Cop — R.J. Ellory

In Three Days in Chicagoland, his most ambitious effort yet, R.J. Ellory tackles the story of a brutal murder from three radically different angles. It's 1956, and though Chicago's gangland days are long over, it remains a city drenched in violence. Its latest victim is Carole Shaw, a young woman who had no enemies -- except, that is, The Killer who strangled her to death and left her body on her kitchen's cold, linoleum floor.

The Cop is the sequel to The Sister, which tells the story of Carole's short life and tragic death from the perspective of Maryanne Shaw, Carole's grieving sister. The Cop is narrated by a police detective named Robert Maguire, the man who investigates Carole's murder in the hours and days that follow the discovery of her corpse. As he follows every lead and hones in on his suspect, Maguire starts to piece together the story of just what happened on that bloody night. A gritty police procedural that's gripping all the way through its final, dramatic revelations, The Cop is the brilliant second chapter of this remarkable mini-epic.