Last Known Address-Theresa Schwegel

Last Known Address
Theresa Schwegel
Minotaur, Jul 2009, $24.99
ISBN 9780312364274

Chicago police detective Sloane Pearson has moved from homicide to major sex crimes. Her current case involves a brutal serial rapist who leaves his prey near dead from strangulation. Her efforts to get someone to talk are futile as the women fear their predator will return to finish the job or worse.

The brass demands she either finds a legitimate suspect or move on as they reject her belief a serial rapist is stalking Chicago. However, she has no clues so Pearson tracks what the victims claimed they did before being snatched and raped. She begins to find a tenuous link, but is running out of time as her boss orders her to drop the investigation immediately and start a new case while she knows the next victim is just around the corner.

The latest Pearson police procedural (see PROBABLE CAUSE) is an exciting whodunit in which the heroine’s boss and lover intrude in her inquiry. Her supervisor orders her to cease and desist though she believes another rape is imminent and Sloane is considering leaving her lover, but puts that on hold while investigating; on top of that her father is ill with a bad heart. The story line is fast-paced and never slows down as Pearson’s tour of Chicago is no joy ride as the clues are few and the women begin to back away with her only ally being a Sun-Times reporter that she feeds information to that if her boss knew would cost her the job she loves. Theresa Schwegel provides a tense one sitting thriller.

Harriet Klausner