A private eye investigates whether her husband sent an innocent man to prison

“Gone in the Night” by Joanna Schaffhausen (minotaur)

Joe Green is serving time for killing his ex-wife’s divorce lawyer, but he claims he didn’t do it. Nick Carelli, the Chicago homicide detective who put him away, figures that’s what they all say.

Meanwhile, Annalisa Vega’s business is short on customers. It seems people with problems that need investigating are loathe to hire a private detective who is visibly pregnant.

So when Green reaches out to Annalisa for help, she reluctantly takes his case. Initially, the only thing she has to go on is an anonymous letter sent to Green that claims the eyewitness who testified against him was lying.

“Gone in the Night” is Joanna Schaffhausen’s fifth novel featuring Annalisa, and fans of the series already know that the protagonist’s family life is complicated. Among other things, her brother is in prison, her extended family can’t quite forgive her for putting him there, and she’s trying to make a go of it again with Nick after kicking him to curb for his rampant infidelity. When she suggests that Nick got the Joe Green case wrong, her life gets even more complicated.

While Annalisa tries to figure out who killed the divorce lawyer, Nick investigates a series of new murders in which men are bludgeoned or stabbed and dumped into Lake Michigan.

Their investigations lead both Annalisa and Nick to a women’s shelter where they find the staff secretive and misleading — perhaps because they are fiercely protective of the women they serve or perhaps because they have something to hide.

As the story unfolds at a torrid pace, Annalisa and Nick soon find themselves in danger. Suspense builds, and plot twists abound. While the story is certainly entertaining, the author also has a serious purpose, illustrating how difficult it can be for abused women to find either help or justice. Bruce DeSilva, MDT/AP