Published 1st April 2022 by Thomas and Mercer.
From the cover of the book:
It’s twenty years since Eva, a biracial woman, was adopted as an eight-year-old, and Cherry and Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil have always been the only parents she’s wanted or needed. But when she’s dealt the double blow of Cherry’s death and her own suspension from work, Eva decides it’s time to discover who she was before she was theirs.Against Sugar’s advice, Eva joins a DNA database, desperate for a match that will unlock her identity. And when a positive hit comes, she’s excited to learn there are relations out there who might hold the key. But the closer Eva gets to uncovering her past, the more it appears someone is trying to stop her finally finding the truth…
As she continues to dig, Eva is drawn into a dark and merciless underside to society, where black women disappear without a word. Names erased from history, no search parties, no desperate pleas for their return. Once, someone tried to save Eva from all this. Someone wanted a better life for her. But now that she’s torn down the facade of her life, has she come too far to be spared again?
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Eva, a bi-racial doctor, was adopted at eight-years-old by Cherry and Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil, who saved her from the misery of a children's home that scarred her for life. They have brought her up to be strong and resourceful, and for the last twenty years have been the only parents she needs.
With Cherry's death, and a surprise suspension from the job that she loves, Eva feels her grip on who she thought she was slipping. She is compelled to find out something about the woman who was her birth mother, despite being advised by Sugar to let the past lie. Persuaded by her husband to join a DNA database, she is astonished when someone contacts her almost straightaway claiming to be a blood relation - and a surprising one at that.
As Eva starts to dig deep into her past, she becomes embroiled in a mystery about four young black women that went missing around the time of her birth. Was one of them her mother, and did some unknown saviour intervene to rescue her from the same fate? Someone seems to be working against her finding out the truth, and Sugar is keeping secrets from her. Is she in danger of becoming a target once more by looking into her own origins?
I have to say from the off that this book really impressed me. At its heart, this is a compelling crossover between domestic drama, mystery and psychological thriller, but it is also so much more, and it's really difficult to get into the nitty gritty of why without giving away spoilers... but here goes!
Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter have crafted a story that fulfils everything you want in an entertaining read, drawing you in nicely with deftly woven threads of corruption, secrets and sins of the past, but it is the way it delves deep into themes of identity, connection, and discrimination that make it a cut above, and unexpectedly emotional.
There is so much to explore here in Eva's story around difficult starts in life and adoption, especially failings in the care system when it comes to the needs of black and bi-racial children. My heart bled at the memories that haunted Eva, but I admired the way she had found a way to move beyond them. I particularly enjoyed the way she used the names of strong black women as a mantra during times of stress. Eva's life story should be one of success, and yet it is the pull of discovering her origins and how what she finds affects her sense of who she is that drives how the action plays out - ultimately this shines a light on quite how much discrimination can lead to tragic bias and unfair treatment, particularly on an institutional level. The mystery of the young black women that consumes Eva very cleverly ties all the myriad threads of this story together, and even though this is a fictional tale it certainly leaves you with a lot to think about.
I loved the echoes that run through this book - the names of the missing women that displace the former mantra Eva used to rely on, and the way she uses this as a "say her name" battle cry at the climax of the thriller element of the story is glorious; and the "straight, never curly" flip to "curly, never straight" is incredibly moving. I cannot tell you more, but trust me these work so well and you will love how they are blended into the story.
It's rare to have to review a book that I have to be so cagey about, as I would love to sing the praises of so many things about it. All I can say is read it, revel in how everything fits seamlessly together, and have a tissue handy for the inevitable tears that will roll down your cheeks at the end.
Say Her Name is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to FMcM Associates and Amazon Publishing for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
About the authors:
Ryan and Dreda write across the crime and mystery genre―psychological thrillers, gritty gangland crime and fast-paced action books. Spare Room, their first psychological thriller, was a #1 UK and US Amazon Bestseller. Dreda is a passionate campaigner and speaker on social issues and the arts. She has appeared on television, including Celebrity Pointless, Celebrity Eggheads, BBC 1 Breakfast, Sunday Morning Live, Newsnight, The Review Show and Front Row Late on BBC 2. Ryan and Dreda performed a specially commissioned monologue on the ground-breaking Sky Arts Art 50 on Sky TV.
Dreda has been a guest on many radio shows and presented BBC Radio 4’s flagship books programme, Open Book. She has written in a number of leading newspapers including the Guardian and was thrilled to be named one of Britain’s 50 Remarkable Women by Lady Geek in association with Nokia. She is a trustee of the Royal Literary Fund and an ambassador for The Reading Agency.
Some of their books are currently in development as TV and film adaptations.
Dreda’s parents are from the beautiful Caribbean island of Grenada. Her name, Dreda, is Irish and pronounced with a long-vowel ee sound in the middle.
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