Runner

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. (July)