A murder mystery that could have been ripped from today's headlines. A young woman is murdered during a black lives matter protest, and the detectives tasked to find her killer uncovers another world that no one was expecting. It took me through all types of twists and turns that kept me on my toes throughout the entire book. I'm hoping there will be more books from this author. They did such a great job.

Y. S. Leonard Gives us a timely thriller set against the backdrop of the BLM Movement during the latest racial justice wave this past year. Overt Political tensions make for a compelling mystery setting and I really enjoyed the novel. Can we have a follow up please?

Destiny Miller, newly minted accountant heads off to a Black Lives Matters protest with her best friend and things go very wrong. The young women get separated and Destiny runs into trouble. Leonard's first book needs work, but it has good bones. The story is solid, although as the first in a planned series, only one mystery gets solved. The others are set up well enough to leave the reader looking for future solutions. The police officer and FBI agent working on the crime that gets solved don't run very many leads down. What could be red herrings to keep the book interesting go nowhere because they decide in the moment the person is telling the truth or that they believe him/her. The writing is inconsistent and often, instead of creating emotion and connection in the reader it plods along with one declarative sentence after another. Instead of saying how someone feels, write a descriptive paragraph that leaves no doubt how she or he feels. People use contractions when they talk and few appear in this book. This makes the book sound somewhat stilted. Final comment, Someone needs to proofread this edition for misspelled, missing or misused words/tenses. Despite these flaws, a lot of the writing flows. This book has so much promise that I'm offering these comments for constructive reasons. I love the commentary on Black Lives Matter, the experiences of Black officers, and problems in police departments with officers who are at a minimum biased.

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
This is a clever debut well written in a stylish clipped difficult to describe but nevertheless enjoyable quirky writing style. A topical read with several mentions of characters removing masks, but Black Lives Matter plays a much bigger part. Atmospheric engaging from start to finish at times poignant and sad with excellent characters who leap from the page. So if it's so good why only four stars, it's because of the for me disappointing ending, I cannot say more without spoiling it for my fellow readers, but can only hope there is a follow book to put things right.
Engaging enjoyable.

This is a great story about a young woman who is murdered at a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest. I like that the author did not take the easy route with the story and brought in a variety of characters. However, the writing feels like a draft that needs some serious love and attention from an editor. The writing is simplistic and full of clichés, stereotypes, monotone platitudes about "bad apples" and "transparency," and awkward scene transitions. Many times it felt like certain characters, the police chief for example, were making PR department approved speeches instead of having genuine conversations. And, while I did enjoy the introduction of several different characters that added to the depth of the story, I felt like the reader was only given surface level access to them. So many aspects to these characters played a part in how they acted during the story but the reader didn't really get the background to understand them. And yes, while I realize this is the first in a series, I would have preferred more time taken to introduce the characters and flesh out their personalities. I think it would have led to a more engaging read. Despite my critique, I do look forward to reading the next in the series as the story itself and what I know of the characters interests me.

In the Shadow of a Protest by Y. S. Leonard is a good mystery that is also incredibly relevant. Destiny is a responsible, smart young woman who recently started a great job at an accounting agency. When she goes to a BLM protest with her best friend Ashley, the protesters get attacked. Everything goes sideways and the murderer takes their opportunity. I liked the balanced way that the police are represented in this book. They're not all bad or all good. Not only does the book deal with the issues of police brutality, it gives us a bit of a window into what it's like for people from different points of view. I was given an arc of the book and while there were some small inconsistencies within the story, I anticipate them being fixed before the final release.