BIO

A writer of things. An observer of life.

Who am I?

Rachel was born in Los Angeles, California fifteen days after Paul McCartney announced the split of the Beatles. As a child, she kept a pen in her hand, writing everywhere—in notebooks, on loose-leaf paper, in her big brother’s prep-school yearbook and on the back of church bulletins. But never on walls, buildings or freeway overpasses. That is graffiti.

For four years, she lived in the forest at UC Santa Cruz. There, she received a degree in English and American Literature, and helped to charter the Pi Upsilon Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Incorporated.

She left Santa Cruz in 1992 and returned to Los Angeles. Since then, she has worked a variety of jobs, including for incredible organizations like PEN Center USA West, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, City of Hope and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.


In 2002, her debut novel, A QUIET STORM, was published by Scribner to great notice, including reviews from O Magazine and Publishers Weekly, with a starred review from Library Journal and also chosen as a “Rory’s Book Club” selection, the must-read book list for fictional television character Rory Gilmore of The Gilmore Girls. She also published two e-novels: THE VIEW FROM HERE and NO ONE KNOWS YOU’RE HERE. In 2014, the first novel in the Detective Elouise Norton series was published, the critically acclaimed LAND OF SHADOWS, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and included on LA Times’ ‘143 Books to Read This Summer’ and the UK Telegraph’s ‘Top Ten Crime Books for Summer.’ In 2015, she followed up with the second in the series, SKIES OF ASH. New York Times called Lou Norton “someone you want on your side.” Rachel was also a featured writer on NPR Crime in the City. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Mystery Writers of America, and


has participated as a mentor in the Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ Writer-to-Writer program.

Rachel lives with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, the land of exceptional drought – despite the recent El Nino effect.



  • ‘In the beginning was the word...”

    I write because I must. Because I can. Because someone has to tell you, yes you, that there's a dead body (real or imagined) in that alley over there because you need to know so that we can all stop the monster who's doing scary s*&t to other citizens.



  • You need the right weapons.

    Uniball Vision Needle Fine or Micro. Schaedtler F pencils, Sharpie highlighters. Legal pads. Each feel good in my hands. Not fancy but certainly writing indulgences.



  • All of writing is one big trespass.

    You can't write well and have manners. Writers offend, curse, gawk, giggle, poke, probe, ask too many questions. All the time.

AND NOW SHE’S GONE

Isabel Lincoln is gone. But is she missing?

PRAISE

  • Wendy Walker

    "Sharp, witty and perfectly paced, And Now She’s Gone is one hell of a read!"--Wendy Walker, bestselling author of The Night Before

  • Kellye Garrett

    "One of crime fiction’s leading writers at her very best. The final twist that will make you want to immediately turn back to page one and read it all over again. And Now She's Gone is a perfect blend of PI novel and psychological suspense that will have readers wanting more." - Kellye Garrett,Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Award-winning author of Hollywood Homicide and Hollywood Ending

  • Rob Hart

    "A deeply human protagonist, an intricate and twisty plot, and sentences that make me swoon with jealousy...Rachel Howzell Hall will flip every expectation you have―this is a magic trick of a book" —- Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse

  • Lou Berney

    "An entertainingly twisty plot, a rich and layered sense of place, and most of all a main character who pops off the page. Gray Sykes is hugely engaging and deeply complex, a descendant of Philip Marlowe and Easy Rawlings who is also definitely, absolutely her own woman" —— Lou Berney, award-winning author of November Road

It’s up to Grayson Sykes to find her. Although she is reluctant to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Gray’s search for Isabel Lincoln becomes more complicated and dangerous with every new revelation about the woman’s secrets and the truth she’s hidden from her friends and family.
Featuring two complicated women in a dangerous cat and mouse game, Rachel Howzell Hall's And Now She’s Gone  explores the nature of secrets ― and how violence and fear can lead you to abandon everything in order to survive.

         

ADDITIONAL READS

"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way.” - Leo Tolstoy

APPEARANCES

Here, there and everywhere.
I will be seeing you soon.

August 18
LitUp! OC with Hank Phillipi Ryan
6:30 – 8:00 pm (PST)
August 29
San Diego Festival of Books
September 3
Conversation with Tori Eldridge
7:00 pm
September 14
Conversation with Wendy Walker and Julie Clarke
4 pm PST (7 pm ET)
September 18
Instagram Interview with Little Break
Noon (PST)
September 22
Conversation with Kellye Garrett at Murder by the Book
5 pm PST (7 pm CT)
September 24
Reading and Talk at Poisoned Pen
5 pm (6 pm MT)
September 28
Conversation with Alyssa Cole, Tracy Deon and Tiffany Jackson at Books Are Magic
September 29
An Evening with the St. Louis County Library in Conversation with Heather Ash
5 pm PST (7 pm CT)
October 2
Conversation with Neal Griffin Creating Conversations
6 pm (PST)
October 4
Crime by the Book
9 am (PST)
October 6
Book Carnival
6 pm (PST)
October 7
The Reading Beauty IGTV
5 pm (PST)
October 8
Murder and Margaritas with Hank Phillippi Ryan Bookmarks North Carolina
4 pm (PST)
October 10
Conversation with Kellye Garrett and Valerie Wesley Wilson at Escondido Public Library
4 pm (PST)
October 12
Barbara’s Books
4 pm (PST)
October 13
The Back Room with Michele Campbell and Hank Phillippi Ryan
4 pm (PST)
October 22
Shelf Life with Hilary Davidson
October 23
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
6 pm (PST)
October 27
Conversation with Books on the Subway
4 pm (PST)
November 14
Murder & Mayhem

INSPIRATION

If you are ever around a writer, know that you are being watched.
You inspire me.

ALL
AROUND TOWN
SIGN LANGUAGE
ARSENAL

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