What do you think?
Rate this book
Last Known Address
Detective Sloane Pearson is new to the Sex Crimes Division but no stranger to being treated like an incompetent blonde by her hardened male co-workers. She’s also no stranger to hard-to-crack cases, and her latest is as tough as they come: A rapist is on the prowl, dragging women to deserted building sites or vacant apartment buildings peppered all over downtown Chicago, and forcing them to fight---knowing, of course, that he’ll win.
When a real estate agent Sloane knows is attacked by the violent predator, Sloane finds herself taking a case that threatens her secret plans to leave her long-time lover. Her personal bond with the victim and a would-be relationship with a man she interviews along the way lead Sloane down a dangerous path---one that poisons the investigation as well as her personal life.
Sloane’s balancing act topples when her father falls ill. Between coping with his weak heart and following the few weak leads she has, her case begins to go the way that many rape cases go: The victims fall away, one by one, suddenly unsure of what they saw or unwilling to relive the horrifying moments again and again.
When Sloane helps a hungry young Sun-Times reporter declare the case serial, she loses support: Her bosses demand she get a suspect or move on. Sloane stays on the case, though---no matter how much it strains her personal relationships. Even her partner claims she’s in too deep: He doesn’t believe there’s an arrest on the planet worth a cop’s life. Sloane disagrees: Someone’s got to take up the fight.
From the worst slums of Chicago’s west side to the glittering Loop skyscrapers, Sloane finds no shortage of suspects. As she loses everything she’d called home, she can only hope to find the rapist before she also becomes a victim.
When a real estate agent Sloane knows is attacked by the violent predator, Sloane finds herself taking a case that threatens her secret plans to leave her long-time lover. Her personal bond with the victim and a would-be relationship with a man she interviews along the way lead Sloane down a dangerous path---one that poisons the investigation as well as her personal life.
Sloane’s balancing act topples when her father falls ill. Between coping with his weak heart and following the few weak leads she has, her case begins to go the way that many rape cases go: The victims fall away, one by one, suddenly unsure of what they saw or unwilling to relive the horrifying moments again and again.
When Sloane helps a hungry young Sun-Times reporter declare the case serial, she loses support: Her bosses demand she get a suspect or move on. Sloane stays on the case, though---no matter how much it strains her personal relationships. Even her partner claims she’s in too deep: He doesn’t believe there’s an arrest on the planet worth a cop’s life. Sloane disagrees: Someone’s got to take up the fight.
From the worst slums of Chicago’s west side to the glittering Loop skyscrapers, Sloane finds no shortage of suspects. As she loses everything she’d called home, she can only hope to find the rapist before she also becomes a victim.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2009
5 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Theresa Schwegel
12 books54 followersTheresa Schwegel was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is the author of four crime novels set in and around the Chicago area. Her debut, Officer Down, was published in 2005, and subsequently won the Edgar® Award for Best First Novel. In 2008, she received the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation in recognition for an emerging artist with ties to Chicago. Her fifth novel, The Good Boy, is a family epic that combines the hard-boiled grit of her acclaimed police thrillers with the intimate portrait of a young boy trying to follow his heart in an often heartless city. The book will be released November 5th this year.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 11, 2009
Det. Sloan Pearson is new in the Chicago Sex Crimes Unit and has to put up with sexual harassmnet from the members of her department. Says one "I'll bet she got a hot wax." When she was returning late after visiting her father in the hospital.
Since her mother's slow decline and death to cancer, when Sloan was a school girl, it's just been her and her dad. Now she feels useless as her father's weak heart needs care but he seems to have given up and placed himeslf in the hands of a flighty girlfriend.
A rapist is attacking women and hoping they will put up a fight. Sloan goes through the investigation as though she's the rape victim's only advocate.
At various parts of the story we read the thoughts of the victims after they had been attacked. They all seem ashamed and somehow feel guil as if they caused the attack.
Pearson is compulsive and won't give up, even when told to do so by her commander.
Schwegel writes a compelling, if somewhat confusing story. In the chapters where we go into a victim's thoughts, the reader isn't sure who they are reading about.
The setting is well described and if the suxual inuendos that Pearson must put up with are true, I hope that this novel, like those of Frank Norris will cause an industry to be improved, and women's unequality be corrected.
Since her mother's slow decline and death to cancer, when Sloan was a school girl, it's just been her and her dad. Now she feels useless as her father's weak heart needs care but he seems to have given up and placed himeslf in the hands of a flighty girlfriend.
A rapist is attacking women and hoping they will put up a fight. Sloan goes through the investigation as though she's the rape victim's only advocate.
At various parts of the story we read the thoughts of the victims after they had been attacked. They all seem ashamed and somehow feel guil as if they caused the attack.
Pearson is compulsive and won't give up, even when told to do so by her commander.
Schwegel writes a compelling, if somewhat confusing story. In the chapters where we go into a victim's thoughts, the reader isn't sure who they are reading about.
The setting is well described and if the suxual inuendos that Pearson must put up with are true, I hope that this novel, like those of Frank Norris will cause an industry to be improved, and women's unequality be corrected.
May 22, 2018
3.5 Stars because the ending was rather ambiguous. BUT this book is a great read!
Warning: this book may make you want to burn down houses of bad people out of anger.
Warning: this book may make you want to burn down houses of bad people out of anger.
June 9, 2010
2.0 out of 5 stars Lame and uninspired, May 8, 2009
This review is from: Last Known Address (Hardcover)
I recommend you skip this book if you're looking for a good, fast paced read. I struggled to get through the novel and was only mildly interested in its outcome -- forced myself to read the last couple of chapters as I was bored about halfway through.
The characters are stiff and stereotypical -- I neither wanted to get to know them better nor did I like any of them. Detective Pearson was a cardboard cutout of a male cop's fantasy with the ridculous amount of time this author spent having them rib her. The dialogue is juvenile, the plot is thin, and the points of view and narrative voices are very confusing.
In short, this is a ho hum mystery that never quite reaches thriller level. Pass.
This review is from: Last Known Address (Hardcover)
I recommend you skip this book if you're looking for a good, fast paced read. I struggled to get through the novel and was only mildly interested in its outcome -- forced myself to read the last couple of chapters as I was bored about halfway through.
The characters are stiff and stereotypical -- I neither wanted to get to know them better nor did I like any of them. Detective Pearson was a cardboard cutout of a male cop's fantasy with the ridculous amount of time this author spent having them rib her. The dialogue is juvenile, the plot is thin, and the points of view and narrative voices are very confusing.
In short, this is a ho hum mystery that never quite reaches thriller level. Pass.
April 22, 2017
Deteriorating female cop treated badly by coworkers who doesn't think of a lawsuit!?!
Ending is unfulfilling and incomplete. Well narrated.
Ending is unfulfilling and incomplete. Well narrated.
February 3, 2023
If you are in to all of the nuances of a police case, complete with paperwork specifics, confusing cop lingo, a whirlwind of possible suspects, places, and people who may or may not have information about the case peppered around random chapters from victims where the perp is identified yet seems untouchable… then this is the book for you! I could not keep all of the names in this book straight and the victim chapters were written in first person and I think rotated between 2 of the victims (I still don’t know) and the language was trying too hard to be clever to be clear. Would not recommend.
October 19, 2017
Overall this book was okay. But a bit loose on certain part and readers are easy to lost in it. Ending was incomplete.
April 16, 2018
Terrible convoluted book. 2 stars because it at least held my interest. 1 extra star for getting most of the Chicago references right.
May 7, 2018
TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR SEXUAL ASSALT VICTIMS
I was not expecting to like this book this much. But dang! WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! SERIOUSLY?! WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE!
I was not expecting to like this book this much. But dang! WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! SERIOUSLY?! WHY WOULD YOU END IT THERE!
June 12, 2018
An average 'cop' book with characters that were kind of ho-hum and not much action. Some of the writer's phrasing and use of the 'lingo' is confusing and unexplained.
June 18, 2020
Currently on page 58, and skipped half of those. Very confusing. I have no idea what’s going on in this book. Will not bother to read any more. Disappointed. Definitely one for the charity shop.
April 17, 2024
In my opinion, it was to keep track of the characters.
June 26, 2009
Holly Dutcher was out partying with some friends. Holly was walking home when out of nowhere a man attacked her. He drags her to an abandon building and rapes her.
Detective Sloane Pearson works for the Sex Crimes Division. When she arrives at the victim’s residence, she instantly recognizes Holly. Holly is a realtor agent, who showed Sloane some places. The problem is that Sloane doesn’t want Holly to acknowledge that they are familiar with each other. This is because she wants to leave her lover.
When the rapist attacks again, Sloane realizes that the city now has a serial rapist on their hands. Sloane becomes somewhat distracted when her father falls ill. She starts to devote all her attention and energy to him. Will Sloane be able to refocus or will the rapist take another victim?
I enjoy trying out new authors and Theresa Schwegel is no exception. Unfortunately I hated this book. I found the storyline boring and the characters uninteresting. There were many times when I found myself saying…Why do I care. For example…I didn’t really care that Sloane was house hunting because she wanted to leave her lover. This wouldn’t have been a problem but it seemed like the story focused a little more on this than the fact that she had a serious problem on her hands with a rapist. Because of this and that fact that I didn’t care what she did, I found myself just going through the motions of turning the pages and not really being engaged in this book. I usually don’t get this vocal about books but I just couldn’t help it this time.
Detective Sloane Pearson works for the Sex Crimes Division. When she arrives at the victim’s residence, she instantly recognizes Holly. Holly is a realtor agent, who showed Sloane some places. The problem is that Sloane doesn’t want Holly to acknowledge that they are familiar with each other. This is because she wants to leave her lover.
When the rapist attacks again, Sloane realizes that the city now has a serial rapist on their hands. Sloane becomes somewhat distracted when her father falls ill. She starts to devote all her attention and energy to him. Will Sloane be able to refocus or will the rapist take another victim?
I enjoy trying out new authors and Theresa Schwegel is no exception. Unfortunately I hated this book. I found the storyline boring and the characters uninteresting. There were many times when I found myself saying…Why do I care. For example…I didn’t really care that Sloane was house hunting because she wanted to leave her lover. This wouldn’t have been a problem but it seemed like the story focused a little more on this than the fact that she had a serious problem on her hands with a rapist. Because of this and that fact that I didn’t care what she did, I found myself just going through the motions of turning the pages and not really being engaged in this book. I usually don’t get this vocal about books but I just couldn’t help it this time.
May 10, 2009
One of my favorite genres is the police procedural. In "Last Known Address," we have police detective Sloane Pearson investigating serial rapes around Chicago whilst dealing with the chauvinistic, oftentimes sexually harassing, behavior, of her fellow officers.
The plotline and characters are well-developed, but the novel was marred for me by confusing shifts in perspective. We have first-person present from a rape victim who is *never* identified in the book, a few instances of second-person present, and the rest of the book is in third-person present. Without adequate identifying information as to whose perspective is being taken, this makes the action a little difficult to follow.
I liked Pearson as the protagonist and would read another book featuring the same character, in the hopes that action would be less confusing/more solidly written.
(Review based on advance readers' edition.)
The plotline and characters are well-developed, but the novel was marred for me by confusing shifts in perspective. We have first-person present from a rape victim who is *never* identified in the book, a few instances of second-person present, and the rest of the book is in third-person present. Without adequate identifying information as to whose perspective is being taken, this makes the action a little difficult to follow.
I liked Pearson as the protagonist and would read another book featuring the same character, in the hopes that action would be less confusing/more solidly written.
(Review based on advance readers' edition.)
August 26, 2013
Sloane Pearson is a new detective in Chicago's Sex Crimes Division. She gets teased because she is the first woman in the department but she takes her job seriously. There is a serial rapist loose in the city and she is looking for the culprit but it seems that everyone else in the department are trying to slow the investigation down. She has a lot to deal with besides her job - she is in the process of breaking up with her boyfriend, her father is having health problems that require her help and she has to deal with her father's girlfriend. This was a fast moving book that was pretty suspenseful. I would definitely read more.
July 29, 2009
Detective Sloane Pearson is a well-rounded female detective and the Chicago setting is prevalent throughout the story. The plot of a potential serial rapist is mixed with a storyline about the detective's ailing father and her relationship with another cop. But Sloane is never happy, the writing style (fragmented with jarring changes in point-of-view) is cold and disjointed and the ending is unresolved, though I confess to skimming through a large chunk of the middle of the book and reading the last few chapters.
March 30, 2016
Remember, one man's bookflap summary is another man's spoiler.
The female Chicago police detective depicted is as hardcore, crude, street-tough as any male officer. I guess that's a good thing.
The author succeeded in throwing up several decoy suspects for the rape cases that the detective is investigating. This, also, is a good thing.
I enjoyed Schwegel's descriptions of specific Chicago neighborhoods, and the way she uses specific Chicago street names to detail the heroine's progress, or to demarcate an event or location.
The female Chicago police detective depicted is as hardcore, crude, street-tough as any male officer. I guess that's a good thing.
The author succeeded in throwing up several decoy suspects for the rape cases that the detective is investigating. This, also, is a good thing.
I enjoyed Schwegel's descriptions of specific Chicago neighborhoods, and the way she uses specific Chicago street names to detail the heroine's progress, or to demarcate an event or location.
August 16, 2009
This book is lousy, I only read to chapter 11, and could go no further. I have read the three previous books by Theresa Schwegel, and enjoyed all three. The story is set in Chicago, which I like, with a female detective, Sloane Pearson. In this novel, a serial rapist is terrorizing Chicago's females. Schwegel misses with the setting and the characters, and the plot is questionable. A waste of 10 chapters, that I read in hopes of the story improving. The tone of the book is lacking.
September 4, 2009
Serial Rape. Detective Sloane Pearson investigates a series of rapes in Chicago against overwhelming odds, Everything that could go wrong does, in her work and personal life. At first, no one is killed. Then, a murder. Might she be the next victim? This is a page turner, but the main character is not very likable. By the time the book ends, you see why she is the way she is--but--that doesn't make you like her much more. Still was a reasonably good read. Npt my favorite kind of book.
October 4, 2013
I'm not sure if I appreciated this book at all. I didn't resonate with the writing style, the jargons, the dialogues, the characters. Though I can safely say I saw where the story was heading 20% through the book and wanted to just put it aside for good. But I hate to read books halfway; it's not my style. So I made coffee and tried to finish reading in one seating, cringing at times. And I made it. Now I can put it aside for good. This is one book written for the men audience.
September 12, 2014
This was not at all what I expected.
I expected a fairly gritty police procedural with a strong female as the main character.
What I got was a book that limped through several weak and unconvincing scenarios with a lead character who was poorly portrayed and under developed. It seemed a little odd for the author to set out to write a book featuring a detective in the sex crimes department when she gives every indication of being afraid to approach the subject.
I expected a fairly gritty police procedural with a strong female as the main character.
What I got was a book that limped through several weak and unconvincing scenarios with a lead character who was poorly portrayed and under developed. It seemed a little odd for the author to set out to write a book featuring a detective in the sex crimes department when she gives every indication of being afraid to approach the subject.
June 22, 2011
Was looking for a good trashy summer/lakeside detective read, and her previous book won an award and excellent reviews from the likes of the snooty New York Times. The writing isn't awful for the genre, the female lead is somewhat interesting and somewhat likeable, but the actual story/plot is weak, and the end is utterly disappointing.
December 23, 2013
I intentionally sought out this author because a friend had said she had a unique style. Well, my time for reading is limited, so I don't waste my precious reading time on books that are poorly written, go nowhere in the first third of the book, and have a dialogue that is stiff, artificial and superficial. Little or no character development detectable. I've read better in mass paperbacks.
August 8, 2009
The other Schwegel books were entertaining. This one just did nothing for me. The plot was confusing and the characters were poorly developed. Hopefully the author will put more effort into her next book.
December 1, 2009
Not as good as some of Schwegel's other works, but I did enjoy it. The strengths of the book lie in the protagonist, who is a compelling character, and in her struggles against sexism and harrassment from her male peers.
April 9, 2014
no, I didn't speed read this, I just forgot to log it in when I started. lol in fact, this book dragged on for forever. if I could rate half a star I would. there were a couple chuckles in the last chapter or two, but I definitely won't be running out to grab any more schwegel novels :(
July 29, 2014
A serial rapist is loose in the city. Detective Sloane Pearson is trying to catch him before he can strike again. At the same time she is dealing with personal issues both at work and at home. It is a little difficult at times to tell which character is narrating the story.
August 9, 2009
Should have been better than it was. My attention kept wandering - maybe that says more about me than about the book!
November 5, 2009
A little void of emotion, but i did enjoy
November 28, 2009
First book I've read by Theresa Schwegel. I'll likely read another. I liked the Chicago locations, and I liked how she ended the book. But it was just OK.
August 27, 2010
Didn't like it. Couldn't get involved with the characters and I think this is due to writer's style. Still couldn't tell you which year / years this was based in.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews