Person of Interest

Starred review from September 17, 2007
Cops, criminals and neglected families collide with disastrous results in Edgar-winner Schwegel's intense third novel (after 2006's Probable Cause
). Chicago PD detective Craig McHugh is deep into an undercover investigation of a deadly batch of heroin allegedly being peddled by the Fuxi Spiders, a powerful Chinese gang. Hoping to gain their trust, Craig burns through his department allowance and his own funds playing at a Fuxi card game. Meanwhile, Craig's sullen teenage daughter, Ivy, is dragged home from a party by his police colleagues after being caught with ecstasy. Unaware of her husband's undercover assignment, Craig's wife, Leslie, is convinced he's having an affair, and she soon begins flirting with Ivy's handsome jazz-playing boyfriend. As Craig's work life spills into his personal one, his family must come together to stay alive. The well-placed action scenes are brutal enough to resonate, but the violence is never gratuitous. This pitch-perfect portrait of a family in crisis reinforces Schwegel's position as one of today's top authors of hard-boiled police procedurals. Author tour.

September 1, 2007
Undercover cop Craig McHugh is in way over his head trying to bring down a crime lord in Chicago's Chinatown. His wife, Leslie, who is drinking too much, suspects that he has a mistress, and his 17-year-old daughter hangs out with the wrong crowd. When $1000 vanishes from the McHughs' bank account and Craig can't explain where it went, Leslie is determined to find the answer. Schwegel's third book is not so much about police officers solving crimes as it is about a cop's family having lost its way. In Schwegel's capable hands (she won an Edgar Award for "Officer Down"), her story never falters, and the surprise ending both satisfies and allows the reader to hope that the McHughs will be alright. This is noir fiction at its best; for all mystery collections.

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