A Wide and Capable Revenge

With this deft and original first mystery, tough, likable Chicago policewoman Nora Callum joins the company of such best-selling whodunit heroines as Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone.  A single mother and dedicated law enforcer, Nora is minus one leg due to a shooting - but with her savvy, strong compassion, and determination to see justice done, she's anything but lacking.

All of these qualities will be tested - and Nora's detecting abilities will be pushed to their limit - by a brutal shooting in a cathedral.  A young and beautiful mother of three is the seemingly innocent victim.  But the identity and motive of the shooter prove much more difficult to ascertain.  And when puzzling clues do emerge, they blaze a trail from present-day Chicago to World War Two Leningrad - drawing Nora into a world where the past refuses to die, retribution is a way of life, and old sins return to haunt new generations - with a vengeance.

Assure in tone and multilayered in theme, Thomas McCall's exciting debut is a grittily authentic protrait of Chicago politics and police work, an intriguing exploration of Russian history and culture, and a spellbinding study of revenge.