Tamron Hall has been well-known in the public eye for years as a journalist and television show host with a long list of achievements. She was the first African American female co-host of Today, as well as an anchor for MSNBC Live with Tamron Hall. Since 2013 she has hosted Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall on the popular Investigation Discovery channel. She is also currently the host and executive producer of her own Emmy Award-winning daytime television show, Tamron Hall. But now, Hall is adding another line to her impressive resume: first-time author.
Hall’s new novel, As the Wicked Watch, is a mysterious and thrilling crime novel that is also rich with social commentary and calls to take action against significant social justice issues. The premise: Jordan Manning is a successful crime reporter who has worked her way up from the news station in her Texas hometown to a popular station in the great big city of Chicago. She may be young, and is often the only woman of colour on the beat, however she is known as the “go-to” when stories of missing children arise. And with a Master’s degree in forensic science alongside her journalism degree, it is easy to understand why.
Jordan has seen many horrible crimes in her career thus far, but when fifteen year-old Masey James goes missing, and is later found brutally murdered, she finds herself connected in a deeply emotional way to this particular story. Connected in a way that perhaps she should not be, considering the boundaries of her job. As she comes to believe this murder is the work of a serial killer, Jordan only becomes more invested. The police and the media have historically failed to give murders of Black women and children the attention they deserve, and she will not just stand by while it happens once again.
Hall has created an undeniably likable, tenacious female protagonist in Jordan. A single Black female working in a field dominated by white men, she is a character readers would love to be friends with as they also root for her to discover who is behind this gruesome murder. She is tough-as-nails, still managing a personal life alongside a job that wears on her soul at the end of the day. Jordan even draws parallels between herself and young Masey James, just as readers will draw parallels between author Tamron Hall and her fictitious journalist.
Jordan is also doggedly determined to shine a light on the communities and people that are so often misrepresented or not given the necessary attention. Hall lays a clear thread through the novel that details how inequity and racism affects journalists, as well as victims of crime, who are women and girls of colour. She pointedly examines patterns of unsolved murders increasing, particularly when Black females are the victims, and most especially when they may have what the public deems to be unsavoury characteristics, such as being homeless or engaged in drug use or prostitution.
Hall also reflects, as we have seen in the media time and time again, the way communities raise their voices to draw attention to issues which otherwise are likely to get brushed under the rug. Masey’s disappearance, for example, draws little attention in the local media and police consider it a runaway initially. It isn’t until her body is found that more attention is brought to this story. Hall points out the ways in which the media holds the power to shape a narrative based on what they choose to share or focus upon; how, specifically, “the media monster [is] obsessed with violence in major cities that have large African American populations.” (p. 267 in galley) While this commentary on social justice issues can play out as a bit repetitive at times, with more “telling” than “showing” of these very important themes, it is nonetheless the critical core of the story Hall tells here: exposing the public systems which are in desperate need of reform.
As the Wicked Watch begins as a slow burn and really picks up the base about halfway through. It is a quick read, both easy to fall into and one which will leave readers reflecting upon the real-life parallels and meaning long after reading. Tagged as “The First Jordan Manning Novel,” it appears this isn’t the last we will see from Hall as an author, or the last we will hear from her memorable female protagonist. Bring on the next book in the series, I say!
As the Wicked Watch is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore. Many thanks to William Morrow for providing me with an advance copy for review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award–winning journalist Tamron Hall, in which a reporter unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two black girls, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.
When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her a dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network.
Jordan is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Her signature? Arriving first on the scene—in impractical designer stilettos. Armed with a master’s degree in forensic science and impeccable instincts, Jordan has thus far been able to balance her dueling motivations: breaking every big story—and giving voice to the voiceless.
From her time reporting in Texas, she’s sure she has covered the vilest of human behaviors, but nothing has prepared her for Chicago. You see, Jordan is that rare breed of journalist who can navigate a crime scene as well as she can a newsroom—often noticing what others tend to miss. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of black females, many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalised, and all of them quickly forgotten.
All until Masey James—the story that Jordan just can’t shake, try as she might. A fifteen-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot, Masey has come to represent for Jordan all of the frustration that her job—with its required distance—often forces her to repress. Putting the rest of her workload and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that a missing black child would so rarely get. Three young boys are eventually charged with Masey’s murder, but Jordan remains unconvinced.
There’s a serial killer on the loose, Jordan believes, and he’s hiding in plain sight.
