Dead and gone

In Long Gone (2022), Chicago PD detectives Annalisa Vega and Nick Carelli (also her ex-husband) caught the Lovelorn Killer, and also arrested Vega's father and brother for their roles in a cold case. Now, she is being tapped to solve the murder of her captain's first patrol partner, Sam Tran. Tran's killer scrawled the word PIG on his chest, leading Annalisa to believe that his investigations, now in the private sector, led to his death. Tran was working three cases: a mother's long-cold disappearance, the double murder of a trysting couple, and the stalking of Annalisa's niece, Quinn. All three investigations yield leads, but instinct draws Annalisa toward Quinn's stalking case as the likely source of a motive. While Annalisa tangles with secretive witnesses, Quinn's stalker escalates to kidnapping and murder. Threads of secrets and family loyalty tie these mysteries together as Annalisa navigates a promising career twist and the next steps in her rekindled romance with Carelli. Schaffhausen offers airtight plotting and thoughtful character development here; a must-read series for procedural fans.

Det. Annalisa Vega launches still another attempt to redeem her family's name in the annals of the Chicago Police Department by investigating the death of an ex-cop who was her boss's old friend. Now that Sam Tran, who left the CPD years ago to set up his own private agency, has been found hanging from a tree in Rosehill Cemetery, his old workmate Lynn Zimmer asks Annalisa to help bring closure to his ex-wife, Lara, and their 13-year-old son, Benji, by figuring out who strung him up. Annalisa, who was determined to follow in the footsteps of her father until he turned out to be such a dirty cop that she ratted him out, figures her best leads are in Sam's open case files. Nina Osteen had asked him to find her mother, Charlotte, who's been missing since New Year's Eve 1989. Brad Morrison hired him to track down the Queen of Hearts killer who bashed Brad's wife, Kathy, and her lover, Stephen Powell, to death during a motel tryst 22 years ago. And Vincent Vega, Annalisa's own brother, wanted Sam to protect his daughter, Quinn, from the anonymous stalker who's been spotted on her college campus dressed in a gorilla suit. Each of these three doors opens onto a labyrinth of its own, and Annalisa, who crosses paths along the way with a fourth perp, the Chicken Bandit who's been holding up local convenience stores, will have to explore them all in pitiless detail, exposing herself and several more innocent characters to danger and death, before she's finally able to tell Lara Tran who killed her husband. As grueling and ultimately exhausting as pulling your own week of double shifts on the Chicago force. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.