Monochrome Noir: Book 1 (A Gathering Storm) introduces us to a world just like our own, but where everything is black and white, and color is of such priceless rarity that people will kill to own items that have been imbued by those who have the gift to bring color to life in the monochromatic items of everyday life.

When a strange and grisly series of killings begins, private detective Henry Hardcastle is hired by a mysterious woman with secrets to keep, and a deeply personal stake in the resolution of these terrible murders. As Henry struggles to navigate a world that isn’t quite what he believed it to be, a young woman, Charlie Grant is struggling with her own nightmare. As their independent journeys for understanding spiral around the central crux of the deranged killer stalking Angel City, we’re forced to wonder if they can fill in pieces of the puzzle for one another if they’re able to come together before one or both of them winds up dead.

Jack Wells does a fantastic job of building a world that’s as captivating as it is unreal, populating this world with characters sure to appeal to readers from a wide variety of tastes, and breathing new life into the hardboiled detective genre many of us adored when we were younger–and some of us never stopped adoring.

This is only Part 1 of the four book series, so there’s much more to come if you manage to weather the gathering storm.