Broken Places

by Clark, Tracy

• ISBN13: 9781496748645
• ISBN10: 1496748646
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-11-07
• Publisher: Kensington
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Summary

After a fatal shooting on a rooftop, a traumatized Cassandra Raines quits the Chicago P.D. with one less black female homicide detective. But when she stumbles across the dead body of a respected member of the community, it's up to her to prove a murderer is on the loose in this first installment of the Chicago Mystery series by Chicago journalist Tracy Clark.

Cops can make mistakes, even when they're not rookies. If anyone knows that it's Cass Raines, who took a bullet two years ago after an incompetent colleague screwed up a tense confrontation with an armed suspect. Deeply traumatized by the incident, Cass resigned from the Chicago PD, leaving one less female African-American on the force. Now she's the head of a one-woman private investigation agency, taking on just enough work to pay the bills. She spends the rest of her time keeping an eye on the tenants in her little Hyde Park apartment building, biking along the lakefront, and playing chess with the only father figure she's ever known, Father Ray Heaton.

When Father Ray asks Cass to look into a recent spate of vandalism at his church, she readily agrees to handle the case. But only hours later she's horrified to discover his murdered body in the church confessional, a dead gangbanger sprawled out nearby. She knew Pop, as she called him, had ticked off plenty of people, from slumlords to drug dealers and even some parishioners and politicians, with his uncompromising defense of the downtrodden. But a late-night random theft doesn't seem like much of a motive at a cash-strapped parish like Saint Brendan's.

The lead detective assigned to the case is all too ready to dismiss it as an interrupted burglary gone awry, just another statistic in a violent city. But Cass's instincts tell her otherwise, and badge or no badge, she intends to see justice done . . .

Author Biography

Tracy Clark is the two-time Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winning author of the highly acclaimed Chicago Mystery Series and the Detective Harriet Foster Novels. All four of her Chicago Mysteries were both Anthony Award and Lefty Award finalists. Broken Places was a Shamus Award finalist, a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, a Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and was shortlisted for the American Library Association's RUSA Reading List. Clark also was a Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist for Borrowed Time, a two-time Shamus Award finalist for Broken Places and What You Don’t See, and an Agatha Award finalist for What You Don’t See. She won the Sue Grafton Memorial Award from Mystery Writers of America twice for Borrowed Time and Runner. In addition to her Cass Raines novels, Tracy's short story "For Services Rendered," appears in the anthology Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African‑American Authors. A native of Chicago, she works as an editor in the newspaper industry and roots for the Cubs, Sox, Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks equally. She’s a proud member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime, and she sits on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference. Visit her online at TracyClarkBooks.com.