each other that they alone know the answer. To be fair some people do but more often mobs are ultimately mobs and people thinking they are completely open-minded isn’t true either and can put others in danger. In Kellye Garrett’s intriguing thriller Missing White Woman a tale of mystery, social media and how audiences rate some victims as more deserving as others makes for a very interesting read.
Breanna has high hopes that her long weekend in New York City with her new boyfriend Ty will finally move their relationship to a more firmer footing. But Ty’s workaholic nature gets in the way. Just though when things look promising Breanna wakes in their rental apartment to find Ty gone and a dead woman downstairs. A woman who looks an awful lot like the current social media mystery - the missing Janelle Beckett. Locals and internet celebrities soon pay Breanna attention and the police have many questions. Can Breanna find a way through this mystery before her own secrets come to life?
This is an intriguing mystery and works well as Garrett makes us spend time getting to know Breanna. Someone keen for a fresh start, perhaps a little too shy at telling Ty he is behaving badly and yet also very guarded over own past which has cast a shadow on her for many years. When Janelle’s body is discovered things upset the balance Breanna so desperately seeks and so the story explores can she work through this.
The story is helped by how it explores the power of social media to impact a criminal case. In between Breanna’s story we get a TikTok star ramping up the story and the power of a helpful mob makes Breanna get in the spotlight. An intriguing angle explored is how Janelle is white and Breanna is a outsider and a Black Woman; Ty too is Black so the way suspicion falls on them shows the racism that can easily spring to the surface.
I also enjoyed the complex relationship Breanna has with her lawyer Adore who links her past and her need for secrecy. That is a major obstacle for Breanna and lesson for her not to try and do it all herself. It’s an intriguing dynamic that keeps the reader on their toes. There is a fine mystery at the heart of the story that neatly draws the elements together very skilfully.
Missing White Woman is a gripping and intelligent thriller well plotted with good characters to explore. Well worth your time!
