As the Wicked Watch
The First Jordan Manning Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award-winning TV Host and Journalist Tamron Hall, As The Wicked Watch follows a reporter as she unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two young Black women, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.
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 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 been able to balance her dueling motivations: breaking every big story—and giving a voice to the voiceless.
From her time in Texas, she’s covered the vilest of human behaviors but nothing has prepared her for Chicago. Jordan is that rare breed of a 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 women, 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, despite all efforts. A 15-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot, Masey has come to represent for Jordan all of the frustration and anger that her job often forces her to repress. Putting the rest of her work 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.
There’s a serial killer on the loose, Jordan believes, and he’s hiding in plain sight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 2007 Chicago, Emmy Award–winning broadcast journalist Hall's outstanding debut and series launch introduces TV journalist Jordan Manning. A tenacious reporter, Jordan has been making a name for herself by arriving first at crime scenes. When the body of 15-year-old African American Masey James is found in an abandoned lot, Jordan refuses to believe the girl was a runaway, as the police insist. Masey had a promising future, having just been accepted into a prestigious STEM program at a distinguished high school. Jordan puts the demands of her job and her personal life on hold in her effort to discover who murdered Masey, and comes to suspect the girl was the victim of a serial killer. Hall brings insight and nuance to such matters as journalism ethics, police treatment of murder cases involving Black women, and competition among journalists and their reliance on those behind the scenes. Readers will want to see a lot more of intelligent, ambitious, and assertive Jordan.
Customer Reviews
Journalist With Detective Skills
Jordan Manning is a well-respected news reporter who is also degreed in forensic science, which makes her quite different from other sleuths. This book highlights the murders of Black girls and the criminalization of Black boys and I enjoyed Tamron Hall’s debut. Jordan is not 100% likable, but I admired her intellect and dogged determination to find out what really happened to Masey James, the brutally murdered 15 year old Black honors student, who police brushed off as a runaway. This book, although fiction, shed light on how society views the missing Black girls and women in this country.
I adored this novel
From Beginning to END ..!! I absolutely adored how relatable this novel was . 💪🏾✊🏾
Jordan Manning is that GIRL .. She never stopped fighting , never stopped looking , never stopped searching for the next clues that bring Justice to all the missing children that go over seen
Good but questionable
This book is an easy read and keeps you on the edge of your seat. However, there are some parts to the main character’s story that is just not very believable.