While you could actually read Tracy Clark’s latest Chicago mystery, Runner, without having read the previous three books, you can meet her PI, Cass Raines, and Cass’ found family if you start with the first book, Broken Places. However, Runner is the most intimate of the books, the one that allows readers to know Cass the best because of comments from those people who are closest to her. And, anyone who reads this book will witness Cass’ uncertainty when someone points out her determination. That’s not exactly what they call it.

Cass Raines is a Black PI in Chicago. When it doesn’t appear that the police are listening, Leesa Evans turns to Cass. Leesa’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Ramona, is missing. She’s been in the system for five years. Leesa isn’t proud of it because she was caught up in the drug life, and lost custody of Ramona. Ramona has been living in a foster home run by Delores Poole, but she ran away nine days earlier. When Cass asks questions, a cop, Detective Hogan insists he’s looking for Ramona. He was in the system, too, and he ran away himself. He even assures her a retired cop, Frank Martini, is looking for her.

But, it’s winter in Chicago, and something just doesn’t seem right to Cass. Why would a teen run from a foster home that seems good? Ronald Short, Ramona’s case manager, insists Poole is a good foster mother. But, Raines isn’t happy that he spoke of Ramona and another girl in the past tense. Cass doesn’t know if there’s anything she can do that the cops haven’t done. But, they’re not as determined as she is.

Cass understands what it feels like to be abandoned. Her father left her with her grandparents the day of her mother’s funeral. She’s built a family for herself including a nun and an ex-con she’s known since childhood. There’s the custodian of her building, and a safe refuge at a diner where she’s comfortable with the waitress. Although the story of a teen runaway can be grim, there are humorous moments, such as Cass’ discomfort when her waitress is not at the diner. She knows she’s a creature of habit.

Cass Raines knows she has issues. She questions why she does things like this to herself, worrying about a pickpocket klepto, a missing ex-con, a runaway teenager. Cass cares. Do the cops really care about another runaway Black teenager whose mother was an addict? Two nuns, including her friend, Barb, seem to understand her, but it bothers Cass to hear Sister Marian tell her she’s “A control freak of the highest order.” It’s even worse when Sister Marian is mad at her. “You’re an obsinate woman. Bullheaded, singularly unwavering in your tenacity…and foolhardiness.” Her friend, Sister Barb, agrees. “You are stupidly tenacious.”

If Cass Raines wasn’t so tenacious and foolhardy, she wouldn’t chase down a gang of street kids led by a teen named Scoot. She wouldn’t stand her ground when facing the kids who have weapons and a dog. And, she wouldn’t care so much about feeding every one of those street kids, wouldn’t care enough to not bring a weapon when meeting with them.

Runner is a well-written, intriguing mystery. Where is Ramona? Why did she run, and who did she run from? Cass wants to find her, and keep her safe. But, there’s a powerful message here, told with anger and some humor. Who is going to keep all those street kids safe? Why are any of them out there, victims to all kinds of predators? It takes someone with Cass Raines’ background, her tenacity, to fight for homeless and forgotten teens. Runner is a story to be taken to heart and remembered.

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

Runner by Tracy Clark. Kensington, 2021. ISBN 9781496732019 (hardcover), 298p.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent a copy of the book, with no promise I’d review it.