Former Chicago PD officer Cass Rains barely survived a shooting
two years ago. These days she runs a one person detective agency and does a few
other things including playing chess with Father Ray Heaton. Father Ray is
family as he is a father figure and more to her.
She knew something was up with him and he finally told her some of
it. She thought she had it covered. She was wrong as Father Ray is soon dead in
his church along with a young man who may or may not have been in a local gang.
The lead detective on the case has quickly decided that it was a murder/
suicide and won’t listen to her or consider anything she says. Farraday is the self-serving
idiot that nearly got her killed two years ago.
The
idea that he is handling the case and still has a job, let alone a promotion,
is bad enough. The fact that he is mishandling a case so important to her is
unacceptable. If he won’t work with her, she will go around him. If that does
not work, she will go through him. The case is going to get solved even if it
kills her as she owes Father Ray.
Oh,
and biological Daddy is back in town and wants to reconnect as if life isn’t
hell enough as it is.
First
in a series, Broken Places: A Chicago Mystery, is
an engrossing and complicated read. It has plenty of action, characters of
depth and breath, and a very complicated mystery. Built from stereotypical elements
which then are morphed into a read that is truly different, this is a hard boiled
mystery. Cass is more than a bit sarcastic in dialogue and inner monologue as
she does not tolerate fools lightly. Some readers may not appreciate that fact
or understand that the read is not a police procedural as some reviews
mistakenly state. This is a hard boiled mystery.
Much is
going on here in the main storyline as well as the second one and most of it is
far too complicated to go into in a review. Simply put, Broken Places: A Chicago Mystery
by Tracy Clark is a very good read well worth your time. If I did the best
book of the year list, like so many other folks do, this would be right up
there in my top five. Considering it has now been nominated for an Anthony
Award, I guess those folks agree with me.
The second
book in the series, Borrowed Time, was released on May 28, 2019. Art Taylor hosted
author Tracy Clark recently on his blog, The
First Two Pages, where she spends some time talking about this book.
Broken Places: A Chicago Mystery
Tracy Clark
Kensington Publishing Corp
May 2018
ISBN# 978-1-4967-1487-9
Hardback (also available in digital, paperback, and audio formats)
352 Pages
$26.00
Material
supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2019
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2 comments:
I'm so glad you liked Broken Places, Kevin! It was one of my favorite books of 2018, and Library Journal picked it as one of the top mysteries of the year as well.
You get all the credit for leading me to it and I thank you.
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