Even when Tracy Clark’s Hide first came out in January, I said it won’t get the attention it deserves because it was released so soon after the new year. Fortunately, for all of us, Kevin Tipple sent a review. If you missed Hide the first time around in January, you have a chance to learn about it now. As always, Kevin writes an excellent review, with no spoilers. Thank you, Kevin.

HIDE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller by Tracy Clark is the first book in a new police procedural series. It introduces a wide-ranging cast of characters and establishes a ground floor for what one can expect going forward. The solidly good book revolves around Detective Harriet Foster who has been through quite a lot in the last few months and years.

A black woman in a heavily male dominated environment, she brings a lot of baggage to her new posting in Chicago. Others have expectations who she is and those expectations may or may not be accurate.   Word of what happened just a few weeks ago has made it to her new boss and colleagues at CPD’s District One. Her new partner, Jim Lonergan, appears to be your classic old school, non-politically correct cop straight out of Hollywood casting. Like the old rickety desk she is assigned, he is not fixable, so the two clash almost from the second they lay eyes on each other. Things are wrong from almost the get go, but that does not matter as they have a body this Monday morning.

It is also going to be a very high-profile case as the body was dumped on the Riverwalk. Part of the nearby legendary, Magnificent Mile, the body has a lot of witnesses. Many of those same witnesses have thoughts about how quickly police responded to the scene as Lonergan and Foster arrive to work the case. The murder and subsequent dumping of the body in a very public place means the pressure is on from all sides to solve the case.

It also won’t be the last body with the same signature style.

What follows is a complex and very enjoyable read. Marketed as a thriller, it comes across to this reader as a police procedural. Regardless of the marketing label, Foster, as well as nearly everyone in the read, are complex. The focus is on Foster, but the secondary characters get extensive details about themselves as well. None of the characters are simple as even Jim Lonergan is a bit more complex than it first appears.

Then there is the complexity of the case as the read shifts to follow other characters besides Harriet Foster. Plenty of action, misdirection, and a hunt for a killer drive HIDE: A Detective Harriet Foster Thriller forward at a steady pace. The very good read is well worth your time.

The second book in the series, Fall, is currently scheduled to come out on December 5^th.

My paperback reading copy came from the Park Forest Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023