Influencer-turned-bakery-owner Maddy Montgomery has sold plenty of wedding cakes before, but before she turns one out for her and her fiancé’s wedding, she’ll have to solve a little case of murder . . .
Aunt Octavia would be so proud! Maddy has turned Baby Cakes Bakery—named for her 250-pound English Mastiff, Baby—into a runaway success, and she’s marrying the love of her life, veterinarian Michael Portman. #DreamWedding! Plus the timing couldn’t be the country’s biggest bridal expo has come to New Bison, Michigan, and Maddy has secured a spot for Baby Cakes to showcase their cakes. She’s also entered a contest for an all-expenses-paid wedding extravaganza offered by world-renowned wedding planner Serafina.
Unfortunately, supremely nasty Serafina truly takes the cake—she makes the worst bridezilla seem like a shy flower girl. But there’s one thing the wedding planner didn’t plan on—being impaled by one of the skewers Baby Cakes uses on their tiered wedding cakes.
While Maid of Honor Sheriff April Johnson rounds up suspects at the expo, Maddy and her aunt’s friends, the Baker Street Irregulars, and even Baby join forces to unveil a killer hiding in plain sight . . . before wedding bells start to chime.
Influencer-turned-bakery-owner Maddy Montgomery has sold plenty of wedding cakes before, but before she turns one out for her and her fiancé’s wedding, she’ll have to solve a little case of murder . . .
Icing on the Murder is the fourth book in the Baker Street Bakery. While I haven’t read any of the previous books in this series, I still found this book easy to read and follow.
Icing on the Murder is quite the departure from my normal reads, but I found this to be really enjoyable. I really liked the writing style and was thoroughly entertained by the characters. Icing on the Murder has a little bit of everything, from murder to mystery to a dash of romance. Icing on the Murder was my first cozy mystery read and definitely won’t be my last.
*I was provided an ARC copy of this book via the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.*
From New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne comes a brand-new story about two women, a family secret and a lost manuscript that changes everything…
Raised by her literary icon father Carson Wells, Allison Wells always felt loved, even though her mother died when she was a teen. But when she takes a DNA test on a whim and discovers she has a sister that she’s never heard about before, it’s clear there are things her father never told her before he died. Determined to meet Juniper—her half sister—and unravel the truth of what happened all those years ago, Ali finds herself taking a job as Juniper’s intern. She’ll eventually figure out a way to tell Juniper the truth of their relationship. But she never could have imagined what would happen next…
Juniper Connolly has always been incredibly healthy…until she wakes up in the hospital after experiencing cardiac arrest, with her new—and recently fired—intern to thank for saving her life. It’s clear June needs to de-stress her life a little, so when Ali offers her the use of her family’s cabin in a small Wyoming town, June has no reason not to go. But when she arrives in the small town, her life will never be the same.
Under the wide-open spaces of the Wyoming summer sun, Ali and June will untangle the secrets and lies their lives were built on to discover who they really are and what family really means. But even more than that, they’ll build a real relationship with one another and finally become sisters.
New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including six RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and Career Achievement and Romance Pioneer awards from RT Book Reviews. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website.
Nat Cassidy, author of the acclaimed horror Mary, returns with When the Wolf Comes Home, an unabashed, adrenaline-fueled pop horror thriller where the darkest fears can become reality.
“This is the kind of great, big, epic horror novel we got back in the ’80s that came out swinging for the fences and left everything on the field. Welcome back, you shaggy, bloody monster of a book!”—Grady Hendrix
“The Stephen King of TikTok”—The Lineup
Most Anticipated Horror of 2025—Paste Magazine, LitHub
One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.
As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them—the boy can turn his every fear into reality.
And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.
Nat Cassidy is the author of the acclaimed novels Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings. His books have been featured in best-of lists from Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, the Chicago Review of Books, the NY Public Library, and more, and he was named one of the “writers shaping horror’s next golden age” by Esquire. His award-winning horror plays have been produced throughout New York City, as well as across the country, and he was commissioned to write the libretto for a world premiere short opera at the Kennedy Center (about the end of the world, of course). You’ve also likely seen Nat on TV, playing various monsters and Bad Guys of the Week on shows such as Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Bull, Quantico, FBI, and many others … but that’s a topic for a different bio. He lives in New York City with his wife.
Ten years ago, I left the ashes of my past behind, determined to fulfill my dream of owning a flower shop in the largest city in the world.
With business now booming, I need to expand my storefront, and I’m desperate for help. So, when my best friend sets me up on a blind date disguised as a business meeting, with the billionaire CEO of the city’s most elite real estate firm, I cave.
What I don’t expect is the billionaire blind date turning out to be my ex-boyfriend.
Though one look is all it takes to know Asher Egan is no longer the boy I once knew from the wrong side of the tracks. He’s an ambitious, insanely wealthy businessman who knows exactly what and who he wants…
Me.
And the longer we work together, the faster the embers of our youthful love begin to reignite.
It’s a shame the pain isn’t as easily forgotten.
Fearing he’ll lose me again, he’s suddenly asking for a future we both walked away from all those years ago.
But will I be able to sift through the ashes of our past and find it in my heart to love him again… or will our second chance at a happy ending threaten to destroy us once and for all?
When Charleigh’s world was turned upside down, she was determined to put her past behind her and fulfill her dream of owning her own flower shop. With business booming, Charleigh has no choice but to look at expanding. When her best friend sets up her on a blind date disguised as a business meeting, with the billionaire CEO of the city’s most elite real estate firm, the last thing she expected was to come face to face with the man who broke her heart ten years prior…
From Asher, With Love without a doubt put my heart through the ringer. I’m talking about the angsty, pull-at-your-heartstrings kind of emotion that leaves you with no choice but to devour each word like your life depends on it.
Asher and Charleigh’s story is the perfect opposites attract, reunited lovers, second-chance romance. Despite their time apart, the pull and chemistry are still there. Everything between them just oozes off the pages, leading to incredible banter and an unforgettable love story.
If you’re looking for a romance that will leave you with all the feels, you’re not gonna want to miss From Asher, With Love. Charleigh and Asher’s romance was everything I wanted and then some. My heart was set on fire and bursting at the seams with all the heartache, longing, delicious angst, and romance. I loved everything about this book from beginning to end and it’s definitely on my list of top reads for 2025!
*I was provided an ARC copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review*
The story of Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from Central Park Zoo and captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of followers around the world.
This is a parable of freedom, wildness, and our urban ecosystems. Flaco has been dubbed “the world’s most famous bird.” From the night in February of 2023 when vandals cut a hole in his cage until his death a year later in a courtyard on the Upper West Side, his is a story full of adventure and unexpected turns.
Nature writer David Gessner chronicles the year-long odyssey of Flaco and the human drama that followed the owl who captured the imaginations of New Yorkers and people around the world. Though he’d spent his life in a cage, Flaco learned to survive in New York City by eating rats, squirrels, and birds. He was an immigrant coming from elsewhere to make it in the big city. Central Park, the island of green in an urban sea, was his new home territory.
Flaco’s urban adventure brought controversy, pitting those who felt he should be returned to the safety of the zoo against those who created the “Free Flaco” movement. The birding world was fractured over the ethics of the online sharing of his location that brought scores of enthusiasts to view him each day. And his end—with a grim necropsy revealing Flaco had suffered a viral infection from eating pigeons and had multiple rodenticides in his system—serves as a Rachel Carson-esque warning about the harm we’ve done to our urban environments, inspiring the passage of long-sought legislation protecting urban birds and regulations meant to reduce the use of rodenticides in New York City.
David Gessner is the author of thirteen books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling All the Wild That Remains. Gessner is a professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he also founded the literary magazine Ecotone. His own magazine publications include pieces in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Orion, and many other magazines. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, The Call of the Wild.
Praise for David Gessner
“For Flaco fans, birdwatchers and those interested in the threats facing our environment, The Book of Flaco promises to be a hoot.”—PEOPLE
“For one glorious year, it was Flaco’s world, and we were just living in it. The world watched as a scrappy newcomer made New York his home, and we mourned his death even as we knew his freedom couldn’t last. Fortunately, David Gessner came along to chronicle these events as they happened, and to conduct a post-mortem, as it were, on Flaco’s flight to freedom, his rise to fame, and his inevitable downfall. The result is a wonderfully entertaining tribute to Flaco and everything he taught us about what owls are capable of, even in the urban chaos of Manhattan.”—Amy Stewart, author of The Tree Collectors: Tales of Arboreal Obsession and The Drunken Botanist
“Gessner writes beautifully, with heart and honesty. This book is about an owl, sure, but more than that, it’s about ourselves: about what we in our distracted, self-centric lives have lost and occasionally, in the unexpected presence of a wild creature, are lucky enough to regain. Like Flaco himself, this book is an inspiration, an invitation to step outside ourselves, to leave the cage, as it were, and connect to something pure and precious. Nature writing can have no worthier purpose.”—Mary Roach, author of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
“The Book of Flaco is a charming, passionate ode to the world’s most charismatic owl—and the latent wildness that we all harbor. Few birds touched as many human lives as this escaped Eurasian eagle-owl, and few writers have memorialized an animal as gracefully as David Gessner.”—Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings and Eager
Elaine Neil Orr, born in Nigeria to expat parents, brings us an indelible portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose.
It’s 1963 and Isabel Hammond is an expat who has accompanied her agriculture aid worker husband to Nigeria, where she is hoping to find inspiration for her art and for her life. Then she meets charismatic local singer Bobby Tunde, and they share a night of passion that could upend everything. Seeking solace and distraction, she returns to her painting and her home in a rural village where she plants a lemon tree and unearths an ancient statue buried in her garden. She knows that the dancing female figure is not hers to keep, yet she is reluctant to give it up, and soon, she notices other changes that make her wonder what the dancing woman might portend.
Against the backdrop of political unrest in Nigeria, Isabel’s personal situation also becomes precarious. She finds herself in the center of a tide of suspicion, leaving her torn between the confines of her domestic life and the desire to immerse herself in her art and in the culture that surrounds her. The expat society, the ancient Nigerian culture, her beautiful family, and even the statue hidden in a back room—each trouble and beguile Isabel. Amid all of this, can she finally become who she wants to be?
Elaine Neil Orr is the author of five books, including the novels A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds. She was born and grew up in Nigeria, the daughter of missionary parents, and most of her writing is grounded in both the American South and the Nigerian South. She is a faculty member at North Carolina State University and at the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing, Spalding University.
Praise for Elaine Neil Orr
“Elaine Neil Orr’s latest novel is a powerful story of transformation and redemption, guided by the sure, steady hand of an author at the height of her power. Dancing Woman is a fierce reminder of the dangers of unearthing long buried passions, while simultaneously whispering a call to do just that. A thoroughly captivating read.”—Rachel M. Harper, The Other Mother and This Side of Providence
“Brimming with vivid description, deeply rooted in time and place, and with a fascinating cast of complicated, enigmatic characters, Dancing Woman is ultimately a story of longing—for a sense of self, community, redemption, and healing—and a profound exploration of the transformative power of art in its many forms.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain and The Trackers
“1960s Nigeria is in turmoil, and so is Elaine Neil Orr’s thoughtful, unique protagonist: transplanted American bride Isabel Hammond, whose struggles to find her purpose and identity launch this fascinating tale. Dancing Woman is a provocative, lyrical, moving exploration of a dynamic young woman’s journey from crisis to growth in a challenging time and place, and well worth readers’ valuable time.”—Therese Fowler, It All Comes Down to This and Z
“Utterly intriguing…Who knew sex and drumming are intertwined? Elaine will take you on that journey…Amidst suspense, betrayal, and confusion, Elaine brings Nigeria in the 1960s to you, giving you a dose of history, language, culture, music, and art. I expect nothing less from a Nigerian in spirit and body.”—Toyin Falola, Counting the Tiger’s Teeth
“In Anatomy of Exile Zeeva Bukai beautifully weaves one Mizrahi family’s tragic tale of love and loss and deftly illuminates the liminal space between places and languages, Arabness and Jewishness. With great empathy and profound insight, Bukai explores our attachment to place, family, and tradition and the lengths we would go to protect them, showing history repeating itself in inexplicable yet inevitable ways. Anatomy of Exile is a remarkably assured debut—radiant, intelligent, and deeply moving.” — Ayelet Tsabari, author of Songs for the Brokenhearted, The Best Place on Earth and The Art of Leaving, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize, and The Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction
“Zeeva Bukai writes as perceptively about romantic love and family life as she does about the wider forces that haunt it: war and exile, love across borders, the long, torturous shadow of the past. The Anatomy of Exile is a compassionate, searing and full-of-life novel that bears witness in important ways.” — Elizabeth Graver, author of Kantika, winner of the 2023 Jewish National Book Award, and The Edward Lewis Wallant Award for Jewish fiction
“The heartbreak of being exiled from the land of your birth is beautifully described in this wrenching novel, a deep dive into the immigrant experience, family dynamics, and the misunderstandings that needlessly divide people. The fiber of loyalty is tested until it frays– yet redemption does come, and is sweet. The Anatomy of Exile, both timely and timeless, is a startlingly brave debut.” — Chris Cander, USA Today-bestselling author of The Young of Other Animals, A Gracious Neighbor, and The Weight of a Piano
“In Zeeva Bukai’s stunning debut, the burden of history is masterfully woven into the intimate journey of an Israeli family. With elegant prose and unflinching honesty, this novel about love, betrayal, and exile reminds us of the necessity of storytelling in troubled times.” — Amy Gottlieb, author of The Beautiful Possible
“Zeeva Bukai’s The Anatomy of Exile is a captivating and moving account of displacement, sacrifice, and ultimate loss. With expansive prose and deft dialogue, Bukai interrogates the ways in which a family attempts to love each other in spite of differing cultures, and how the world conspires to prevent it. But this is also a universal narrative; one that might take place anywhere and at any time. Such is the power of love, and the story that Bukai so beautifully invites us to enter into. I loved this book.” — Marcia Butler, author of Oslo, Maine and The Skin Above My Knee
“Propulsive and gorgeously written. With meticulous observation that misses nothing, Zeeva Bukai brings to life two worlds and a family torn between them. What is home? Who are we when the ground shifts beneath us? How can we sustain love and hope in the face of betrayal? A richly textured novel brimming with insight and compassion. I was riveted from the first page.” — Joan Leegant, author of the New American Prize-winning Displaced Persons
“Zeeva Bukai has written a gorgeous, soulful novel whose aching, mismatched characters limp bravely towards love even when it wounds them to the quick. But even more, she’s written a portrait of Israel as a young country, and reveals the enourmous and even magnetic power this sacred ground exerts on those who call it home.” — Yona Zeldis McDonough, Fiction Editor, Lilith Magazine
The Abadi Family saga begins when a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew ends in predictable tragedy. The family flees to America to mend, but encounters only more turmoil that threatens to tear the family apart.
In the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, Tamar Abadi’s world collapses when her sister-in-law is killed in what appears to be a terror attack but what is really the result of a secret relationship with a Palestinian poet. Tamar’s husband, Salim, is an Arab and a Jew. Torn between the two identities, and mourning his sister’s death, he uproots the family and moves them to the US. As Tamar struggles to maintain the integrity of the family’s Jewish Israeli identity against the backdrop of the American “melting pot” culture, a Palestinian family moves into the apartment upstairs and she is forced to reckon with her narrow thinking as her daughter falls in love with the Palestinian son. Fearing history will repeat itself, Tamar’s determination to separate the two sets into motion a series of events that have the power to destroy her relationship with her daughter, her marriage, and the family she has worked so hard to protect. This powerful debut novel explores Tamar’s struggle to keep her family intact, to accept love that is taboo, and grapples with how exile forces us to reshape our identity in ways we could not imagine.
Love stories impacted by social and political turmoil
The impact of having two identities, each side at odds
How this historical novel holds a mirror to current Middle East conflict
How the author’s experiences as a dual citizen inspired the novel
The various ways that we define “home”
The challenges of marriages between people of two cultures
Why Romeo and Juliet stories remain both timeless and timely
Zeeva Bukai was born in Israel and raised in New York City. Her honors include a Fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction and residencies at Hedgebrook, and Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence program. Her stories are forthcoming in the anthology Smashing the Tablets: A Radical Retelling of the Hebrew Bible, and have appeared in Carve Magazine, Pithead Chapel, the Lilith anthology, Frankly Feminist: Stories by Jewish Women, December Magazine where her story The Abandoning (an early version of the first chapter of her novel, “The Anatomy of Exile”) was selected by Lily King for the Curt Johnson Prose Prize, The Master’s Review, where she was the recipient of the Fall Fiction prize selected by Anita Felicelli, Mcsweeny’s Quarterly Concern, Image Journal, Jewishfiction.net, Women’s Quarterly Journal, and the Jewish Quarterly. Her work has been featured on the Stories on Stage Davis podcast. She studied Acting at Tel-Aviv University, and holds a BFA in Theater and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Each year, I try to create a reading challenge that’s fun and challenging but also realistic, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I’ve read over285books for this challenge, 71 of which have sat on my Kindle for far too long. I’ve discovered a lot of new authors and exciting books in 2024 and can not wait to see what next year’s challenge will bring.
Here are the books that made my 2024 Reading Challenge a success:
Category
Book
A book by an author who is new to me
Your Hand in Mine by Lily Foster
Contemporary Romance
Does He Know by Kaylee Ryan
Biker Romance
Caution to the Wind by Giana Darling
Paranormal/fantasy
Anchor of Secrets by Tessa Hale
Sports Romance
Watch Your Mouth by Kandi Steiner
Romantic Comedy
Mr. Big Shot by R.S. Grey
Accidental Pregnancy Romance
Game Changer by Stacey Lynn
Older Brother’s Best Friend
Tell Me What You Want by Lucia Franco
A Holiday Romance
Falling for the Grinch by Amy Alves
Forbidden Romance
I Wish I Would’ve Chosen You by Whitney G.
Billionaire Romance
The Playboy by Marni Mann
Jilted bride
Advice From a Jilted Bride by Piper Rayne
Workplace Romance
Filthy Lawyer by Whitney G.
Fake relationship
Reputation by Jenna Hartley
Marriage of Convenience
Irresistibly Dangerous by J. Saman
Rock Star Romance
Times Like These by Julia Wolf
Dark/Taboo Romance
Five Brothers by Penelope Douglas
Mafia Romance
Lethal Vows by Kia Carrington-Russell & T.L. Smith
Forced Proximity
Black Ties and White Lies by Kat Singleton
Historical Romance
The Outlaw Nobel Salt by Amy Harmon
An Enemies to Lovers Romance
Devious Vows by Jagger Cole
Age Gap Romance
Eleven Eleven by Micalea Smeltzer
Friends to Lovers Romance
Reckless Abandon by Ashley Cade
Diverse Romance
Not By Sight by Kay Lyons
Small Town Romance
Claim Me Forever by AL Jackson
A book where one of the main characters is a First Responder
Caught in the Flames by Kacey Shea
Second Chance Romance
The Edge of Forever by J. Saman
Dystopian/Science Fiction Romance
Homestead by Claire Kent
A Grumpy/Sunshine Romance
More Than I Could by Adrianna Locke
Morally Gray Hero
Reckless Hearts by Jagger Cole
Redemption Romance
Redemption Road by Katie Ashley
Fated Mates Romance
Legacy of Shadows by Tessa Hale
Single Parent Romance
I Wish You Were Mine by Jessica Peterson
Insta-love
Reckless Love by Hannah McBride
Royal Romance
Seducing the Princess by Diane Alberts
A Fighter/MMA Book
Sweet Victory by Gina Maxwell
Bearded Man On Cover
Built to Fall by Julia Wolf
Bad Boy Romance
Brutal Obsession by S. Massery
Gothic Romance
Phantasma by Kaylie Smith
Favorite Trope
Where We Belong by Ashely Munoz
A book everyone is talking about
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
A book chosen for its cover
The Silence of Monsters by Jay Crownover
A book with a one-word title
Blitz by Devney Perry
A book with a setting in a different country than where you live
Through the Glen by Samantha Young
A book with no people on the cover.
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde
A book where one of the main characters is/was in the military
Healing Touch by Brenda Rothert
A Book with Pirates
The Ever King by LJ Andrews
A Book with a number in the title
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
A Debut Novel
Everything We Never Said by Sloan Halow
A Book that won an award
Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison
A book with less than 1000 ratings on Goodreads
Striking Distance by LK Shaw
4 Books on my TBR
Vacancy by Linda Kage I Wish We Had Forever by Jessica Peterson Foretold by Chantel Fernando Little Dove by Layla Frost
4 New Releases
Sweet Collide by Ava Harrison A Vengeful Occasion by Kristy Marie Pulse by Adirana Locke I Thought of You by Jewel E. Ann
Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing after college and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Fallen Crest series, Ryan’s Bed, Enemies and others. She is currently writing many new books and series with an English Cocker she adores.
From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes the third book in the Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, a taut tale of renegade justice with a heart-stopping finale.
Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.
Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.
Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice—and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.
Detective Harriet Foster moved fast through the CPD cop lot at Eighteenth and State, her eyes shielded by a squint against a light sleet, focused on the door of the station. Cold, wet ice pellets pinged against her face in a mildly unpleasant way, like a barrage of tiny needles. Late February was holding on with a tight grip, winter refusing to even think about ceding an inch to the coming spring. The lucky ones were asleep in their beds on this cold winter’s morning, the devout, up and preparing for church, but Harri was here ahead of her shift, and it didn’t matter to her overmuch whether it was Sunday or Tuesday, midnight or noon, Christmas or Groundhog Day.
Cold day. Gray. Chicago. Maybe nobody would kill anyone today, she thought. It was a common wish, not a prayer, one rarely granted.
A car horn sounded aggressively. Startled, Harri reeled, lowering her bag to the slush, her right hand going for the zipper on her jacket, ready to open her coat to get to the gun at her hip.
Her eyes scanned the cars in the lot, looking for the threat, then landing on an idling black Subaru Outback with its headlights on. Recognizing the car, she breathed a sigh of relief, and her hand moved away from the zipper, and she picked up her bag.
The car belonged to her boss, Sergeant Sharon Griffin. Through the side window, she could see her sitting in the driver’s seat. Harri waved to the blond enforcer, expecting a simple wave of acknowledgment back. Instead, the passenger window rolled down and Griffin beckoned her over with the come-hither of a manicured index finger.
“The heat out in your office?” Harri asked when she met the Outback. There was strange music coming out of Griffin’s speakers, like the sound of cats drowning in a whirlpool and then somebody beating their dead carcasses against a drum. The chords were loud, discordant, discombobulating.
Griffin clicked the door locks free. “Get in.”
Harri stared at the radio. “What is that?”
“It’s a radio.”
She slid Griffin a look. “On the radio.”
“Are you serious? That’s ‘Drowsy Maggie,’” Griffin replied, as if that was all she needed to say. “You’re telling me you don’t know the Chieftains?”
Harri shook her head, lost. She figured it was some Irish thing, since nobody was more Irish than Griffin. The boss’s office was filled with kelly green hats and banners and shamrock decals. Even the knobby shillelagh leaning against the wall behind her desk had green ribbons tied to it. Sergeant Sharon Griffin lived Saint Patrick’s Day all three hundred and sixty-five.
Harri shook her head. “Must have missed them. Is there news from Internal Affairs?”
Harri had been waiting weeks to hear if the department would investigate the calls and photos she’d received from the anonymous voice that appeared to implicate her former partner, Detective Glynnis Thompson, in wrongdoing, and explain her putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.
The images were seared into Harri’s brain—G accepting an envelope from an unknown man in an unknown place—but Harri would never believe that G had been dirty. She was good police, family, and Harri would go to her grave fighting to prove it.
Griffin punched the radio off, and then turned in her seat to face Harri, fixing her with those icy-blue eyes. All cop now, the Chieftains and “Drowsy Maggie” put away for another time.
“I wanted to catch you before you went in. We need to talk.” Even her voice was different—lower in tone, as far from casual and easygoing as either could get. Griffin reached into her console and drew out folded pages, then handed them to Harri. “Internal Affairs’ report.”
Harri’s eyes widened. “Report? You’re kidding. It’s only been a couple weeks. They couldn’t possibly have done a full investigation that fast.”
Harri took the report. There were only two pages stapled together at the top left. She read every word, greedy eyes moving left to right. Griffin sat quietly, watching her do it.
“They didn’t do a damned thing.” She flipped over to page two. “My meeting with Sutton isn’t even on here. I told them everything.” Harri turned the page back over, hoping she’d missed something, anything, on page one, though she knew full well she hadn’t. She fixed angry eyes on Griffin.
“You had me hold off for IAD. The right channels, you said.” She held up the report. “This is time wasted. Explain this to me.”
Before Griffin could respond, Harri began again. “He delivered those photos to her house, to her husband. Her kids could have seen them. I turned over burner numbers. Times, dates of the calls. He came to my house. None of that’s even in here. Those photos could have been faked. They could have picked up a trail from one of those numbers. I told them I thought he was one of us. That would make him the dirty cop, not G.”
“I know you’re angry,” Griffin said. “You want answers. To do right by your partner. They’re not thinking about that. You read it. You read between the lines too.” She slid Harri a look, her gaze steady, softening as her voice shifted from official to unofficial. “And just between you and me, coming straight from Riven, whose eyebrows I likely singed off when he delivered that crock of shit to me late yesterday—because Detective Thompson took her own life, which reflects badly on the department, it’s in the department’s best interest to not stir up any dirt. Half the people in this city think every cop’s on the take, so IAD’s not going to give the press any red meat on a possible dirty cop who killed herself. That’s the plain truth.”
Harri glared at her. “I knew her, you didn’t. There’s more to this. G was good police.”
Griffin nodded. “I believe you. But they’ve decided to let her rest.” She glanced down at the report in Harri’s hand. “And there’ll be nothing more than that for the record.”
Harri sat stunned for a moment, then hurriedly stuffed the report in her pocket, disgusted by what was in it and livid about what wasn’t.
“And about him asking me to lose evidence on an Elan Dreyer?”
The voice thought he’d locked her into an arrangement, one he claimed he’d had with G. She’d be a cop on the inside, feeding him information, dishonoring her badge, putting lives at risk. He would be the puppet master pulling her strings, running her. The thought of it made Harri sick.
“Dreyer’s a low-level dealer,” Griffin said. “You found that out yourself. He’s a small fish not worth the DA’s time. My feeling? This guy threw out Dreyer as a test. To see if you’d bite. We both know that was never going to happen. Which proves that he doesn’t know you, only knows of you.”
They sat in silence for a moment.
“Any new contact?” Griffin asked.
“Nothing.”
“And it’s been weeks. Maybe he’s moved on.”
Harri sat back in the seat. “He hasn’t. I can feel it. And he knows what happened with G.”
She stared out the window at the gray and the sleet, her mood matching.
“Speaking for the department, you’re to drop this, let it go,” Griffin said. “Unless he makes a more overt threat or action.”
“Because she’s dead, she gets swept under the rug. For politics.”
“You’re to stand down, Detective Foster. Is that understood?”
The official tone was back in Griffin’s voice. The boss had just given her an order, duly sanctioned by the department, an order that drew an imaginary line separating her life on the job and one she would be forced to live off it.
For a moment Harri considered what letting the voice go would mean, how it would feel to just do nothing because it was expedient, easiest. She would never know what led to G’s death. Harri would never know what she’d missed or failed to do. And the voice would get away with causing pain to G’s family, to her, for sport. Griffin’s order felt like a razor blade raking across her skin. How could she stand down?
Harri reached for the door.
“Harri?”
Her fingers gripped the handle. She couldn’t look at Griffin. “Her kids shouldn’t have to live with the question mark.”
“Her kids. Or you? At least allow for the possibility that you could be wrong. That knowing might be worse than not knowing.”
“Believe me, nothing’s worse than not knowing.”
Griffin stared out of the foggy windshield and let out a defeated sigh. “That’s it then. One word of advice? Don’t go so far that you tie my hands.”
Harri pushed open the passenger door and got out, holding on to it for a moment.
“Nothing wrong with finding yourself some peace,” Griffin said.
“Is that what you’d do?”
Griffin nodded. “I’d sure as hell try. I really would.” She let a moment go, then added another on to it. “But, no, that probably wouldn’t be what I’d do.”
“See you inside, boss.”
Harri slammed the door and turned for the building. Glynnis had given her all to the job, and the department wasn’t going to lift a finger for her now. Dead and gone. Out of sight, out of mind. Cop suicides made the department look bad, and the attention was unwanted at the top. Easier to let the losses quietly slip away, mark them as personal failures, as though the job’s human toll was something shameful and catching.
She stopped midway through the lot, needing to get herself centered before she went in. “I know I’m right.”
Harri leaned into the sleet and raced the last few yards, feeling as though with every step her body was turning from muscle, tendon, and bone to steel and bolts and wire—heavy, hard, invulnerable—for G, for Mike, for their kids, and for her.
She’d missed something with G. A signal. A cry for help. A chance to intervene. It was the guilt she fought with now. That was what she buried deep, along with the loss. She wanted G back, whole, and alive. She wanted whatever forced her into despair to pay for what it did. She wanted justice. If she could get it for others, and she did every day she clipped her star to her belt, why couldn’t she have it for herself?
Steel, not bone, she pushed inside the building of cops to find blue shirts, white shirts, and plainclothes compatriots moving about inside. Orderly chaos. Despite the highly charged atmosphere, the guns, the badges, the law, the politics, the often soul-searing waste that kept it all going, she couldn’t imagine what she’d do if she couldn’t do this. But Glynnis had been her partner, her friend. She felt an obligation to stand for her.
“Find some peace,” she muttered as she wove her way through the lobby. Who had peace? Nobody, really. She didn’t need peace, she decided; she needed the truth.
About the Author
Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned PaI Cassandra Raines. Her debut, BROKEN PLACES, made Library Journal’s list of the Best Crime Fiction of 2018 and CrimeReads named Cass Raines Best New PI of 2018. The novel was nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel, an Anthony Award for Best Debut Novel and a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. Her second Raines novel, BORROWED TIME, was a finalist for the 2020 Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel and won the 2020 G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Book three in the Raines series, WHAT YOU DON’T SEE, was also short-listed for the 2021 Left Award for Best Mystery novel. Book four, RUNNER, releases June 29, 2021. Tracy, a proud member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, is a lifelong South-Sider and roots for every Chicago team with equal enthusiasm. She is currently busy writing her next book.
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