--- title: Land of Shadows: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books description: Find out why 'Land of Shadows' by Rachel Howzell Hall made the list. canonical: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-03T11:52:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:20:43.898Z og:title: Land of Shadows: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:description: Here’s why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe55c0b08bd102f2/698a407016d8846b86c3c3b1/LandOfShadows.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Land of Shadows: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Land of Shadows: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books twitter:description: Here’s why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe55c0b08bd102f2/698a407016d8846b86c3c3b1/LandOfShadows.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # Land of Shadows by Rachel Howzell Hall by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Detective Elouise “Lou” Norton’s life is Los Angeles, for better or worse. It’s where she grew up and now solves crimes for the L.A.P.D., and where her marriage to Greg, a serial cheater, is crumbling. It’s also where her sister, Tori, went missing and, Lou believes, was murdered 30 years ago. When Monique Darson, a Black 17-year-old, is found dead at a condominium construction site on L.A.’s border, Lou’s job takes a personal turn: the man who owns the site is the same person she has long suspected (but can’t prove) killed her sister. As other coincidences and similarities in the case pile up, Lou is forced to reckon with a past she has long tried to outrun. Rachel Howzell Hall’s first installment in the Elouise Norton series, published in 2014, introduces a tough and witty detective—the perfect narrator to take readers through her bittersweet world, seeking justice wherever she can find it. _—Mahita Gajanan_ **Buy Now:** _Land of Shadows_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780765336378) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3YTfDMG) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/"},"headline":"Land of Shadows","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:52:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:20:43.898Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe55c0b08bd102f2/698a407016d8846b86c3c3b1/LandOfShadows.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe55c0b08bd102f2/698a407016d8846b86c3c3b1/LandOfShadows.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309238/land-of-shadows/","name":"Land of Shadows"}}]}] ```