The truth is never skin deep.

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.

But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, Ty is nowhere to be found and there’s a stranger dead in the foyer—the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed Janelle Beckett. Soon, both the police and an army of Internet sleuths are asking questions Bree doesn’t know how to answer. Desperate to find Ty and to keep her own secrets buried, Bree realizes there’s only one person she can turn her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past.

Fierce, smart, and thrilling to the end, Missing White Woman not only explores “Missing White Woman” syndrome and traveling while Black, but deftly inverts the hallmarks of the domestic suspense genre to How well can we truly know the people we love? And what happens to these stories when seen through the eyes of a Black woman?

Usually, when picking a book, I tend to gravitate toward mysteries/thrillers, but for whatever reason, I haven’t been in the mood for one lately. I’ve had this book on my radar for a while, and when my Libby hold was made available, I decided to give it a try. While it didn’t blow me away, I enjoyed the unique perspective it brought to your typical missing white woman case.

The book focuses on Bree, a Black woman who is off to New York to spend some time with her new boyfriend, Ty. This guy is smart and successful, and she can totally see herself settling down with him. The time that they spend together is great at first, but then Ty seems preoccupied with work. He’s constantly checking his phone and, at times, seems nervous and detached. When Bree wakes up the morning that she is set to return home and finds the body of a dead white woman lying at the bottom of the stairs in their AirBnB, her world is turned upside down. Could this be the missing white woman that people in the neighborhood have been searching for? To make matters worse, Ty is now missing, and police consider him their number one suspect.

Bree’s troubles worsen when a Tik-Tok influencer gloms onto the case and starts putting the pieces together. When the Tik-Tokker hones in on Ty, it’s not long before the public turns their attention to Bree, thinking maybe she had something to do with it. Will Bree be able to find out what happened to Ty and clear her name before the armchair detectives blow this out of proportion even further and put Bree’s life in danger?

I will admit that when I went into this book, I thought it was going to be about two missing women and how the public tends to be more emotionally invested when a case deals with white women versus women of color. Reading the synopsis would have cleared that up (bad on me), but the fact that it focused on a Black suspect and a white victim was even more eye-opening. Bree (and to an extent Ty) went through some pretty degrading crap – stuff that I, as a white person, never would have considered. As Bree navigates the chaos and confusion following Ty’s disappearance, she is forced to confront her own past and the secrets she has been keeping. One little mistake from her college days comes back to haunt her, and when the public picks up this information, they focus even more heavily on her alleged involvement.

One thing that works very well in this novel is the character development. Bree’s emotional journey is raw and honest, and I found myself wanting to protect her. The internet can be such a toxic place, and the things Bree went through simply because an influencer focused on her were maddening.

One of the most eye-opening aspects of the novel is its exploration of race and privilege. By centering the narrative around a Black woman’s perspective, the author challenges readers to think critically about the media’s portrayal of missing persons, particularly those who are white and female. Even though this wasn’t about a Black family trying to get the same amount of coverage or justice for a missing Black woman, we are still forced to confront uncomfortable truths about race, identity, and privilege.

While my temporary aversion to thrillers may have dampened the impact of this one for me, it’s still a good read and brings up some important topics worthy of discussion. The author has crafted a story that is both thrilling and impactful, offering readers a fresh perspective in the over-crowded domestic thriller genre.