Family cannot always be trusted
Twenty years ago, eight-year-old Eva, a mixed-race child, was adopted from a children’s home by Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil and his wife, Cherry. Brought up in a loving home, Eva could not have wished for better parents. However, following the death of her beloved Cherry, and her sudden suspension from work, she decides it is time to find out who her real parents were and what happened to them.
Keen to help her, Eva’s husband Joe persuades her to join a DNA database. Although apprehensive at first, when she finally receives a match, she is excited to learn that she has blood relatives willing to meet her. However, having found her father and acquired a sister, she is no closer to discovering what happened to her mother. Instead, as she continues to dig, she finds herself drawn into a darker side of society where black women disappear without a word, and nobody seems willing to search for them.
As an ex-police officer, Sugar knows Eva could be placing herself in danger and warns her to leave things to the professionals and not get involved. But Eva is not about to give up. Unfortunately, Sugar’s warning turns out to be true, and the closer she gets to uncovering the truth, the more it seems someone is determined to stop her … by any means.
This is the third novel I have read by Dreda Say Mitchell and, as before, I was not disappointed. Dealing with the exploitation of black women and girls, and the propensity of the authorities to put their disappearance below that of white women, ‘Say Her Name’ is obviously a novel written from the heart. Right from the start the reader is drawn in by a series of mysteries and unanswered questions. The more Eva discovers, the more questions arise, until virtually everyone has a cloud of suspicion hanging over them.
‘Say Her Name’ has a clever and gripping storyline which also carries a serious message. With the winter fast approaching and the nights slowly drawing in, it is an excellent novel to settle down with, and one I can thoroughly recommend.
Keen to help her, Eva’s husband Joe persuades her to join a DNA database. Although apprehensive at first, when she finally receives a match, she is excited to learn that she has blood relatives willing to meet her. However, having found her father and acquired a sister, she is no closer to discovering what happened to her mother. Instead, as she continues to dig, she finds herself drawn into a darker side of society where black women disappear without a word, and nobody seems willing to search for them.
As an ex-police officer, Sugar knows Eva could be placing herself in danger and warns her to leave things to the professionals and not get involved. But Eva is not about to give up. Unfortunately, Sugar’s warning turns out to be true, and the closer she gets to uncovering the truth, the more it seems someone is determined to stop her … by any means.
This is the third novel I have read by Dreda Say Mitchell and, as before, I was not disappointed. Dealing with the exploitation of black women and girls, and the propensity of the authorities to put their disappearance below that of white women, ‘Say Her Name’ is obviously a novel written from the heart. Right from the start the reader is drawn in by a series of mysteries and unanswered questions. The more Eva discovers, the more questions arise, until virtually everyone has a cloud of suspicion hanging over them.
‘Say Her Name’ has a clever and gripping storyline which also carries a serious message. With the winter fast approaching and the nights slowly drawing in, it is an excellent novel to settle down with, and one I can thoroughly recommend.
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