Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Book Author: Tracy Clark

Police Detective “Harri” Foster is working the dark streets of Chicago, still trying to prove that her late partner, Glynnis Thompson, did not die by suicide as everyone believes.  When Glynnis’ husband comes to Harri with a photo purporting to show his late wife accepting a payoff from an unknown man, Harri becomes more convinced than ever that Glynnis’ death was in fact murder.  She’s continuing to try to prove it despite the efforts of the Chicago Police Department, which would like the whole embarrassing incident swept under the rug.

Now there’s a new murder that must take priority for the detective.  Brice Collier, the only son and heir to the Collier fortune, is found outside Hardwicke House, the Gilded Age mansion on the Belverton College campus where he and a number of his college friends live. 

Several of the buildings on the campus bear the family name–the Collier School of Science and Technology, the Collier Library, and the Collier Business School.  Thus there’s immediately a great deal of pressure from Brice’s father Sebastian, the Chicago Police Department, and the media to solve this case ASAP.

When Harri and the other police officers arrive at the scene of Brice’s death, they see the young man’s body lying in a field of snow and ice.  It’s February and the temperature is below freezing, but Brice is shirtless, showing a tattoo on his upper right arm of a mythical creature holding a double-edged axe.  The corpse reeks of alcohol and vomit.  Could he have staggered out of Hartwicke House on his own, too drunk to know what he was doing?  Or was he taken to the field and left there to die?

Brice is found by two women who were at the party at the House.  Shelby Ritter makes the call to 911, and her friend Hailie Kenton is with her.  Both are students at Belverton and say they knew Brice slightly and thus had invitations to the party, but they say they left before it was over.

Before she begins questioning them, Harri suggests going inside the House, where it will be warmer and more comfortable than sitting in the police car answering questions.  The girls refuse, and the detective wonders why.  And why were they out walking the snow-covered field before six in the morning in the freezing cold weather?  Their stories don’t make sense, but Harri lets them go home with a warning that she may need to speak to them again.

To make matters even more tense, Harri is getting anonymous phone calls.  The caller says he was wronged and that Harri has a “debt to pay.”  She tells him she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, and she doesn’t, but he continues talking.  “It’s about you.  You’re the get.  Where the road ends.”

Tracy Clark takes the reader on a thrilling ride with a believable plot and wonderfully drawn characters.  Harri Foster is a dedicated police officer, always willing to go the extra mile to solve a case, but she has a number of demons that she lives with every day.  Ms. Clark has written another outstanding novel in this series.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Work, more specifically her work as a detective in the Chicago Police Department, is now the only thing that is giving Harriet Foster’s life any meaning. 

Four years after the senseless murder of her teenaged son, she’s back in court to attend the re-sentencing of Reg’s killer.  At the time of the trial, Willem had been sentenced to ninety-nine years and a day without the possibility of parole, and now his court-appointed attorney wants it reduced to seventy-five years with the possibility of parole.

Harriet starts to speak from her prepared statement, but then she puts it aside and begins to speak from her heart.  She concludes by saying, “Given the same chance, he’d do the same again, and we all know it.”  The reduction in Willem’s sentence is denied, and Harriet’s life, such as it is, continues.

Then the novel switches its focus from Harriet to Marin Shaw on the day of the latter’s release from prison.  Formerly a member of the Chicago city aldermen council, Marin was convicted of corruption and sentenced to three years of imprisonment, her career thrown away for “$5,000, a two-martini lunch, and a lie.”

Her biggest regret is how she left things with her teenaged daughter Zoe.  Her husband Will is making every effort he can to thwart Marin’s attempt to spend time with Zoe and heal their relationship, but Marin is determined to persist.

Her best friend and lawyer, Charlotte Moore, is suggesting that she wait a week before contacting Zoe and that she stay at their downtown condo rather than return to the suburban house she and Will own. Marin reluctantly agrees, saying she will use the time to “settle some things.”  But when Charlotte asks, “What things?,” Marin doesn’t answer.

At the same time, several members of the Chicago aldermen council are reassessing their positions now that Marin has completed her sentence.  Two of them are feeling guilty, knowing they were as involved in the corruption as she was, but John Meehan, the man with the most power, has no feeling of remorse at all.  He simply wants to make certain Marin isn’t planning any kind of tell-all scenario that will implicate him and the others.

“No one walks away.  I know where the bodies are buried…,” he tells his colleagues in his attempt to control them, but regardless of his threat, two of the aldermen do walk out of the meeting.  Then one of those aldermen is killed, and the investigation moves Harriet into the lead on what becomes a media frenzy.

Harriet has an additional concern.  She and Vera Li have been partners for just about a year, ever since the suicide of her former partner and friend Glynnis Thompson.  Needless to say, Harriet was devastated, as was the entire homicide department.  Now Mike, Glynnis’ husband, has come to the police station to show Harriet what was placed in his mailbox two days earlier–a photo of his late wife who appears to be receiving a payoff from an unknown man.

Tracy Clark has written a spellbinding mystery that features a thrilling plot, believable characters, and a protagonist who is smart, tenacious, and above all human.  Foster has faults as well as strengths, and she is working hard to move ahead with her life, shattered as it has become.  Readers will root for her every step of the way.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.