Runner
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“Exceptional…The action builds to an exciting showdown. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
Former homicide cop turned private investigator Cass Raines gets the job done in this page-turning Chicago-set novel from award-winning author Tracy Clark. For mystery/suspense fans as well as fans of Laura Lippman.
Chicago in the dead of winter can be brutal, especially when you’re scouring the frigid streets for a missing girl. Fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus has run away from her foster home. Her biological mother, Leesa Evans, is a recovering addict who admits she failed Ramona often in the past. But now she’s clean. And she’s determined to make up for her mistakes—if Cass can only help her find her daughter.
Cass visits Ramona’s foster mother, Deloris Poole, who is also desperate to bring the girl home. Ramona came to Deloris six months ago, angry and distrustful, but was slowly opening up. The police are on the search, but Cass has sources closer to the streets, and a network of savvy allies. Yet it seems Ramona doesn’t want to be found. And Cass soon begins to understand why.
Ramona is holding secrets dark enough to kill for, and anyone who helps her may be fair game. And if Ramona can’t run fast enough and hide well enough to keep the truth safe, she and Cass may both be out of time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A potent mix of empathy and rage fuels Sue Grafton Award–winner Clark's exceptional fourth Chicago mystery (after 2020's What You Don't See). After 15-year-old Ramona Titus runs away from her foster home one cold day before her recovering-addict mother, Leesa Evans, can reclaim her, PI Cassandra "Cassie" Raines takes the job of tracking down the girl. Almost everyone seems anxious to help save Ramona, including Deloris Poole, the loving foster mother she skipped out on, and retired police detective Frank Martini. Only child placement worker Ronald Shaw appears reluctant. After Cassie discovers that Ramona fled after furtively taking a picture of Poole, Martini, and Shaw conferring—or conniving—together, she sets out to find what the three are really doing with the teenage girls they're supposed to be protecting. Meanwhile, Cassie has a host of her own family crises to work through. The action builds to an exciting showdown between gutsy Cassie and the villains in a frozen forest outside the city. Those who like their crime novels with a social conscience will be amply rewarded.
