Tamron Hall's "As the Wicked Watch" blends elements of mystery, suspense, and psychological drama into a gripping narrative. Set in a small town with a dark past, the novel follows journalist Sarah, who is haunted by the unsolved disappearance of her childhood friend.

Hall demonstrates a knack for creating a tense and atmospheric setting, imbuing the town of Willow Creek with a sense of foreboding that permeates every page. The mystery at the center is compelling, with twists and turns that keep readers guessing until the end.

The character development in "As the Wicked Watch" is another strong point, with Sarah's journey of self-discovery serving as a driving force behind the narrative. Hall skillfully explores themes of trauma, guilt, and redemption, delving into the complexities of human nature with sensitivity and depth. However, while the novel excels in building suspense and developing its characters, it occasionally falters in its uneven pacing, with certain sections dragging while others feel rushed. Additionally, the resolution of the mystery is somewhat predictable, detracting from the impact of the final reveal.

Despite these shortcomings, "As the Wicked Watch" remains a solid read for fans of psychological thrillers, offering an engaging story with well-drawn characters and a compelling central mystery. While it may not reinvent the genre, it delivers an entertaining and thought-provoking tale that will keep you engaged until the very end.

I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

Thanks to Net Galley, BookClubGirl, and WilliamMorrow for this copy of "Watch Where They Hide."

This is the second book in the Jordan Manning series. The first was "As the Wicked Watch" which I also thoroughly enjoyed.

Jordan is driven and determined to investigate the case of a missing mother of two small children, even if it puts her career in jeopardy.

This was a fun page-turning book with twists and turns, unreliable witnesses who are withholding facts, and potential cover-ups and misdirections.

Thought provoking and great character development. A good summer read. I may have expected slightly more going into this one than I received.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. While I loved the story, the details and focus on fashion was distracting. I found it unbelievable that Jordan was trying to avoid detection in a tight pencil skirt and stilettos. It wasn’t realistic but it also wasn’t necessary for the story. This book could have easily been 4 stars without that. I hope that the editor removes some of that detail in book 2.

This is a very well written thriller. I was guessing throughout the book, and never knew who to trust throughout the story. All of the characters were well written, and had me intrigued from the start. All at all, if you were looking for a good suspense book, this is a book for you.

Tamron Hall’s debut thriller AS THE WICKED WATCH, centers on the growing problem of missing and exploited young black females. Set in Chicago, Jordan Manning is a news reporter who is reporting a story about a missing black teen who had a promising future ahead of her. The police treat the disappearance as a runaway case even as days go by with no one having contact with young Masey James. Jordan was unsettled by their dismissing the case, as a similar case involving a missing young white teen would garner more media attention.

Jordan decides to take on a little investigating of her own. Faced with uncooperative friends and family and being ignored by law enforcement, Jordan starts to realize Masey’s disappearance is part of a larger scheme. Calling on friends in law enforcement and her co-workers she can trust, she leaves no stone unturned to get justice for Masey and all black and brown girls who are tossed away and forgotten.

AS THE WICKED WATCHED is the debut novel and first in the Jordan Manning series by Tamron Hall. The book was definitely a thriller with lots of twists and turns. The book was wordy at times but when Hall got back to the action, it was a page-turner. Now that I am familiar with Jordan Manning, I am looking forward to taking more journeys with her.

This was not my favorite, it took alot to get through it and I was bored at times
I will not Be continuing the series

As the Wicked Watch written by Tamron Hall

Author Tamron Hall is a talk show host and former journalist who brings to light the vulnerability and systemic neglect of Black girls as victims of violent crime into focus in her debut crime thriller.

MC Jordan Peyton is a Black journalist that turns into amateur investigator when a young black teenager goes missing and immediately dismissed as a run away despite her not fitting the profile. When she turns up brutally murdered, Peyton will not let it go while making commentary on the social agenda of police, politicians, the family, lawyers, spokespersons, community activists and justice advocates.

I thought some things that could have been better if she didn't include a dozen random characters without developing them. For instance, I did not care to hear about how Jordan got a text from an older couple she often has dinner with and so much info about them. Or dedicating a paragraph about each of her girl friends but not further pursuing that. It didn't farther the story, it was too much and got annoying because it took away from the main focus. The chapters were way too long as well, pacing can be all over and dragged on with all the side stories.

The ending was so good and definitely had me invested. Jordan is aggressive and despite making some dangerous choices, uncovers the truth, giving voice to the voiceless while craving out a name for herself.

I had high hopes for this book but was unable to finish it. I ended up listening to the audio version as I had tried to start with the e-book version but was unable to stay interested in it. I thought the audio may be an easier way to keep my attention. Unfortunately, despite wanting to see how the story ends, at about halfway through I just found that the story was repeating too much information and the repetitiveness left the book lacking for me. I was unable to finish it. Though I can see how this book may be for beginners into the mystery genre as it is entertaining enough, it just was not for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

The premise of this book intrigued me - a journalist looking into a case she feels the police have miscategorized as a runaway; conducting interviews and chasing leads and I loved the idea of a reporter holding the police accountable to deliver.

I liked the inside view of the newsroom and the perspective of how race can impact the stories and focus: showing how black victims are often forgotten or biased in the stories content.

The book had a lot of repetition and could have used a better edit. The rambling of some of the characters, and the lack of action at time, had me struggling to keep focused and interested.

What a wonderful book!! The action never stops as well as the plot twists. Jordon Manning is a reporter who investigates the murder of a 15 year old girl. Jordon is amazing and the book reveals how a reporter works with their connections, their knowledge of the city and their thirst to uncover the smallest of details. Jordon has a lot to do with the solving of the crime. She works her magic in the police station, her office and the streets. I did not expect the ending at all!!

I struggled with this. I was interested in it first because Tamron Hall wrote it and I adored her on the Today show but secondly because it was being told from a different perspective. I thought that a reporters perspective on a murder case would be interesting.

Jordan Manning is a crime reporter coming into Chicago following a career in Texas. She is young and hungry for success but has a propensity to get too close to a case.

I think this book struggled because it was setting up for a series. I think it had to give so much information and build the character of Jordan to a point where at times I didn’t care( such as the explanation of her wine glass situation early on- it seemed superfluous). I wanted this to read more like a mystery thriller and it read more like a true crime set up.

I think that this book was a decent debut but I would hope for more in the upcoming releases. I am not certain if I would read them however.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to check this one out.

So, despite some of the disparaging reviews that lead the pack on Goodreads, I actually liked this story. I did ask myself as I was starting to read this if lead character Jordan was based on Tamron Hall herself, since there does seem to be so many superficial similarities from career to appearance. Jordan is a ballsy reporter for Chicago’s local News Channel 8. Being a black, female journalist in an industry dominated by white men, Jordan is used to having to push a little harder to get ahead, so when the missing teen’s case she has been covering turns to a homicide, Jordan feels a certain sense of duty to make sure that the black teen’s killer sees justice. With a recalcitrant police department and a community accustomed to violence, Jordan takes it upon herself to pressure anyone she needs to get results for the family of the slain teen. It is perhaps a sad truth that so much of this story, while it may be fiction, rings true in real life. No one really need to look far to find true life examples of this story as it unfolds. It is that truth that makes the story so gripping because it feels like you’re tracking a real event. While there may be some exaggerations, and perhaps a bit far fetched in certain regards, it is still an engaging read. Look forward to the follow ups. Review posted to Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Litsy, and LibraryThing.

For a first time author, this was such a great book. The story had me engrossed from start to finish, and could have been ripped from today's headlines. The book also covers a variety of racial issues that happen in real life. I could not put this book down once I started. I personally felt the author did such a great job with this story, and I can't wait for the next book in the series.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

When I heard that Tamron Hall from The Today Show was writing a book, I knew I had to read it. And the fact that this new book was not only a crime novel but the start of a new series just made it all the more appealing.

As an introduction to a new series, I think this was a pretty good one. We get a good feel for who Jordan is and I loved that this book was all told from Jordan’s perspective. She is clearly a very ambitious journalist, and I appreciated her dedication to her job. I loved the idea that this journalist was not willing to take the police not doing enough about a missing black girl and so she does her own investigating.

The story shines a light on how racism exists not only in the media but also in investigating. I thought this was well done and while the story was at times hard to read, it was real and therefore believable. It had a gritty, raw feel to it that I’m sure comes from the author’s many years of reporting herself.

I will say at times the pacing of this one is a bit slower than I would have liked. It felt like it dragged in some spots and was a little repetitive, but then would pick up. That being said, I definitely plan to read the next book in the series because I thought Jordan Manning was an engaging, interesting character and I’m curious enough that I need to know what she gets up to next!

This murder mystery’s protagonist is Jordan Manning, a Black TV crime reporter with a degree in forensic science. She becomes involved in reporting on the murder of fifteen year old Masy James, a Black girl whose body is found in an abandoned lot. The police have dismissed her as a runaway, and fail to properly investigate the case. Jordan becomes obsessed with publicizing the murder and discovering the true culprit after three young boys are charged. She embeds herself in the community and uses some potential ethical violations to communicated with potential witnesses. The novel is slow-moving with many asides about Jordan’s social life. I still found the work relatively interesting and it did deal with important issues like police misconduct, racial discrimination, and exploitation of victims’ families.

I have never watched Tamron Hall on TV, but when I saw this was a debut crime novel and she was a journalist, I knew I had to read As the Wicked Watch. The story is told solely from Jordan's viewpoint and I thought it worked perfectly for this book. Jordan may be a crime reporter, but she doesn't let that stop her from going on a sleuthing expedition to figure out who Masey's killer is. She isn't afraid to put herself in harm's way and I loved both her tenacity and her forensic science smarts. I would say the synopsis gives a little too much away and I recommend going into it as blind as possible which is what I did. The story mostly revolves around Jordan's job and how she investigates Masey’s death, but Hall also touches on her love life, family, and her friendships. This felt like a mix of mystery, women's lit, and crime fiction and I for one loved it that way. I also liked that we got to know a bit more about Jordan's background without the entire book being a character study about her life.

I really enjoyed the audiobook and while there isn't anything special about it such as sound effects or things like that, I did love the narrator Susan Dalian. She was a great person to be the voice of our MC Jordan and the perfect choice to voice the story in general. I would love to see her be the one and only narrator for the entire Jordan Manning series, and if you enjoy audiobooks, I would recommend listening to As the Wicked Watch. The pacing is a bit on the slower side but steady, and even though the audio is almost 13 hours, it really didn't feel that way to me. I was completely captivated by the plot and what would happen next, and I was hooked basically from the very first page. I didn't know how everything would end and was pretty surprised by how everything went down. Some parts were a touch predictable, but it was an engaging read and both a solid debut and a great start to the series!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you, NetGalley for this book!

I really wanted to love this book. I’m a big fan of Tamron Hall’s and want good things for her. But, I found this book uneven to the point of frustration. I’m bummed! I loved the main character and the fact that Hall was able to put her own journalistic background into the story. This aspect definitely worked well. But the actual plot just fell apart over the course of the book.

From Goodreads: When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her a dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network.

Jordan is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Her signature? Arriving first on the scene—in impractical designer stilettos. Armed with a master’s degree in forensic science and impeccable instincts, Jordan has thus far been able to balance her dueling motivations: breaking every big story—and giving voice to the voiceless.

From her time reporting in Texas, she’s sure she has covered the vilest of human behaviors, but nothing has prepared her for Chicago. You see, Jordan is that rare breed of journalist who can navigate a crime scene as well as she can a newsroom—often noticing what others tend to miss. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of black females, many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalized, and all of them quickly forgotten.

All until Masey James—the story that Jordan just can’t shake, try as she might. A fifteen-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot, Masey has come to represent for Jordan all of the frustration that her job—with its required distance—often forces her to repress. Putting the rest of her workload and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that a missing black child would so rarely get. Three young boys are eventually charged with Masey’s murder, but Jordan remains unconvinced.

There’s a serial killer on the loose, Jordan believes, and he’s hiding in plain sight.

I liked the concept of the plot. A journalist takes a deep dive into a murder. Great. But this story had too many characters. Some of them could have been combined into one that had more purpose. I also felt like the pacing was off. If a book is going to be about a serial killer (not saying it is or not, but there are two deaths in the book) the second death shouldn’t be at 90% of the way through the book. The ending was completely rushed and jumped around a lot. I still think Hall is fantastic, but this book needed a good edit.

This was a poignant and interesting read, and while I didn’t exactly love the writing style, the story was compelling. Thank you for the opportunity to read this eARC!