RIGHT THERE IN BLACK AND WHITE

In Christ’s crime novel, a female patrol officer discovers a flair for detective work in the case of a young Black man falsely accused of killing a white woman.

Kendi Liston, a sound engineer, makes the fateful decision to call 911 after he finds the body of a white woman on the street, though he knows that, in the eyes of the police, “a young Black man who finds a dead white woman must have had something to do with putting her there…something to do with making her into a dead white woman.” Sure enough, Crowe, the “racist asshole” Glock-pulling veteran cop on the scene (“Don’t even blink till I tell you to”) is only too eager to finger Kendi as the killer, especially when Kendi is caught in a lie about not knowing the victim. Regan, the backup officer on the scene, was mentored by Crowe; she acknowledges that, from him, she learned “things they didn’t teach you in the academy.” But she has a different outlook on police work and is deemed “disloyal” by Crowe, becoming a target of his harassment as she is determined to get justice for Kendi. “No need to play Sherlock Holmes,” another officer tells her, but the ambitious Regan risks both her career and her life for the cause. Christ’s origin story deftly sets up a presumed series with Regan at its center. She has readers’ rooting interest from the get-go, whether she’s defying Crowe and going the extra mile for Kendi or maintaining her steel in the face of Crowe’s grudge campaign that only gets worse following a raid that goes tragically wrong. She proves herself a capable detective, uncovering some truly bad guys involved in porn and human trafficking. Christ writes gripping action scenes (a climactic confrontation between Regan and the woman’s killers is suspenseful with a satisfyingly hard-hitting payoff), but some of the Black patois is cringe adjacent.

A procedural with unexpected turns, nasty villains on both sides of the law, and a capable hero.