The Lies We Tell

May 22, 2017
In this nuanced, thought-provoking crime novel from Edgar-winner Schwegel (The Good Boy), Chicago cop Gina Simonetti struggles to hide her multiple sclerosis from her department. If her disease is revealed, she fears losing her job as well as her ability to care for toddler Isabel, her addict brother’s child. She’s raising Isabel alone because her feckless ex, Tom Sheridan, bailed when Gina got her diagnosis. After an altercation with Johnny Marble—who’s suspected of assaulting his frail mother, among others—leaves Gina in the hospital and risks exposing her diagnosis, she becomes torn between the hunt for Johnny and her fear of being called to testify against him, which will require confessing the reason for her physical weakness. Eventually, Gina uncovers a deeper web of exploitation stretching far beyond domestic abuse. Schwegel fleshes out a slow-burning plot with compelling portraiture as she addresses larger questions about the nexus of profitability and care among society’s most vulnerable. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management.

May 15, 2017
A Chicago cop tries to keep her own career-ending secret hidden while working an investigation that could cost her more than her badge.In her sixth Chicago-set crime novel, this one a stand-alone featuring Detective Gina Simonetti, Edgar Award winner Schwegel (The Good Boy, 2013, etc.) backs herself--and her tough-talking protagonist--into a labyrinthine corner plot with no logical exits. Simonetti has not-quite-legal custody of her brother's 2-year-old daughter, Isabel, whom she whisked away from a drug-addled home before the start of the novel. Trouble is, not only is Isabel not officially Simonetti's, but Simonetti isn't physically fit to be a cop: she suffers from the early stages of multiple sclerosis, a disease that rears its head when it suits the narrative rather than when it might naturally flare up for the patient. During a scuffle with suspect Johnny Marble, who's been accused of accosting his elderly mother, Simonetti not only gets knocked around, but loses her gun to Marble as a result of her condition. Turns out she's not the only one who's after Marble, but Simonetti is leery about whom to trust and what Marble might say about her capacity. The case starts to unravel when she visits Marble's mother, Kay St. Claire, who has Alzheimer's disease, and discovers something isn't right with the woman's seemingly attentive caregiver. Simonetti's burning desire to protect Isabel, attempts to hide her own disability, and efforts to uncover the truth behind the fleecing of unknowing patients read like disparate plot points from three separate novels. Despite a brash heroine with an empathetic predicament, there's little to grasp onto here, leaving the reader adrift.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2017

This stand-alone by the Edgar Award-winning author of Officer Down introduces a female Chicago police detective with a secret. Gina Simonetti's recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis threatens everything she values: her job and custody of her toddler niece. Her attempts to hide her physical limitations are threatened when she confronts suspect Johnny Marble in a hospital stairwell. When Gina makes a misstep, Johnny overpowers her and takes her gun. Now she's tracking the man who could reveal her weakness, while lying to her boss and coworkers. Gina's flaw is not her MS, but her determination to hide it, and Schwegel's intricately plotted story is driven by her desperate choices. VERDICT For fans of Karin Slaughter and crime novels headed by flawed protagonists. [See Prepub Alert, 1/30/17; library marketing.]--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.