LAST KNOWN ADDRESS

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.