Excerpt from Take It Back by Kia Abdullah, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Zara raised a brow. "Of course. I don't want to know how you got them but thank you." She watched Erin, her angular features and lanky limbs clearly poised in thought. With her cropped hair, leather jacket, and big dark eyes, she looked like a comic book anti-hero: an anime Goth designed to drive a certain type of man wild.

Fittingly, beneath the dark hair and piercings, she was as wily as a snake. It was why Stuart had hired her as an investigator to freelance for Artemis House. It was five years ago and he was in the midst of his first big battle: Lisa Cox against Zifer Pharmaceuticals. The company's sparkling new epilepsy drug, Koriol, had just hit the market. Alas, no one was told that depression was a rare but possible side effect. When Lisa Cox stepped in front of a moving train, she miraculously escaped without injury. The media went wild, Big Pharma went on the defensive, and the Medicine Regulatory Authority denied all wrongdoing. When Lisa decided to sue, she was smeared as a money-hungry whore with little regard for herself or the three children she would have left behind. Lisa lost her job and almost lost her home. She was an inch from surrender when Erin—young, laconic, beautiful—strode into the Whitechapel Road Legal Center and handed Stuart a file. Inside were memos between regulatory officials and Zifer acknowledging the drug's dangerous side effects. Stuart couldn't use the documents legally but a well-timed leak prompted an investigation that not only exonerated Lisa but also made her a very wealthy woman.

Stuart immediately offered the mysterious young Erin a job. She refused to take it and instead offered her freelance services pro bono, and now here she was pushing classified documents across a cheap fiberboard desk.

Zara placed the folder in her bottom-right drawer, the place she reserved for sensitive material.

Erin watched her, then asked, "Seriously, what's the girl's story?"

Zara locked her drawer and set down the key. In a measured tone, she relayed Jodie's story, recalling the horrors of the story she'd told.

When Zara finished, Erin leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and said, "Tell me what you need me to do."

Zara handed her a piece of paper. "Find out everything you can about these boys."

Erin scanned the handwritten note. "Wait." She looked up. "They're Muslim?"

"Yes."

"Jesus. You're telling me that four Muslim boys raped a disabled white classmate?" Erin whistled softly. "The tabloids will have a field day when this gets out—not to mention the Anglican Defense League. Those right-wing nutjobs will besiege anyone that's brown."

Zara nodded tensely. "That's a concern, but we can't be distracted by what could happen or might happen. We need to approach this with a clear head."

Erin's features knotted in doubt. She smoothed the note on the desk and traced a finger across the four names. "What if I tried talking to one of them?"

Zara held up a hand. "No, don't do that. Leave it to the police."

"Screw the police." Erin's voice was heavy with scorn. "You think they're going to get to the heart of this?" She didn't pause for an answer. "Look, the way I see it, these boys did the crime or they didn't. Either way, the police are going to fuck it up. You think they can get more information out of these bastards?"

Zara thought for a moment. "Fine," she ceded. "Please just wait until the formal statement. We've overstepped the mark before and we can't do it again."

Erin's eyes glinted in the sun. "Tell me which one refused to take part."

"Farid, but it wasn't out of sympathy."

Erin smiled. "Yes, but maybe he'll confess to save his skin. When are you going to the police?"

"Wednesday. Tomorrow."

"Perfect. I'll scope him out on Thursday." Erin slipped the piece of paper into her leather jacket and readied to leave. "Four Muslim boys. Well, no one can accuse you of upholding the status quo."

Excerpted from Take It Back by Kia Abdullah. Copyright © 2020 by Kia Abdullah. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.