Runner

Starred review from May 10, 2021
A potent mix of empathy and rage fuels Sue Grafton Award–winner Clark’s exceptional fourth Chicago mystery (after 2020’s What You Don’t See). After 15-year-old Ramona Titus runs away from her foster home one cold day before her recovering-addict mother, Leesa Evans, can reclaim her, PI Cassandra “Cassie” Raines takes the job of tracking down the girl. Almost everyone seems anxious to help save Ramona, including Deloris Poole, the loving foster mother she skipped out on, and retired police detective Frank Martini. Only child placement worker Ronald Shaw appears reluctant. After Cassie discovers that Ramona fled after furtively taking a picture of Poole, Martini, and Shaw conferring—or conniving—together, she sets out to find what the three are really doing with the teenage girls they’re supposed to be protecting. Meanwhile, Cassie has a host of her own family crises to work through. The action builds to an exciting showdown between gutsy Cassie and the villains in a frozen forest outside the city. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

Starred review from October 1, 2021

In the fourth volume of Clark's "Chicago Mystery" series (after What You Don't See) homicide detective-turned-private investigator Cass Raines is hired by recovering addict Leesa Evans to find her daughter. Fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus ran away from a foster home during a bitterly cold Chicago winter and is now unsheltered, on her own, and most likely at the mercy of human traffickers. In an unusual occurrence of police-PI cooperation, the police detective in charge of the case and his retired cop acquaintance both welcome Cass as another set of eyes. Regardless, the search for Ramona soon turns as cold as the weather. Then the body of a young woman is found burning in a trash can under an expressway on-ramp. Could it be Ramona? Narrator Shari Peele gives excellent vocal characterizations to the many characters who make this thriller exciting and realistic. VERDICT Clark gives the listener just enough background on Cass, her friends, and cases that this book stands on its own and is highly recommended. Still, most listeners will find it more rewarding to go through the series in order.--Cliff Glaviano, formerly at Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

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