The Missing Hours

The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl is about a sexual assault of a college freshman and her process of trying to find out what happened to her.

Claudia Castro is known as a rich, party girl. She is a freshman at NYU who has decided to stay in the dorms over Spring break. 

When Claudia wakes up the morning after going to a campus adjacent bar, she does not know what happened to her. She is missing some of her clothing and smells like she has been sick. But she has no memory past ordering a drink.

What follows is the harrowing tale of knowing something terrible happened, having no idea what or who. With the help of a dorm neighbor, she tries to piece things together while staying away from her family until her face heals.

Dahl, a crime reporter herself, has written a hard-hitting story that is all too real in our society. 

Dahl, Julia. (2021). The Missing Hours. New York: Minotaur.

Conviction (Rebekah Roberts #3)

Conviction by Julia Dahl is the conclusion to her trilogy featuring Rebekah Roberts, a crime reporter living in Brooklyn. She works at a tabloid but gained some esteem when publishing an article with the Center on Crime, Culture and Media detailing the killing of an Orthodox Jewish woman in Gowanus.

Between chasing stories assigned to her, Rebekah attends a lunch for the Center, where she meets other writers they have worked with, including a woman who runs a homicide blog. She lists all deaths in the city, many of which are ignored by the press. People claiming to have been wrongly convicted of a crime have been sending letters to the blog. An in one of those letters, Rebekah finds her next big story.

In July of 1992 there was a triple homicide for which a teen foster son was convicted. After looking through the files, Rebekah sees little evidence linked to DeShawn Perkins, the teen serving a life sentence for the murder of his foster parents and foster sister. Rebekah’s investigation will open a past that a few want to remain hidden, as she is more and more convinced of DeShawn’s innocence.

Dahl has created a great, real and flawed character, in Rebekah Roberts. Her mysteries are wonderfully peppered with clues and revealed, at times, with nail-biting prose. This series also highlights Brooklyn and the Orthodox Jewish communities here. Read them!

Dahl, Julia. (2017). Conviction. New York: Minotaur.

Run You Down (Rebekah Roberts #2)

Run You Down by Julia Dahl is the second book in her Rebekah Roberts mystery series.

Roberts is recovering from an injury that resulted when she was chasing a story. As a crime reporter for the New York Tribune, Roberts put herself in danger to find the truth. Now she is taking a break from running down stories. She is working the desk for a while.

When someone who read her articles on the death of an Orthodox Jewish woman wants to talk to her, she agrees to meet with him. Levi Goldin is concerned that his wife's death was foul play. The ultra-orthodox community he lives in would rather not investigate - it would make her sister's marriage prospects difficult if it was found to be suicide. Levi is sure his wife would not kill herself and is seeking another answer.

Rebekah agrees to follow up. She uses the story as a way to investigate the town of Roseville, New York. A town where her own mother may live. Rebekah has not seen her mother since she was a baby. She and her father have no idea what happened to Aviva after she left them.

Aviva Kagan was a teen when she ran away from home with a good looking non-Jewish boy. After having a child, she left them both to go back to her family. She has thought of Rebekah every day and often talks to her in her mind.

Rebekah finds a whole world of people on the edge of the Hasidic community - people who have wandered off of the path. And into this world Rebekah searches as her mother does her part to help those questioning their faith and roles in society.

Dahl has upped her game with this second Rebekah Roberts mystery. Readers of mystery will love this series. Run You Down will be available June 30, 2015.

Dahl, Julia. (2015). Run You Down. New York: Minotaur.

Invisible City (Rebekah Roberts #1)

Invisible City by Julia Dahl is the first book in her Rebekah Roberts mystery series about a New York journalist. Dahl has been a reporter and editor in print and television. This is her first novel.

Rebekah Roberts is a stringer for the New York Tribune and is sent wherever the paper needs a journalist in the five boroughs. Her latest assignment will be her most important story - one she will not let go after one day's reporting and will change the way she looks at her own story.

When the body of a woman is found in a Gowanus scrap yard, Roberts is there to report what she sees. But when the woman turns out to be Jewish, the police allow the Hasidic community to take the body. Roberts is sent into a world she has often wondered about but never visited. Her past and her current assignment collide while Roberts tries to find a killer the NYPD does not seem to want to find.

When Rebekah Roberts was very small, her mother left her father to return to the Orthodox community. Rebekah has been mad at the mother she does not remember, but this case could give her insight into why her mother left. Maybe as an adult she will be able to understand better why her mother abandoned her.

Combining a mystery with a great character, Dahl has started a series readers will devour. Her writing is excellent, her ability to describe an event or setting honed in years of award-winning journalism, and her plot is one that will draw fans of more than just mysteries. Invisible City is an excellent start to a series readers wait impatiently to continue.

Dahl, Julia. (2014). Invisible City. New York: Minotaur.