Skies of Ash

February 9, 2015
In Hall’s emotionally laden second outing for L.A. homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton (after 2014’s Land of Shadows), Lou investigates a suspicious house fire that killed Juliet Chatman and her two kids, eight-year-old Chloe and 12-year-old Cody. Christopher Chatman, Juliet’s husband, who arrived when the house was in flames, was injured trying to save them. The Chatmans appear to have been an ideal family, but Lou soon learns otherwise: Juliet had serious health concerns and Christopher was stumbling in his career as a commodities broker. Autopsies reveal that all three victims had been drugged, suggesting murder. Lou is sure that Christopher is behind the killings, but the Chatmans’ best friends—insurance attorney Ben Oliver, and his lawyer wife, Sarah—believe Christopher is innocent. Meanwhile, Lou has to fight through her own problems with her unfaithful husband, Greg. This soap opera of a mystery builds to a startling conclusion. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

March 15, 2015
When a house goes up in flames in the dead of the night with a woman and her two children inside, is it accident or murder?Good thing that African-American homicide detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is a very clever cop with deep ties in her community that will serve her well in her new case. It's up to her and her annoying white LAPD partner, Colin Taggert, to determine whether the fire that killed Juliet Chatman and her children, Cody and Chloe, was meant to cover up a murder. The fire was definitely arson. Hostile, troubled Cody had been setting a lot of fires lately, but autopsies revealed that both Juliet and the children had Valium in their systems, and Juliet had advanced ovarian cancer. Why did Juliet have a gun clutched in her hand and a car packed with suitcases for her and the children? And what to make of her garbled 911 call about someone killing her? Juliet's husband, Christopher, a commodities broker who works odd hours, left for work, returned during the fire, and had to be tackled by the firemen to keep him outside. Lou recently took back her own cheating husband, Greg-handsome, wealthy, and deeply untrustworthy-after the body of her sister, murdered long ago, was finally found (Land of Shadows, 2014). Her partner and her boss wonder if her marital problems are coloring her perception of Christopher, an inveterate liar. Christopher's neighbor and best friend, Ben Oliver, an insurance lawyer whom Christopher recently tapped for a loan, is immediately on the scene. Even if Juliet and Christopher have been big spenders, she can't imagine how they went through the $3 million his parents left him. Every day brings unsettling discoveries, more questions, and further complications that force Lou to confront her own worst fears. Hall outdoes her stellar debut in an exploration of vile secrets that pays homage to that earlier master of complex California homicide, Raymond Chandler.

April 1, 2015

Still reeling from the emotional discovery of her sister Victoria's long-buried remains and unmasking her killer in 2014's Land of Shadows, LAPD Det. Elouise "Lou" Norton welcomes the distraction of a big case. She gets that and more when a house fire kills Juliet Chatman and her two children, 12-year-old Cody and eight-year-old Chloe. Husband Christopher, allegedly at work during the early morning blaze, arrives home as firefighters try to extinguish the flames and must be physically restrained. Lou immediately suspects Christopher, though her new partner, Colin Taggart, argues that there's little evidence to support her theory. As Lou peels back the layers of the Chatmans' seemingly perfect life, the veneer of happiness quickly falls away: financial woes loomed large; Juliet was miserable, possibly even suicidal; and Cody had a penchant for bullying and setting fires. Most of the Chatmans' friends staunchly believe the fire was an accident, but Lou knows in her bones it was murder. VERDICT The genre needs more strong, black female heroines like Lou, and even when the plot slides into soap-opera territory in places, Hall's take-no-prisoners lead keeps readers on their toes. This is a woman you'd want on your side.

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