Strangers Behind Closed Doors

"A thought-provoking thriller filled with jaw-dropping twists that kept me racing through the pages." -Gigi Pandian, USA Today bestselling author of the Secret Staircase Mysteries A twisty thriller about a woman who vanishes from a luxury hotel, and the detective who believes the case is tied to the unsolved disappearances of other Black women in the city. Giovanni Mason worked hard to become the first Black head concierge at Chicago's exclusive and glamorous Ivory Hotel. It's a job that requires patience, perfection, and, above all, self-control. But when Giovanni reunites with her former best friend, makeup influencer Natalie Moore, things get heated as a mending of fences morphs into a public argument in the hotel restaurant, and Giovanni loses her cool. Hours later, Natalie is missing. Evidence piles against Giovanni-a ransacked, blood-spattered hotel room, fresh bruises on her body, and a troubling gap in her memory from the last twelve hours. Detective Redding Stark is the only one unconvinced of Giovanni's guilt. She sees disturbing parallels to a series of disappearances targeting Black women and believes Natalie's case is part of something bigger. Together, she and Giovanni are pulled into a dangerous web of privilege, power, and betrayal inside-and far beyond-the walls of the Ivory Hotel. Will Giovanni and Detective Stark find Natalie or join the missing?

Catherine Adel West was born and raised in Chicago, where she currently resides. She graduated with both her bachelor's and master's of science in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, and Better Than Starbucks, among many others. She is the author of Saving Ruby King and The Two Lives of Sara is her sophomore novel.