February 14th, 2025
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Love, Secrets, and Second Chances—February’s Must-Read Books Await!

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A Stray Pup, A Second Chance, and a Killer on the Loose�Wagtail�s About to Get Wild!


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A Hacker, an Undercover Mission, and a Love Worth Fighting For.


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A Duke by any other name would smell as� dastardly?
Roguish?
Rakish?
� delightful?


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Shaken, Stirred, and Unexpectedly in Love�Can They Mix Business with Pleasure?


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As London's high society watches their every move, can these two brilliant minds find the formula for true love?


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Chocolate, Second Chances, and a Love Too Sweet to Let Go.


Echo

Echo, December 2024
Harriet Foster #3
by Tracy Clark

Thomas & Mercer
Featuring: Harriet “Harri” Foster
ISBN: 1662517327
EAN: 9781662517327
Kindle: B0CM7YTCWD
Trade Paperback / e-Book
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"Revenge is served icy cold in a Chicago winter"

Fresh Fiction Review

Echo
Tracy Clark

Reviewed by Clare O'Beara
Posted December 14, 2024

Mystery Police Procedural | Thriller Police Procedural

Detective Harriet Foster of the Chicago Police Department appears in her third edgy crime story, ECHO. This is a book with undercurrents from not one but two separate deaths on a college campus, and the span of thirty years between them provides the echo in the title.

 

Belverton College has a long history of sponsorship by past students and a house where the current generation of wealthy sons lives while taking classes is called Hardwicke House. A rowdy student party goes wrong, and Brice Collier is found dead lying in the nearby field the next morning. His businessman father is in Zurich, and can’t come back immediately, but sends a retainer to talk to the detectives. The odd part is that a student’s death from alcohol and bullying thirty years ago happened in the same field. The police decide there must be a connection.

 

Harriet, or Harri, Foster, and her partner, Detective Vera Li, quickly suspect that they are being lied to, and nobody at all wants them to re-open what was called a tragic accident at the time. Could the current death be in the way of revenge? Brice Collier was twenty, but having money and drinking underage doesn’t seem enough reason to kill him.

 

Another nod to the title is when Harri tries to resolve a different cold case, this one a recent death of a female detective. The two issues run parallel throughout the story. I gather Harri’s colleague died in a previous book, but as I hadn’t read that one, I at first found this less involving. Later it becomes more urgent. 

 

Chicago is icy cold, with sleet and snow or a bitter wind. There isn’t much in the way of scenery as we tend to drive around the practical side of town. Harri is constantly being told to come in out of the cold or to shut the door. Even so, she spends an unreasonable amount of time in graveyards. She also behaves really oddly after receiving a threat, in not telling anyone. Her friends on the force are better friends than she knew.

 

Tracy Clark has previously written about an African-American PI, and her Detective Harriet Foster crime series is gritty and thoughtful. If I had read the earlier books no doubt I would have been pleased to conclude the second thread, but mainly I was here for the student's death. The loose ends get tied up in dramatic fashion, and the Chicago PD can wear a badge with pride. I can recommend ECHO to fans of police procedurals, and I’m pleased to make Harri and Vera’s acquaintance.

Learn more about Echo

SUMMARY

From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes the third book in the Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, a taut tale of renegade justice with a heart-stopping finale.

Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.

Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.

Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice—and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.


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