Tracy, would you introduce yourself to the readers?

Hi, readers! I’m Tracy Clark, mystery writer, native
Chicagoan, currently sweating the release of “BROKEN PLACES, a Chicago
mystery,” my debut novel, the first in a series featuring Cass Raines, former CPD
detective turned PI. When not working or writing, or thinking about writing or
trying to convince myself I really should be writing, I’m out and about. I love
Broadway musicals, old Hepburn and Tracy films, game nights with friends, binge-watching Netflix, and
a well-brewed cup of tea … and ginger snaps. I love ginger snaps. Jeez, I sound
like I’m a 100 years old. I’m not. Pinky swear.

Tell us about Cass Raines.

Cassandra Raines is African-American, 34, lanky,
no-nonsense, and absolutely dogged in her determination to fight for truth and
justice. She’s happily single, rabidly independent, and a bit of a wiseass.
That’s what I like most about her. At twelve, she lost her mother to cancer and
her father handed her off to her grandparents. She learned early to rely on her
own strengths, follow her own path, and keep it moving. Her grandparents, gone now, left
Cass their only valuable possession, their South Side three-flat, which she
nurtures and frets over, as though it were a living, breathing thing. The building
is her last tangible connection to the family she’s lost. Luckily, her close
circle of steadfast friends has become her new family, and Cass will do
anything to protect it. In Broken Places we meet Detective Cass Raines of the
Chicago Police Department on the worst day of her life. She’s been shot and
lies dying on a rooftop, having killed a young gangbanger in order to save her partner’s life. This event, this nightmare, the weight
of the guilt she carries afterward, jumpstarts the story and will resonate
throughout the series.

Tell us about Broken Places without spoilers. 

A few years out from the rooftop, the scar of the
gangbanger’s bullet still visible on her chest, Cass has turned in her badge
and has settled in as a PI, taking only work that interests her. Father Ray
Heaton, her mentor and father figure, whom she calls “Pop,” comes to her and
asks for help in finding the person vandalizing his church and rectory. Though
Pop tells her it’s likely just kids breaking windows and turning over garbage carts, Cass suspects he’s holding
something back, something far more serious. Cass is proved right when she finds
Pop dead inside his confessional, the body of an unknown Hispanic boy lying in
a pool of blood on the altar steps. The police too quickly conclude that the
deaths are the result of a burglary gone wrong; that the would-be burglar and the
priest struggled for the banger’s gun, the boy was shot, and the priest,
consumed by remorse, took his own life as penance. But Cass knows differently,
because she knew Pop, and a simple vandalism case suddenly gives way to an
all-out pursuit to clear Pop’s name and find the person responsible for his
death.

Can you tell us anything about Cass Raines’ next case?

Book two is entitled “Borrowed Time.” (Or it is now. The
title may change.) A couple of months have passed since Pop’s murder and Cass
is slowly regaining her equilibrium, though she still finds herself absently
picking up the phone to call Pop before it hits her, again, that he’s well and
truly gone. She’s grieving. As the story opens, her one-woman agency is
experiencing a bit of a dry spell, so she’s handing out summonses on behalf of a law firm. It’s easy, mindless
work, all the work she’s currently up for. That is until she’s asked to look
into the death of Timothy Ayers, the scion of a prominent Chicago family, whose
body is found floating in Lake Michigan, just yards away from his abandoned
yacht. The police peg the case as an unfortunate accident. Tim was drunk, high,
and simply slipped and fell overboard. But Jung Byson, the delivery boy at
Cass’s favorite diner, believes differently. He tells Cass he knows his friend
was murdered and he wants her to prove it. Reluctantly, she signs on, and soon
discovers that there were quite a few people with reason to want Tim Ayers
dead, including his own brother, that there have been other “accidental” deaths
similar to Ayers’, and that her own client has been withholding crucial
information and is wanted by the police. She must now find Jung, put the puzzle
pieces together, and trap a killer … before he kills again.

Let’s talk about Chicago. Why do you think it’s such a
popular setting for mystery and crime fiction?

Chicago is an awesome setting for mystery and crime fiction.
Al Capone, John Dillinger and “Bugs” Moran walked our streets. You can still
see bullet holes in some of the buildings! Not to glorify the nefarious, but
something’s brewing in a town where something like four of the last nine
governors have been hauled off to prison for corruption. If you can’t write a
story of greed, graft and murder and mayhem set in this town, you haven’t got
one in you. The Chicago Way is a thing. It’s a certain swagger, an attitude. It
is one greedy hand washing the other, envelopes filled with payoff money
slipped into a politician’s hands. Breathe deeply enough and you can
practically smell the fear sweat wafting out of City Hall as the Feds reel in
the latest pol caught (on tape, no less) with his or her hand in the till. I’ll
note here that not all of our elected officials are crooked. We undoubtedly
have some very fine, upstanding individuals serving their constituents with
honor and integrity. Chicago is also filled with hardworking, law abiding, salt
of the earth citizens who’ve never stolen a nickel in their entire lives … but,
frankly, they don’t make for good mystery fiction. Writers go for the
underbelly; we laser in on what doesn’t work, not what does, on what stinks to
high heaven, not what smells like roses. Chicago, the land of the stinky onions,
is fiction gold!

If someone comes to visit, where do you take them to show
off Chicago?

I avoid the usual tourist stops, unless they specifically
ask to see them. I venture into the neighborhoods. Chicago, the city of
neighborhoods, has a lot of fascinating spots worthy of a closer look—Pilsen,
Greek Town, Chinatown, Bronzeville, the historic Pullman community. Chicago has
gotten some pretty negative press lately, but our vibrant neighborhoods–each
one distinctive, each one an integral part of the city’s overall
makeup—practically crackle with life, ethnic vibrancy and color. You haven’t
truly experienced Chicago if you haven’t wandered off the beaten path and
gotten down to people level.

In one of my reviews, I said Cass reminds me of Sue
Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone. What authors have inspired you?

Certainly Grafton; she was a master. I’ll miss Kinsey and
her pickle and peanut butter sandwiches. I’ve got a long list of inspirations,
including Marcia Muller, Margaret Maron, Sara Paretsky, Susan Dunlap, Nancy
Pickard, Karen Kijewski, Eleanor Taylor Bland, Barbara Neely, Chester Himes,
Walter Mosley, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, James
Patterson, David Baldacci, many, many, many more. I was also a tremendous fan
of Robert P. Parker’s Spenser and Sunny Randall series. His writing was so
clean, so economical. There are great new writers of color making a mark now, too—Kellye
Garrett, Valerie Burns, Danny Gardner, Delia Pitts, just to name a few. I’m
reading Garrett’s “Hollywood Homicide” right now. It’s awesome.

What’s on your TBR pile right now?

You mean piles? LOL. So many books so little time. At the
moment, there are six books right at the top of pile one. They are “The
Romanovs,” by Simon Sebag Montefiore, which I’m itching to get to; Ann Cleeves’
“Harbor Street,” an old Vera Stanhope entry; “Go Down Together,” by Jeff Guinn,
about Bonnie & Clyde, (there’s something about these two I cannot get
enough of); Lee Child’s “Killing Floor;” “End Game,” by David Baldacci, and “Anything You Say Can and Will
be Used Against You,” by Laurie Lynn Drummond. And don’t even get my started on
what’s waiting for me on my Kindle.

What did you read as a child? What was your favorite book?
Or, if you prefer, who was your favorite character?

My favorites were the Nancy Drew mysteries. When I was
around twelve I got my first Agatha Christie novel. I think she wrote more than
eighty novels, plays and short stories? I’m pretty sure I got through them all.
Christie gave way to Sara Paretsky’s PI heroine V.I. Warshawski, which opened
the door up to Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone, Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Karen
Kijewski’s Kat Colorado, and so many others. My all-time favorite book,
however, the one I read over and over again, is Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
It’s perfect, simply perfect. Scout’s my favorite character.

Name an author or book that you wish had received more
attention.

The late Eleanor Taylor Bland. Her Marti MacAlister series
about an African-American female detective is awesome, a real pleasure to read.
I had the honor of knowing Eleanor. She was a thoughtful, elegant writer.

I’m a librarian so I always end with this question. Tell me
a story about a library or librarian in your life.

I love libraries. I love the smell of books. My first summer
job in high school was in a library. Best job ever, by the way. I was a book
stacker, a fast book stacker. The faster I stacked, the more time I had to read
something in a quiet corner. That summer I went through a George Bernard Shaw
phase. Oh, I still had a Christie novel stuffed in my back pocket, but after
all my books were back where they needed to be, I blazed through “Pygmalion,” “Major Barbara,” “Saint
Joan,” “Man and Superman.” The play’s the thing, right? Again, best job ever.
Just the word library makes me happy. When I got to college the library was
huge. I nearly did that happy dance Snoopy’s known for. A quiet carrell
overlooking the lake quickly became my favorite spot on campus. (Sigh) I wonder
who’s sitting there now.

Thank you, Tracy.