Sounds like a plan A novel

Young (the Vernetta Henderson series) and Smith (The Unkind Hours) team up for a breezy if forgettable series launch starring Los Angeles PIs Mackenzie Cunningham and Jackson Jones. Princeton grad Mackenzie runs her operation out of an Inglewood strip mall, while Jackson's swanky Century City office has sweeping views of Beverly Hills. Both young, Black, and talented, Mackenzie and Jackson consider each other friendly rivals. After shady lawyer Raymond Patterson independently hires each of them to track down Ashley Cross, the 24-year-old daughter of one of his clients, they cross paths during their respective investigations and reluctantly join forces, though Jackson's smug superiority threatens to derail their alliance. Soon, they learn that Patterson has hired a third PI to find Ashley. After that investigator turns up dead, Mackenzie and Jackson are set up to take the fall, and they realize they have something far more sinister than a missing-person case on their hands. Young and Smith have fun writing Mackenzie and Jackson's dueling voices, but the plot provides precious few surprises. Readers are unlikely to clamor for a sequel. Agent: Lucy Carson, Friedrich Agency. (July)

Two Black private investigators have to go on the run when a missing person case turns deadly. Mackenzie Cunningham and Jackson Jones run their own PI agencies in Los Angeles but keep bumping into each other after they're hired separately to find a missing woman. When the search leads to break-ins, violent encounters with corrupt cops, and unexpected twists involving blackmail and a conservative presidential-wannabe politician, the two team up to find the truth and avoid being killed themselves. Though Mackenzie is from an elite family and went to Princeton and Jackson is an ex-cop who was raised by a working-class single mother, both are quick thinkers who share a drive to succeed in their chosen profession. Chapters told from their alternate points of view show each protagonist's problem-solving skills and immediate attraction to the other and sketch out how their upbringings affect their adult personalities. Jackson's ideas about how a man should show or conceal his romantic interest appear rooted in gender stereotypes, as does the portrayal of Mackenzie's icy lawyer mom. But Jackson's role as a good father to a young daughter gives him more depth, while Mackenzie's fears about her mother's potential breast cancer diagnosis add a layer to her portrait and also highlight the high rates of some cancers in Black women. The mystery itself is light on complications and won't tax anyone's whodunit skills. While the plot is largely composed of action-oriented scenes as Mackenzie and Jackson drive around L.A. in pursuit of suspects or to escape pursuit themselves, co-authors Young and Smith throw in episodes where the couple banter and occasionally make out. For readers who like their detective stories with a "will they or won't they" romantic dynamic. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.