Calumet City    by Charlie Newton Order:  USA  Can Touchstone, 2008 (2008) Softcover     Reviewed by Tim Davis Travel to the tough streets of Chicago, and ride along with Patti Black, a seventeen year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. A 'bit overweight' and a woman with issues according to her supervisor and mentor, Patti - to hear her tell it - is a 'little white workin' girl' whose tough, haunted, and guarded past affects every moment of her life. She admits that 'Miller-time became somewhat extended' for quite a few years when she was younger, but now the rugby-playing ghetto cop is taking one day at a time and trying to make a difference on her beat in District 6, which most of the time is 'not a good place to be.' Patti finds herself either directly or indirectly involved in several different cases when the non-stop, pulse-pounding action begins in Calumet City: the mayor of Chicago survives an assassination attempt, but rumors suggest that a black alderman with political ambitions and the notorious Louis Farrakhan may have had some involvement in planning the attempt; during a police raid on gangs implicated in drugs and stolen property, a body of a woman is discovered hidden in the basement wall; and an assistant state attorney is kidnapped and subsequently murdered. Facing pressures from her supervisor, mentor, and friend; from the superintendent of police and Internal Affairs division; and from the FBI, Patti is quickly drawn into a maelstrom of sordid perversions, dark secrets, and grotesque murders - but more importantly and more dangerously, Patti will be forced to finally confront her past (especially her gut-wrenching childhood experiences in a foster home in nearby Calumet City) which she thought she had successfully hidden from everyone, including herself. Violent, suspenseful, and edgy, Calumet City succeeds simultaneously as tough-as-titanium noir crime novel, intriguing character study, and top-notch thriller. Unafraid of provocative issues and wonderfully adept at plotting and pacing, debut novelist Charlie Newton has produced a winner in vulnerable tough-gal Patti Black and Calumet City, which ought to be rated 'R' for raw and remarkable. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews