GONE IN THE NIGHT

4 stars out of 5

Chicago private detective Annalisa Vega is almost an old friend by now - this is the fifth book in the series, and I've read all the others. This time out, she has a little extra to deal with: the impending birth of a new baby with her husband, police detective Nick Carelli (who she married for the second time after the first time didn't "take." She's left the police force (and working with him), but given her talent for police work and the sheer boredom of not having many clients, keeping her nose to herself is proving a bit difficult.

Although I enjoyed this one as I always have, I did have a bit of trouble keeping all the characters in this one straight - partly because it seemed as if half of them aren't who they claim to be. It makes for a complex plot for which I give props to the author, but it also meant a fair amount of flipping back to prior pages to make sure I knew who was who.

The story begins as Annalisa's brother Alex, who's in jail for murder (Annalisa played a major role in putting him there, albeit reluctantly), calls and asks her to visit. She does, but it turns out he doesn't want her help for himself, but rather for another inmate named Joe Green. The man, Alex insists, is innocent of the murder of his ex-wife's lawyer for which he was convicted.

Annalisa is skeptical, of course, but a letter from an unknown person suggests that the witness whose testimony sealed Green's fate was lying. Curious, Annalisa does a bit of digging and learns that the witness did lie about at least one crucial detail. But she also learns something even more potentially devastating: her husband was Green's arresting officer. That, in turn, exacerbates tension between the two as Nick sometimes considers his wife's no-holds-barred approach to solving crimes as an attempt to upstage him.

But of course, Annalisa forges ahead, and Nick - to his credit - for the most part realizes she's simply trying to figure out what really happened, not cut his legs from under him. As her investigation digs deeper, more murders make her even more sure sure that Green is innocent - at least of the crime for which he was convicted - and Nick concurs. It's not an easy investigation and it ends up putting Nick's life in danger, but that makes it even more of an adventure for readers. Definitely worth checking out - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to go along for the ride by way of a pre-release copy.

Gone in the Night by Joanna Schaffhausen (Minotaur Books, August 2025); 320 pp.