Through the Cracks

February 1, 2010
Sociology professor Jill McKenzie hires PI Anni Koskinen to find the man who raped her in Chicago's Lincoln Park 23 years earlier in Fister's strong sequel to In the Wind
(2008). Chase Taylor, a 16-year-old high on coke who was in the park near the time of the assault, was convicted of the crime, but later freed on appeal. McKenzie has assembled data that suggests her attacker is a serial rapist responsible for at least seven additional attacks over a 10-year period that overlaps with Taylor's jail time. Part social worker and part sleuth, Koskinen connects with an array of well-drawn supporting characters, including other rape victims, the lead investigator on the McKenzie case, and the attorney who helped overturn Taylor's conviction. Thoughtful attention to the complexities of police work and social justice lift this gritty mystery well above the norm. Koskinen's empathy with both cops and victims as well as her fierce, brittle independence make her easy to root for.

April 1, 2010
After helping to send the wrong man to jail, a rape victim wants justice.

Chase Taylor, young and black, is erroneously identified as a rapist by the victim and goes away for a long time. It's a particularly vicious rape coupled with a brutal beating that nearly kills Jill McKenzie, who's no more than a girl at the time. Some 20 years later, Professor McKenzie sets her sights on reheating a very cold case. Sure she feels guilty over her tragic mistake in identifying the wrong man. But it's more than that, she tells Chicago private eye Anni Koskinen. Since Chase is innocent, she has to assume that a predatory psychopath still prowls, a terrifying danger to others, and she wants Anni to find him. Anni's less convinced that this is a good idea. So much time has passed, and she lacks the resources required to succeed where good cops and a professional investigation have failed. Reluctance yields to persistence, however, and Anni signs on. Soon enough, she discovers that the danger her client envisions is chillingly real. There's every reason to believe that the MOs match in at least seven subsequent rape/beating cases, and no reason to believe the psychopathology has run its course.

Comparisons to that other Chicago p.i., Sara Paretsky's illustrious V.I. Warshawski, are probably inescapable. When Fister (In the Wind, 2008, etc.) toughens Anni up a bit, she'll justify them.

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April 1, 2010
In her second outing, after "In the Wind", former Chicago cop-turned-PI Anni Koskinen is hired to find a rapist who, 20 years ago, brutally attacked a young woman. The victim identified the wrong young man, who spent two decades in prison. Anni investigates a number of current rape cases similar to the Lincoln Park Rapist, but the political ambitions of the prosecutor and the stubbornness of the police make her job an uphill battle. VERDICT Fister, a librarian and frequent "LJ" contributor (see p. 38), juggles a lot of plot lines that might lead to some confusion for the reader. But her booka Chicago version of the infamous 1989 Central Park rape caseultimately packs a real punch. It will appeal to Sara Paretsky fans and mystery readers who long for tough and savvy female investigators.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.