Broken Places: A Chicago Mystery

Cass Raines, the intelligent, perceptive narrator of Clark’s unforgettable first novel and series launch, runs her own one-woman detective agency in Chicago. A former Chicago PD detective, Cass left the force after being shot during a confrontation with an armed suspect two years earlier. Soon after her old friend Fr. Ray “Pop” Heaton asks her to look into a vandalism incident at his church, she discovers him shot to death in the confessional. Near the altar lies the body of a young man wearing gang colors. The self-assured yet incompetent police detective assigned to the case sees this one as quickly closed. Since Cass owes so much to Pop, who helped her grandparents raise her after her mother died, she decides to investigate on her own. While Cass is busy fighting for justice in her neighborhood, she may also have a little time for a policeman she admires, a certain Detective Weber,who’s separated from his wife. Distinctive, vividly written characters lift this promising debut. Readers will be eager for the sequel. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (June)