Surajat Debbie's Reviews > Jane Doe Black

3.5⭐️ rounded up this was a hard one. In my opinion it was more a police/procedural drama about a lawyer with a missing sister. Very different from a bog standard “whodunnit” mystery with a range of possible suspects for us to sift through.

I still enjoyed this! And it was quite refreshing to read this type of story about the justice system from a black author with black characters who play police officers and prosecutors.

There’s a lot in this one - loss of a parent, loss of a sibling, alcohol dependency, racism, depression. It sounds terrible but I promise it all makes the story. It’s not trauma for the sake of it. These issues link into the plot and build our main character, Lainey Abbot.

Lainey, is a complicated character that equally frustrates us as much we empathise with her. Her alcohol dependency is written so realistically - that internal dialogue she has with herself to justify her drinking or to even just battle the craving is executed perfectly. And this is what I mean about it not being your typical mystery…as much as we want to find out what happened to her little sister Steph, we simply just want to root for Lainey and her love interest Russ 🥹 “Will you still love me if I tell you I’m a defense lawyer now?” Russ grins. “I’d love you if you were a defendant.”🥹

The ending was heartbreaking. I hate stories with no real justice (can’t say more as don’t want to spoil). Also the reveal was a tiny bit flat (again, I can’t really explain without spoiling).

It’s left me feeling quite sad but that’s okay! I think it was meant to.

Ending on a quote that left me teary eyed, because if I must suffer then so do you guys!

“I am here to speak up for those Black girls and women, maybe some of them not so well loved, some not so cared for, who have not been found. And I am here to speak up for those for whom no one is even looking.” 💔


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I’m backkkkkkk. After a week of feeling meh and bleh about life, I need a good old fashioned mystery to get me in the zone. This author is quite unknown and underrated (in my circle). And I’ve only ever seen her write Black romance. Mystery/Thriller is a new genre for her and I need to show my support and giver her a chance. I realllyyyy hope this delivers 🤞🏾