Review: Nekesa Afia's DEAD DEAD GIRLS.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. 

In Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia 1920s Harlem is the backdrop for a mystery starring an intrepid 26 year old named Louise Lloyd, also known as Harlem’s Hero.

At 16, Louise rescued herself & other Black teen girls from a kidnapper. Now, ten years later, she works at a cafe, loves to go out dancing with her friend & lover Rosa Maria, & is alienated from her family after angering her strictly religious father.

But things grow much more complicated for our heroine when young Black women are murdered & placed outside Louise’s work & she’s forced to help investigate their deaths.

There are lots of things about Dead Dead Girls that captivate: the intriguing setting & how it’s captured w/ little details; how independent Louise is & her punchy one-liners; her striking observations about how Black women are treated & how white police officers discriminate against Black residents of Harlem.

I love when she takes off on her own investigations, how ingenious she is in making use of her clothes for hiding things.

The glitz of the flapper lifestyle & Louise’s personality draw me in but overall, the mystery itself doesn’t feel as tight as it could be, particularly at the end.

Dead Dead Girls offers a compelling backdrop & a resourceful, glamorous heroine, but the mystery doesn’t hit quite as hard as I’d like.

3.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01

CWs:

Louise has a horrible experience w/ white police officers; they call her racial slurs, throw peanuts at her, sexually harass & threaten her. Black teen girls are kidnapped; in some cases murdered. Attempted rape.