WANDER IN THE DARK

Two half brothers put aside their childhood beef to solve a gruesome crime.

Amir and Marcel Trudeau share a father. Marcel, who’s two years younger, is out, drives a Tesla, and lives in an upscale part of New Orleans with his dad and mom. Amir rides his bike everywhere, is a great cook (thanks to his nana), and has a single mother who works a night shift in the ER. There’s a tense history between the boys that Marcel is trying to reconcile, especially now, with both brothers attending the same school for the first time—predominantly white Truman Academy, where they’re just two of a handful of Black students. On the last night of Mardi Gras, Amir arrives at Marcel’s 16th birthday party, hoping to smash with Marcel’s best friend, Chloe Danvers, the white girl who invited him. What Amir wasn’t planning on was not hooking up at all, instead falling asleep on Chloe’s couch and waking up to find her body bathed in blood. With Amir accused of murder, Marcel is determined to prove his older brother’s innocence. In the process, he uncovers how racist his white friends—and school—really are. The dual narrative allows readers to understand how desperate both brothers are to identify the murderer. In this page-turner, racism is the third major character, highlighting how deeply its systemic vortex affects Amir’s and Marcel’s lives. It’s at once riveting and downright disturbing.

An edgy, fast-paced thriller exploring important issues.