Johnstown, Pennsylvania was never really a comfortable place for Liz Rocher. When her best friend announces she’s finally getting married, Liz reluctantly returns to the town for the wedding. As a black woman, she’s hesitant to return to the predominantly white town where she never felt like she fit in. Her best friend’s daughter, Caroline, is half-black as well. During the wedding reception, Caroline disappears into the woods, leaving behind only a piece of white fabric covered in blood. It’s a pattern Liz Rocher is reluctant to realize. Years before a girl named Keisha Woodson, the only other black girl in school, disappeared on a night like this. Liz knows this can’t be a coincidence. In the hunt for Caroline, Liz will find herself unraveling a secret the town has tried so hard to hide.
The book Jackal by Erin E. Adams is wonderfully and viscerally written, but it definitely leaves the reader with a sense of dread and unease from the very first pages. From just Liz’s experiences as a black woman existing to the way she is treated by the town, the reader will desperately want her to escape and go somewhere where she can be safe. The problem, as this book points out, is that there are few places where Liz can be safe in this world.
Jackal is now available from Ballantine Books.
