Last Known Address

Starred review from May 25, 2009
Recently transferred from homicide to sex crimes, Chicago police detective Sloane Pearson pursues a serial rapist in Edgar-winner Schwegel's gritty fourth crime novel. Called in to interview the second in a series of victims who were beaten, raped and nearly strangled to death, Pearson knows the only way she'll have a case is if the traumatized woman will talk. But without a crime scene or detailed description of the attacker, Pearson's leads dry up fast. As she retraces the victims' steps, she uncovers a common thread that winds from the dilapidated blocks where the rapes occurred to one of the city's glitzy property development companies. Introduced in 2006's Probable Cause
, Pearson, the odd woman out in her new squad, shoulders the burden of a troublesome case even when her boss insists she quit. Despite a minimal body count, Schwegel ratchets up the tension, leaving readers breathless through to the last page. Author tour.

Starred review from June 15, 2009
A serial predator eludes a Chicago sex-crimes detective.

Sloane Pearson is having a rough time. Transferred to Area Five after her debacle in another precinct, she's saddled with a new partner who's mostly marking time till his retirement. The other cops hurl lewd innuendoes at her. And the women nearly choked to death by a serial rapist who attacks from behind and taunts them,"Fight me, fight me," are too defeated to help nail him. Sloane's hoping the latest victim, Holly, will add to the scant description the cops have of a medium-built Latino male wearing a blue-striped uniform shirt with the name tag"Jorge." After tracking false leads and rebelling against her chief's leave-it-alone dictum, Sloane winds up at Zimmerman& Company, which is deep into plans to construct the Pulaski Corridor commercial project currently vetoed by Alderman Alan Van der Meer. Zimmerman's personal assistant Stephen catches her interest just as she's antsy to move on from Eddie, another cop who's the latest in her long line of noncommittal lovers. Then rape escalates to murder, more leads don't pan out and Sloane misidentifies the perp. Again defying orders, she keeps on the case, culminating in a battle royal during a delayed luncheon.

Schwegel (Person of Interest, 2007, etc.) can out-hard-boil the best of them, from Chandler to Connelly, and the intensity of her character's father complex rivals Ross Macdonald's. Few women writers can match her, and few men either.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 15, 2009
In her latest police procedural (after "Persons of Interest"), Edgar Award winner Schwegel takes on the frustrating trajectory of a rape investigation. Chicago detective Sloane Pearson is still dealing with her newbie status in the Sex Crimes division when she's called out on the second of what she thinks is a serial rape case. The latest victim is someone Sloane has met and that makes pursuing justice that much harder. As Sloane tells the woman, "People are going to ask you a hundred questions twice that many times and that's just going to be today. And they're not asking because they care]nobody will care about you more than they care about themselves." Which sums up Sloane's view of how things work in the gritty world of Chicago justice. Dark crimes and darker motives make Schwegel's mystery feel more like "The Shield than NYPD Blue". What hope there is to be found is hard won. VERDICT Schwegel ably draws readers into the streets of Chicago while offering a grim, suspenseful tale that should appeal to readers who enjoy Lynda LaPlante's "Prime Suspect" and Anna Travis series and Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch books. Both have a similar level of urban grittiness and complicated protagonists. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 3/1/09.]Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Holly Dutcher meets up with some friends at a new Chicago watering hole not far from her place. Some flirting, some laughter, some drinks, and some hours later she decides to walk home. Bad decision. She is raped. Detective Sloane Pearson, new to sex crimes, takes the call. Holly was taken by surprise, from behind, and offers no eyewitness detail. As Sloane chases the faint clues, she learns that her father has had another episode with his heart and that her lover, another cop, is making her crazy with his apparent indifference to, well, everything. Sloane doggedly pursues the rapist and, with the help of an ambitious reporter, raises the possibility of a serial rapistconnecting Hollys case to others in the areaeven as her superior officers try to steer her away from that theory and the bad publicity it would generate. Schwegel, a 2005 Edgar Award winner whose Person of Interest (2007) found its way to some best-book lists, masterfully weaves the police procedural with compelling, sensitively rendered personal drama featuring characters whom readers will care about.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)