by Mark Smith
First published 2007
Arnold Magnuson stares at another crime scene, another victim of the killer who calls himself The Deathmaker. The Chicago detective carries his own grief like a weight that threatens to crush him. His mind frays at the edges as he follows the trail deeper into the city's underbelly. Each clue leads him through neighborhoods where corruption festers and violence simmers just below the surface. Magnuson's investigation becomes more than a hunt for a murderer. He searches for something within himself that he fears he has already lost. The city reveals its true face as he moves through its streets, a place where brutality and sorrow intertwine. The detective's pursuit of The Deathmaker forces him to confront not just a killer, but the darkness that lives in Chicago's heart and in his own.
Genres: mystery, crime, detective, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: dark-protagonist, detective-story, psychological-drama
Setting: Chicago
Period: contemporary
608 pages · Paperback · Northwestern University Press
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder