Review: The Novel, Follow the Crow (Vanished, #1)...

It's always a toss-up with the first novel in a series. Across genres, its function remains the same: to establish the characters, define the series’ central premise, and plant the seeds of later conflict. Its purpose is also to draw you in, to entice you to read further. The real question is whether this first installment is compelling enough to make you care about what follows. 

But then I think about the first piece of advice given to me in my initial year of teaching: it takes about seven years to get everything right—your procedures, your classroom management, your focused lessons, your student rapport. For that reason, I tend to reserve judgment until I’ve read more than one book in a series.

Follow the Crow (Vanished #1), by B.B. Griffith, marries genres and takes unusual narrative risks. Drawing on elements of police procedural, Indigenous folklore, and portal fantasy, the novel rejects conventional genre boundaries in favor of a more unpredictable storytelling approach. The story unfolds through the voices of three very different first-person narrators, each playing a distinct role. 

These three characters include Ben Dejooli, the protagonist, who still grieves the disappearance of his little sister from six years prior. As a Navajo tribal police officer, he navigates a world shaped by both contemporary law enforcement and longstanding cultural traditions. His perspective grounds the novel’s supernatural elements. Though an outsider to the community, Caroline Adams serves as a nurse at Albuquerque General Hospital and volunteers her time at the Chaco Health Center on the reservation. She also sees things that others cannot. Owen Bennet, an attending physician and volunteer at the same medical care facilities as Caroline, approaches the strange events surrounding Ben through a rational and medical perspective. Other characters include shady Federal Agents Parsons and Douglas—who first offer aid to the NNPD in the investigation of a reservation elder—seek Navajo magical artifacts, and will stop at nothing to acquire them. Although thwarted, they promise to be future villains.

The disappearance of his sister Ana convinced Ben to join the Navajo Nation Police Department, hoping to look for clues and locate her. After a life-threatening disease decimates his physical body, he undergoes a transformation that transcends medicine and the mortal realm. This is quite an interesting narrative choice for the first book in a series: to kill off the protagonist. But Ben now has a multi-realm role, one he approaches with even-handedness and unrecognized aplomb. Caroline and Owen are bestowed with supernatural roles as well. They also believe that Ben’s journey has just begun; they make professional choices that address this. 

The novel’s atmospheric, cinematic prose creates a persistent sense of unease through vivid sensory imagery, repeatedly invoking the cawing of crows, the gathering of storm clouds, and the fragile divide between the natural and supernatural. In this world, crows are more than ordinary birds—they function as omens and active forces within the narrative. Their recurring presence serves as a powerful symbol of death, the spirit world, and mysteries that refuse to be laid to rest.

So, for a first novel, I was hooked. Because of the twists and turns the story takes, I plan to read the next novel in the series. Like the novels I soon plan to publish, the marriage of police procedural and folklore presented in Follow the Crow particularly interests me, and I want to witness how it unfolds. And perhaps become further inspired for my works. 

I highly recommend this novel.