Tracy Clark’s latest book is Echo
(Thomas & Mercer, December 2024). Set in a Chicago winter, her third
story about police detective Harriet Foster has dual story lines of revenge and
attempts to right long-ago wrongs.
Foster doesn’t have time to
take her coat off one Sunday morning, she is called to a field on the edge of
the Belverton College campus, where a student lies dead. Brice Collier is the
only son of the fabulously wealthy Sebastian Collier, who owned the nearby
house that Brice and some of his friends shared during the scholastic year.
Brice was known for his over-the-top Saturday night parties. Because of his
father’s money, the college took a hands-off stance on anything affecting
Brice, giving him the illusion that he could do or say anything he wanted
without repercussion. This time he seems to have gotten too drunk to realize he
was outdoors and died of alcohol poisoning and hypothermia. The fact that
another student living in the same house died in similar circumstances 30 years
previously did not escape the police.
While Foster and her new
partner, a certified badass named Vera Li, try to pin down the students that
were at the party, all of whom are curiously evasive about who was where when, Foster
is getting anonymous phone calls. The male caller is making vague threats about
revenge for past misdeeds and claims the death of her former partner is a
punishment for Foster. Her recently dead partner was determined to have
committed suicide, Foster believes she was killed by this anonymous caller.
That the police department refused to look into the calls and Foster’s
suspicions noticeably strains her relationship with her manager.
Grieving for her dead partner,
Foster works relentlessly on the Collier case, finding more and more parallels
between the old case and the new, while she tries to identify her anonymous
caller and his motives after hours. Her new partner confronts her on the brutal
pace she is undertaking and insists on helping identify the anonymous tormentor
to remove the distraction from Foster’s life.
Clark creates clear,
well-defined, and credible characters. Even the background members of the
Homicide group who don’t get much time on the page stand out distinctly from
each other. The old school detective who antagonizes everyone but becomes an
emotional basket case over his partner’s sick child is a perfect example. The
cold distant Sebastian Collier and his troubleshooter Lange are two more. Vera
Li is a fine invention, she and Foster make a powerhouse of a team. I look
forward to seeing more of her. As always in Clark’s books, the city of Chicago
is a powerful secondary character.
An inventive use of the
revenge motive, a crisp narrative, and fine characters. This book made the Washington
Post list of best 2024 mysteries for a good reason. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (December
3, 2024)
·
Language:
English
·
Paperback:
364 pages
·
ISBN-10:
1662517327
·
ISBN-13:
978-1662517327
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3ZsDMf1
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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