Crime Fiction and Social Justice recommended by Karin Slaughter

For fans of YA mysteries, social justice, contemporary stories of trying to get your life on track, and When You Look Like Us.

This is one of my favorite reads this year and I absolutely judged this cover because I loved it so much – it’s why I pressed play on the audiobook, knowing nothing about the book.

Andre Jackson has just been released from juvie but the life he was excited to get back to is no longer the same: the public has just learned about Covid-19; he has an ankle monitor, restrictions on his release, and six months of probation; there are protests against police brutality, and his friend is the reason he was in jail and now he is missing.

Andre is a sweet kid close to his family – his mom is a nurse, his dad owns a bookstore, he lives with his grandparents – and now finds himself needing to navigate a few things, including the pandemic and the reality of the danger vs. what is being said; his crush on his best friend’s sister; figuring out how he got framed with his friend’s backpack of stolen goods; and why his friend has just disappeared with only his sister worried?

The audiobook is narrated by Guy Lockard who has a great voice, and really made me feel like Andre was beside me at all times. Even though I am very much a person who avoids entertainment with pandemic stuff at the moment I loved Andrew so much that I stuck with this book and was glad I did. I’ll definitely be sure to read Kim Johnson’s previous novel, This Is My America, and all future work.

(TW grandparent death/ pandemic/ mentions of teen girl sexually assaulting teen boy, no graphic detail/ child abuse, not on page/ mentions past attempted murder-suicide, detail)

For fans of main characters returning back home to deal with the past, murder mysteries, past told through diary entries, and cults.

Lay Your Body Down keeps readers turning pages to solve the mystery as the danger ramps up into a thriller ending. Del Walker fled her upbringing with a town that worships an Evangelical pastor and while she may not have the best life she at least got out. Until she finds out that her ex-boyfriend, who ended up marrying her best friend, has died in a hunting accident leading her to return to the town. We get to know Del and her past relationships through her diary entries and in the present as she feels something is off with the story of how her ex died. Not only will she force her way into sleuthing but she’ll have to face her difficult childhood, abuse, and finally deal with her ex-best friend, now widow of the man Del loved – the same man who left her a strange voicemail right before his death…

(TW mentions finding a suicide scene, detail/ mentions stories of past physical domestic abuse, not graphic nor on page/ stories of past emotional abuse/ non-consensual sharing of intimate images/ fatphobia recounted/ recounts non-physical sexual assault of teen girl/ women recount abuse stories, not graphic/ brief mention past molester)