Calumnet City
""... a tormented heroine with a backbone that would put many tough-guys to shame whilst retaining the ability to tug mercilessly on your heartstrings." "
Synopsis:
Patti Black is Chicago's most decorated cop. However, she finds herself caught up in a dark tale of murder and treachery where her past comes back to haunt her with a vengeance. A series of unrelated cases threaten to pull her life apart as she investigates a number of brutal murders.
Patti's life before she became a cop was not one to write home about. A survivor of abuse from her foster parents and rape; while she may have grown up to become an embittered adult she also grew up to be a determined, tough “ghetto cop” who realises that she has to confront her past sooner rather than later.
It is her nemesis that drags her down to that dark alley she had hoped to have left behind and back into the life of her son in order to save both of them.
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Review:
Calumet City is a dark gritty début tale that could under any other circumstances be read as a true crime novel. From the outset the reader is drawn into the frantic and hectic pace of this bleak Chicago cityscape that has in its clutches stories that will make you weep and violence and corruption that immediately makes you think of a classic noir tale. Patti may be based on a real-life cop but she is also a tormented heroine with a backbone that would put many tough-guys to shame whilst retaining the ability to tug mercilessly on your heartstrings. As she tries to maintain that stoic exterior it is her sarcasm and anti-authoritarian attitude that pulls her through. Black has baggage by the ton, some of which she is still trying to deal with. Charlie Newton has written an outstanding début police procedural that is incredibly hard to put down and not solely due to its main character. It is a combination of the bleakness, his excellent descriptions of Chicago - warts and all - and that tiny but persistent nagging thought that is constantly in the back of your mind as to Black's total innocence in all that is going on. If you want pace, especially gradual pace then forget it. In Calumet City you will get pace in large doses. Non-stop, unrelenting action that is like a whirlwind. It's an adrenalin rush which Calumet City certainly provides. Blood, guts and lots of atmosphere is what makes this début novel stand out.