Hard Bargain

by Barbara D'Amato

Overview

She's an ace reporter. An amateur sleuth. And she's always clued in. But now Cat Marsala is faced with her toughest case, one that could put a friend's job-and life-on the line. A domestic-violence call turns into a case of murder-of one cop by another. The alleged killer is an officer in the unit of Cat's friend, Chief McCoo, and now his reputation is on the line. Department leaks begin to destroy his career-and dangerous incidents around the station soon follow. Now Cat must sift through the conspiracy to clear McCoo's name-before the unknown traitor resorts to murder...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628152319
Publisher:	Speaking Volumes, LLC
Publication date:	11/13/2015
Series:	A Cat Marsala Mystery
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Barbara D'Amato was the 1999-2000 president of Mystery Writers of America. D'Amato is also a past president of Sisters in Crime International. She writes a mystery series starring Chicago freelance investigative reporter Cat Marsala, a series starring Chicago patrol cops Suze Figueroa and Norm Bennis, and standalone novels.

D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedy The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with husband Anthony D'Amato, played in Chicago and London. Their Prohibition-era musical comedy RSVP Broadway, which played in Chicago in 1980, was named an "event of particular interest" by Chicago magazine.

A native of Michigan, she has been a resident of Chicago for many years. D'Amato has been a columnist for the Sisters in Crime newsletter and Mystery Scene magazine. She has worked as an assistant surgical orderly, carpenter for stage magic illusions, assistant tiger handler, stage manager, researcher for attorneys in criminal cases, and she occasionally teaches mystery writing to Chicago police officers.

Editorial Reviews

Investigative reporter Cat Marsala has a love-hate relationship with the top cops in the scandal-plagued Chicago police department, but as this speedy and intriguing mystery graphically illustrates, she's more than a match for them. Local newspapers are having a field day with the high-profile case of Shelly Daniello, a female police officer who killed an abusive husband as he was stabbing his wife. But the wife was Shelly's sister, and the husband was a much-respected police officer. Cat's longtime friend, the African American chief of detectives Harold McCoo, is heading the investigation and asks for her aid as he faces harsh charges of a coverup. Is there more spousal abuse by police officers? Did Shelly kill for revenge? Has evidence been planted? This is an election year, and politics dominate not only the mayoral race but also the police department, and McCoo fears he is about to be discredited and ousted in a power play. Cat, relentless and shrewd, conducts a spate of interviews with the top brass: the first deputy, second only to the superintendent, is a "glad-handing loudmouth"; another top cop inspires in Cat unprintable comments. After discovering that leaks to the press are coming from McCoo's own office, Cat finds herself in grave danger. With its distinctly Chicago atmosphere (gritty but livable) this tale, the seventh in D'Amato's series (after Hardball), is edgy, surprising and spiced with rich characterizations. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A domestic violence call that leaves an abusive husband, an off-duty Chicago police officer, shot dead by his wife's sister, a uniformed cop who responded to the call, turns even uglier when some telltale discrepancies (just how far from Ben Jurack was she standing when she shot him? exactly when did four-year-old Belinda come into the room to see her father getting killed? and how did Jurack get that bruise on his head?) make Officer Shelly Daniello's story look suspicious. But the story wouldn't have hooked investigative reporter Cat Marsala (Hard Christmas, 1995, etc.) if it hadn't been used to smear Cat's old friend—Daniello's boss, chief of detectives Harold McCoo—a fact that raises even more urgent questions. Which of the four deputy police superintendents competing with McCoo for the chance to step into the despised superintendent's shoes after a mayoral election would've planted such a damaging story about one of his rivals? And which of McCoo's trusted office staff passed to the unscrupulous rival the in-house reports that turned up in the papers? Cat's way of gathering information is to interview each of the four candidates for a series of profiles in Chicago Today, but before she can get past their secretaries the case is blown wide open by a letter bomb.

Cat's seventh features enough problems for a month of Mondays—but D'Amato's expert dovetailing and eye for human drama make it a lot more exciting.

Kirkus Reviews