When I met mystery writer Rachel Howzell Hall, I was also thrilled to be meeting the woman who brought to the page Elouise Norton, a Black woman detective who lives in Los Angeles. Quite apart from the fact that I really wanted to be friends with Norton, I was taken by Howzell Hall’s apparent love for Los Angeles, a city I’d lived in for most of my life but never really knew, and her passion for spreading her knowledge of writing craft. We sat down to talk about her process, allyship in the business, and more.
The Writer: So, let’s talk about the Elouise Norton series. How many books are we at now?
Rachel Howzell Hall: It ended up being four, and the last one was published in 2018? But I’m not even writing series anymore. [Ed. note: Howzell Hall has three standalone books out Series are hard. I got in hoping to be like the Black Sue Grafton, but I realized if people didn’t read your first two, they most likely would not read your third or fourth because they all feel that they have to read one and two.
