Soho
Published August 4, 2026
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
Lauren Kelly has just been promoted to Lieutenant, but she’s not a rising star at the Donn County District Attorney’s office. She had to threaten a lawsuit to get the promotion she deserved, and has since been sidelined, becoming a one-woman cold case unit until her retirement rolls around. She was on a fast track when her name was Liam, but after she transitioned four years ago, she was seen as an embarrassment, a transgender woman in a politically conservative state surrounded by macho cops who feel hostile and betrayed. Her ex-wife is more understanding, but their daughter is confused and getting teased at school. Still, it’s a relief to be living as herself at last, and when given a choice among cold cases to tackle, she selects the murder of Sherry Darling, a trans woman. Though Sherry’s boyfriend was immediately arrested and spent years in prison, his conviction was eventually reversed. Lauren wants to give the murdered woman the dignity of finding out what really happened to her two decades ago.
The case is one her own father had worked on before he retired from the DA’s office and succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease. He’s not able to shed light on the case, though with his faltering memory he insists the victim was a man, somehow implying her violent death was deserved. After all, Darling was not only trans, but a sex worker. Nobody but Lauren and Sherry’s bereft boyfriend cares what happened all those years ago.
Lauren had actually known Sherry in school, where she was boldly out when Lauren (Liam) was intimidated and confused. Lauren’s cop father was an angry drunk and her mother disappeared when she was five years old, making Lauren wonder if it was somehow her fault for being too interested in her mother’s clothes, not boyish enough. But then, while she’s piecing together enough clues to make progress on Sherry’s case, a body is found that throws everything she thought she knew about her parents into doubt.
Robyn Gigl, author of the Erin McCabe legal thriller series, makes no apologies for centering the perspective of a trans woman. As she writes in an author’s note, “I certainly don’t have the power or prestige that those attacking my community have, but as a novelist, I do have a voice.” While All We Hide addresses prejudice and violence facing a minority community, it is primarily a well-plotted mystery with enough twists and turns and character development to please any reader who is open to a story with a protagonist whose lived experience may be a little bit different from their own – and a lot alike.