A journalist returns to the cases that haunted her in 'As the Wicked Watch'
Though its subject may sound familiar, journalist and talk-show host Tamron Hall's debut novel As the Wicked Watch is a singular thriller that brings the vulnerability and systemic neglect of Black girls as victims of violent crime into vivid relief.
That's an ambitious agenda, and fiction is a distinctly different mode of storytelling from news reporting, even if taking big issues and making them personal is second nature for the Emmy Award-winner. But the novel's storyline proves perfectly tailored to Hall's experience and skill set.
Unlike the that ensues when middle-class. Yet when a thriving 15-year-old Black girl who's the pride of her family vanishes in Chicago and the police are eager to dismiss the event as just another "case of a potential runaway," the explanation does not sit well with intrepid local TV reporter Jordan Manning. She's determined that this time will be different.
