Five crime novels that explore social issues

Alyssa Cole is an award-winning author of historical, contemporary, and sci-fi romance. Her Civil War-set espionage romance An Extraordinary Union was the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award’s Best Book of 2017 and the American Library Association’s RUSA Best Romance for 2018, and A Princess in Theory was one of the New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2018.

Cole's new novel is When No One Is Watching.

At CrimeReads she tagged five "books that explore social issues, and the effects that ripple out from them in ways large and small," including:

And Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall

Howzell Hall’s fantastic Detective Lou Norton series followed a Black female detective in LA through the underbelly of the glitz and glamor so often associated with the city. Her newest thriller takes readers back to LA with a taut, twisty tale about Grayson Sikes, an amateur private detective on her first case. Grayson, who’s not doing so hot herself, has to find a missing woman for a jerky client who claims to have been a caring boyfriend. As the parallels between the woman’s story and her own begin to stack up, a story unfolds of what women do to survive in a society that often looks the other way when they most need help.

Read about another entry on the list.

Hall's Lou Norton series is among Amy Stuart's five deeply flawed characters you’ll learn to appreciate and Sara Sligar's seven California crime novels with a nuanced view of of race, class, gender & community. Land of Shadows is among Steph Cha's top ten books about trouble in Los Angeles.

--Marshal Zeringue