Fall Paperback - 2023

Fall is the second book in the Detective Harriet Foster series by American author, Tracy Clark. Is it a coincidence that, mere weeks after corrupt Chicago City Council alderman, Marin Shaw is released from her three-year prison sentence, two other aldermen in their guilty clique, who left her high and dry, are dead? Two violent deaths in a violent town, but Detective Harriet Foster and her partner, Detective Vera Li don't believe in coincidences, and Marin has had three years to build up her resentment. Add to that the thirty dimes found on, or in, each of their bodies: thirty pieces of silver. Thing is, there are several others with motives for killing Alderman Deanna Leonard and Alderman George Vasquez, not least of those being mayoral aspirant, Alderman John 'Cubby' Meehan, whose ruthlessness is well-known. Also, Marin's priority seems to be getting custody of her now-thirteen-year-old daughter: would she jeopardise that to get revenge? Distracting Harriet from the case is an anonymously delivered photograph, and a blackmail threat that relates to her former partner's suicide some six months earlier. She is quietly determined to ensure that Glynnis Thompson's reputation is not sullied, but a perceptive Vera Li stays on her case to share her troubles. In a plot that features the team checking a lot of CCTV footage, various suspects having short-lived affairs, a stolen key, a missing overcoat, bribes to a doorman, quite a few selfish and/or self-centred types, and not a few dodgy alibis, there are twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right up to the point where one of those suspects begins to wonder about someone… The banter between the characters is entertaining, and Clark is fleshing out the regular cast so they are a team the reader looks forward to encountering again, quite likely as a certain background issue is yet to be resolved. Readers will eagerly anticipate the next volume in this excellent crime fiction series. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

a reader