Tracy Clark (1)

HIDE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller by Tracy Clark is the first book in a new police procedural series. It introduces a wide-ranging cast of characters and establishes a ground floor for what one can expect going forward. The solidly good book revolves around Detective Harriet Foster who has been through quite a lot in the last few months and years.

A black woman in a heavily male dominated environment, she brings a lot of baggage to her new posting in Chicago. Others have expectations who she is and those expectations may or may not be accurate. Word of what happened just a few weeks ago has made it to her new boss and colleagues at CPD’s District One. Her new partner, Jim Lonergan, appears to be your classic old school, non-politically correct cop straight out of Hollywood casting. Like the old rickety desk she is assigned, he is not fixable, so the two clash almost from the second they lay eyes on each other. Things are wrong from almost the get go, but that does not matter as they have a body this Monday morning.

It is also going to be a very high-profile case as the body was dumped on the Riverwalk. Part of the nearby legendary, Magnificent Mile, the body has a lot of witnesses. Many of those same witnesses have thoughts about how quickly police responded to the scene as Lonergan and Foster arrive to work the case. The murder and subsequent dumping of the body in a very public place means the pressure is on from all sides to solve the case.

It also won’t be the last body with the same signature style.

What follows is a complex and very enjoyable read. Marketed as a thriller, it comes across to this reader as a police procedural. Regardless of the marketing label, Foster, as well as nearly everyone in the read, are complex. The focus is on Foster, but the secondary characters get extensive details about themselves as well. None of the characters are simple as even Jim Lonergan is a bit more complex than it first appears.

Then there is the complexity of the case as the read shifts to follow other characters besides Harriet Foster. Plenty of action, misdirection, and a hunt for a killer drive HIDE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller forward at a steady pace. The very good read is well worth your time.

The second book in the series, Fall, is currently scheduled to come out on December 5th.

My paperback reading copy came from the Park Forest Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023… (meer)

This book is a perfect crime thriller. It also touches on current problems in policing such as racism, sexism, police power and female officers. With one character being a psychologist, we also read about the psychology of serial killers. Author Tracy Clark knows alot about police procedures and its culture. She is an editor in Chicago and must have learned alot about policing from her day job.

The writing is crisp and this is what make it such a quick read. It's been awhile since I have read a novel written this good and I couldn't put it down. Even though the book is almost 400 pages, I finished it in one afternoon. The setting descriptions in the beginning of the story are spot on. As a Chicagoan myself, I recognized all of the street names and locales, including the lower level streets where are killers operate. Even the jogging path a character took was accurate.

The main character is Harriet Foster. She has been a police officer for 15 years but is coming into a different police district for this story. Her first partner, Officer Lonergan, is a long-time officer who does not care for female or minority officers and uses slang terms from a bygone era. I found them amusing but only because I am old enough to know these phrases. Harriet has a soft side because her son died, her marriage fell apart and her former police partner commit suicide. She is still reeling from these events but is trying to put them out of her mind so that she can continue to work. Harriet, or Harri, is a great character to base a series on. I can see that there is alot of room for character growth. Her second partner, Vera Li, connects with Harri better and I hope that they remain partners in future installments of the series.… (meer)

Dangerous secrets are uncovered by Cass Raines as she helps a recovering drug addict find her missing teen daughter. We visit the dark side of the city of Chicago and the equally dark side human nature in a novel that is well written and shiveringly exciting. A 15-year-old girl from foster care is missing and a Chicago winter is no time to be on the streets. Cassandra Raines is a former police officer with the Chicago Police Department, who after a horrific incident resigned from the force and became a Private Investigator. This is the fourth book in the series but it's the first time I’m meeting Cass Raines. Even though the book is the fourth series, if this one is any indication, they read well as standalones. The book was a page-turner. Tracy Clark allows Cass to completely take the lead, guiding readers through the investigation and allowing us to solve the case with her. The further I got into the story, the more invested I became into finding the missing Ramona and learning why she ran away at all much less during a brutal Chicago winter. When we do find out, the reason leads us to even more questions. Ramona is holding secrets... some dark enough to kill for.… (meer)