DEAD AND GONE

4 stars out of 5

There's certainly no shortage of crimes to investigate in this, the third book featuring Chicago police detective Annalisa Vega. Nor is there a lack of trauma in her personal life; overlap, then, is to be expected - and needless to say, it happens, whether it be with former husband and police partner Nick Carelli, her beloved niece Quinn or her semi-estranged family.

The action begins with the death of Sam Tran, a former Chicago police officer turned private eye. On his chest is a handwritten message that suggests his death wasn't an accident, so Annalisa's instincts kick in, making her suspect his killer is associated with one of the cases he was investigating.

She then learns that her brother Vinny has a stake in one of those cases - he hired Sam to track down whoever's been stalking female students at his daughter Quinn's college. Meantime, readers see the story from Quinn's perspective, which is, shall we say, a bit different. Also meantime, Nick and Annalisa have been trying to identify, and capture, a thief known as the Chicken Bandit (you can probably guess why, but you'll have to read the book to find out if you're right).

Speaking of guessing correctly, fairly early on I thought I'd nailed the campus stalker - an obvious culprit in my eyes - but turns out I wasn't even close. But with or without my obviously wrong insights, everything works out in the end, though not necessarily smoothly; there's at least one other murder, and a couple of other characters narrowly escape the same fate. The ending brings a major new development - maybe two or three - that I assume will carry over to future installments. Actually, there's another biggie that happens early on that affects Annalisa and Nick's newfound (re-found??) relationship, albeit not nearly as much as I expected it would. 

All things considered, I enjoyed this one - I remain a big fan of both Annalisa and Nick - so I'm more than ready for the next. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to once again read and review a pre-release copy of this one. 

Dead and Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen (Minotaur Books, August 2023); 332 pp.