Detective Elouise Norton Books In Order

Publication Order of Detective Elouise Norton Books

The “Detective Elouise Norton” series written by author Rachel Howzell Hall is from the genre of crime and mystery. The series began when “Land of Shadows” was released in the year 2014.

Elouise “Lou” Norton (star of the series) is married early on in the series, but her husband has committed acts of adultery. In return, he tries to buy her things to make up for it. As a girl, her sister was caught while stealing from a store in the neighborhood that was owned by Napoleon Crase. Elouise panicked and ran away from the store, and never saw her sister after that.

In addition to this, she also has to deal with a new partner, named Colin Taggert, that tries to hit on her and get something going between the two of them. She is able to deftly avoid this. She is also the only female and the only African American on the detail she is on at the Los Angeles Police Department.

Hall has said that she is reminded of Clarice Starling from “Silence of the Lambs”, because she seems to be someone that survived the places she came from. Norton is from there, but not of that neighborhood. The place that Norton comes from, called “The Jungle”, is a place that Hall knows well, because she grew up there.

“Land of Shadows” is the first novel in the “Detective Elouise Norton” series and was released in the year 2014. Along the border of Los Angeles, a place that is always changing and improving, a seventeen year old female (named Monique Darson) is found hanging in a closet in an unfinished condominium. Colin Taggert, who has recently transferred from Colorado Springs’ police department, is Elouise Norton’s new partner; he believes that this is just a teenager that has committed suicide. Lou does not buy this easy answer. For one, the condominium site is owned by none other than Napoleon Crase (who is a self-made millionaire), who might have killed Lou’s missing sister three decades ago.

She looks into the death of Monique Darson, and finds that there are some strong links in the two cases. She believes that if she can solve Monique’s murder, she can bring her lost sister home. She gets closer to the truth, and at the same time, to a violent killer. Is she going to be able to bring him to justice, or be his next victim?

Fans of the novel enjoyed the dialogue, which sounded purely authentic, and enjoy reading about Colin and his development over the course of the book. The author is able to describe Los Angeles in such a way, that it feels like you are there and it is another character in the story. This one pulled them right in from the very first line of page one making some having a hard time waiting to read other books in the series

“Skies of Ash” is the second novel in the “Detective Elouise Norton” series and was released in the year 2015. Lou and Colin get to the scene where a house is burning down. Juliet Chatman dies in the fire, as well as her two kids. Christopher Chatman has lost his two kids and wife, and is hospitalized after he tried to save his family. He is devastated because of the fact that he was unable to save them. Unless he killed them.

Friends of the Chatman family and their neighbors say that they were living the dream. Lou finds out pretty quickly that this was not the case. There was fraud, scandal, disease, and adultery that ate at the Chatman’s until their house burned down.

Lou is married too, and it hangs on by just a thread. She is soured by the men who are in her life, and she believes that Christopher started the fire. Some of the people that work with Lou are afraid she might be letting her personal problems muddy her judgment. There is not a lot of evidence as it pertains to the fire, and she is having doubts to her husband’s commitment to being monogamous. It makes her feel that everyone is playing her.

Which one started the fire? Was it the Chatman’s son, who liked to burn his father’s stuff? Or The Burning Man, who is a serial arsonist? Lou is trying to find out what happened by going through the ashes of this picture perfect family; she is unsure if she will be burned or catch an arsonist.

Fans of the novel enjoyed the way that the dialogue and the rest of the book was written, the scenery and atmosphere of Los Angeles, not to mention the great mystery that was at the heart of the story. Readers were kept engaged throughout reading the book, and it felt like real people were being talked about and not just characters in a book. Some think this is a strong start to a series that has a lot of promise in future installments.

“Trail of Echoes” is the third novel in the “Detective Elouise Norton” series and was released in the year 2016. It is a rainy day in Los Angeles during the spring. Lou is having a rare lunch date and is called to Bonner Park. The body of Chanita Lords, who was thirteen, has been found. Lou and Colin have the sad task of telling Chanita’s mother and she finds that she is in the same apartment building that she grew up in.

Chanita had an interest in photography, and was destined (just like Lou) to leave the projects behind her. Her death fits with some other exceptional girls (honors scholars, dancers, and artists) that have gone missing in the same school district. It is the same as the one Lou went through, years back.

Lou is trying to make a go of it, after she has just gotten divorced, and does everything to avoid her father, with whom she has been estranged for a long time. She goes on a race so that she can catch a serial killer, but he keeps well out of reach. He sends clues that taunt and cryptic cyphers, both arrive too late to prevent the next murder from happening. It is personal, this one. And it is only a matter of time before the killer comes for Lou.