Tracy Clark’s Cass Raines series won the Sue Grafton Award twice, and was nominated for a number of other awards. Hide, the first Detective Harriet Foster thriller, is even better with a well-developed, broken protagonist struggling to keep her life together one day at time.

Five years ago, Harriet Foster’s son Reggie was gunned down by someone stealing his bike. Her marriage failed, but she continued working as a police detective for the Chicago Police Department. Eight weeks ago, Harriet’s partner in the department shot herself in the parking lot. Harriet never saw it coming, and eight weeks later, she still doesn’t understand what she missed with a woman she worked with daily, with a woman she considered a friend. Foster asked for a transfer to a new team. Even Foster’s new boss, Sergeant Sharon Griffin, admits Jim Lonergan will be a pain as a partner, but Harriet’s stuck.

When a runner finds one body buried under leaves at the Riverwalk, she fears a young man she finds is also dead. But, the woman’s body is just the first in a series for Foster and Lonergan. Peggy Birch is the first redheaded, blue-eyed woman who is the victim of a brutal knifing. While Harriet is interested in Birch’s friends, Lonergan is only interested in the young Black man from the Riverwalk. His parents, lawyers, believe he was only picked up because he was a Black man nearby. Harriet recognizes the same fear for her son in his mother’s eyes that she knew was in hers before Reggie’s murder.

It doesn’t take long for Dr. Mariana Silva, a psychiatrist, to show up at the police department. She’s worried about one of her former patients, Bodie Morgan. He’s prone to mental breakdowns, and he was institutionalized after stalking several women. His twin sister, Amelia, is an artist who keeps her eye on her brother. But, Amelia can’t watch him all the time. He’s a loner who walks at night, a loner with an interest in redheads with blue eyes.

Although Harriet and her partner brush off Silva, they’ll also investigate Bodie to see if he had any connection with the women who are turning up dead. But, Bodie Morgan isn’t the only one with secrets.

Tracy Clark excels in writing a contemporary thriller that pulls no punches for the struggles faced by the police officers or Black professionals. There are anti-police marches in Chicago, and Harriet and Lonergan have to deal with jeering crowds, and their own feelings about the marches. Lonergan is old school, while Harriet admits she can see why activists are protesting police behavior. And, Harriet identifies with another mother who fears she’ll lose her son. Harriet Foster struggles everyday with her own life, but she also wants to find answers for the victims, “for someone’s daughter, sister, friend, lover”.

Clark’s Hide is a riveting thriller, a police procedural that doesn’t hide the ugly side of the job. I did read it in one day, compelled to find out how Harriet Foster would put it all together. The true reason I couldn’t put the book down, though, was Detective Harriet Foster. She’s a realistic character just trying to survive, and trying to help others survive their own tragedies. Clark won awards for her books about PI Cass Raines. Harriet Foster is just as intriguing as a character.

Tracy Clark’s website is https://tracyclarkbooks.com/

Hide by Tracy Clark. Thomas & Mercer, 2023. ISBN 9781542037570 (paperback), 384p.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publicist sent a copy of the book, with no promise of a review.