Customer Reviews

Last Known Address

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I picked up Last Known Address and started reading it a week ago. Today, I'm on page 119. That's 17 pages a day. Now, I know I'm not the worlds fastest reader, but I'm sure as heck not the slowest either. It has become obvious to me that I'm just not diggin' this book.

First, I thought the problem was that it was part of a series, because from the first page, I felt like I was missing something. According to Amazon, the main character was "introduced" in Schwegel's previous novel, Probable Cause. I guess its possible that Probable Cause fleshed out the main character of Last Known Address and that to get into this book, I should have read that one first. And I might....maybe....someday....I guess its possible....then I could pick up Last Known Address and try again. Maybe.

Schwegel's protagonist, Sloane Pearson, just sorta bugged me. Okay, I get it, she's a woman in a man's world. The big bad men are sexist and offensive. Sheesh...get over it. It's like a fireman complaining that he'd love his job if it wasn't so darn hot in there. A farmer complaining about the amount of manure he shovels. Well...duh!!...Whaddya' expect?? Maybe because I grew up on a farm, and then spent the last 33 years around construction crews, I'm just immune to sexist comments. Maybe I just have a really thick hide; all the humbug about the rotten comments from the male co-workers....seriously? I would like to think that a woman in a "man's world" would be smart enough to know that you can't beat 'em, you gotta join 'em. Earn some respect, stop being such a wimp and maybe curse like a sailor. In other words...kwitcher bitchin'....

Okay, I'm sounding cranky and impatient. In the first 119 pages, this story was all over the place. Sloane is unhappy in her relationship and is looking for a new place, but without her boyfriend knowing... kind of. She's interviewing victims... sort of. Investigating the rapes, well, a little. Trying to address her issues of an aging father, ...eh...here and there...In short, she's just sort of meandering along, unfocused and maybe a little depressed.

I guess I'm done with this one. Time's a'wastin' and there are just too many books on the Towering Teetering To Be Read Stack to spend anymore time on this one.

This book is the 4th in a series featuring Chicago detective Sloane Peterson. I haven't read any of the others (I will tho) but that didn't take away from this absorbing novel.

Chicago came alive for me - the cold, the streets and the sounds. Sloane Peterson also became very real to me. Her determination to find the serial rapist, her difficulties with the sometimes infantile males on the force and her frustration with her superiors who don't seem to support her efforts.

I like Sloane and I REALLY liked the ending!

Do not waste your money. I did not like this book at all. I actually had to tell myself "Just give it one more night..." Her writing is terrible. I have not read any of her other books and I am not sure I will. How can she be an award winning author? Please someone tell me that this book was unusual for her. I was very disappointed and it is two nights of my life that I will never get back.

Chicago police detective Sloane Pearson has moved from homicide to major sex crimes. Her current case involves a brutal serial rapist who leaves his prey near dead from strangulation. Her efforts to get someone to talk are futile as the women fear their predator will return to finish the job or worse.

The brass demands she either finds a legitimate suspect or move on as they reject her belief a serial rapist is stalking Chicago. However, she has no clues so Pearson tracks what the victims claimed they did before being snatched and raped. She begins to find a tenuous link, but is running out of time as her boss orders her to drop the investigation immediately and start a new case while she knows the next victim is just around the corner.

The latest Pearson police procedural (see PROBABLE CAUSE) is an exciting whodunit in which the heroine's boss and lover intrude in her inquiry. Her supervisor orders her to cease and desist though she believes another rape is imminent and Sloane is considering leaving her lover, but puts that on hold while investigating; on top of that her father is ill with a bad heart. The story line is fast-paced and never slows down as Pearson's tour of Chicago is no joy ride as the clues are few and the women begin to back away with her only ally being a Sun-Times reporter that she feeds information to that if her boss knew would cost her the job she loves. Theresa Schwegel provides a tense one sitting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I was absolutely stunned by the author's ability to keep up the fantastic pace of this story. Her style, her scene setting, her character development, her thrilling story line ... all made for one terrific, impossible to put down book.I had never read anything by Theresa Schwegel, and I was not particularly anxious to pick this book up. In fact, if I hadn't owed the wonderful Amazon Vine program a review, I may not have ever read it. That would have been a bad mistake. This novel is worth reading at any cost. I simply thought it was close to perfect. Every page had something to keep me wanting to hurry to the next. My thanks to Theresa!!

Sloane Pearson is one mixed-up person. She's new to the Sex Crimes Division after having been transferred out of another precinct's homicide squad. She catches what turns out to be a search for a serial rapist, and follows a number of leads despite being told by her superiors to lay off the case and her partner dragging his heels and not helping.

Her professional life is tough. But her personal life is just as complicated. Her father is ill and has to be taken to the hospital. Sloane doesn't like or get along with his girlfriend. Sloane is living with another cop and is unhappy with the relationship. What an unhappy life. Her co-workers continually razz her, making the workplace an unhealthy environment. In other words, like Rodney Dangerfield, she gets no respect.

A redeeming feature of the novel is that Sloane tries to work the case so that the plot seems to be a sort of police procedural. But all that confusion leaves the reader wondering what it's all about.

I have to say I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. One one hand, I think the basic premise for the book is a good one. One the other hand, it reads like a good book, pages thrown to the wind and reassembled randomly and with pages missing.

I really wanted to like this book, pushing myself to read more, hoping it would even out. The stereotypical members of the police unit that Sloane works with were unbearable, sexist, and lazy, to the point that they seem to be caricatures. In trying to be gritty and edgy, it all simply comes across as merely comical.

A book with potential and a good plot, bare bones with not enough meat.

Last Known Address follows Chicago Detective Sloane Pearson, newly assigned to the sex crimes division, as she tries to bull her way through an investigation of a serial rapist - who doesn't kill his victims. The story has her surrounded by unfeeling, barely competent fellow detectives who harass her like hormone-charged 12 year olds. Her coworkers and supervisors attempt to coerce her into their pattern of dismissing as many cases as possible, without regard to the damage done to the victims. In several instances, "tips" provide them with additional victims - innocent people accused of being the perpetrators they seek.

Chapter to chapter, the book seems disjointed, although the basic theme carries through. Disinterested, experienced detectives appear to spend more time on sports betting and harassing Sloane than on pursuing criminals. Sloane is depicted as the only one who cares, trying to identify and arrest the rapist with little help from the traumatized victims or her coworkers.

I have known quite a few police officers and detectives. The depiction of an entire squad as lazy and corrupt does not jibe with my reality, which detracts from this story.

I have not read Ms. Schwegel's earlier works, one of which earned her an Edgar award. This book does not deserve one.

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.)

"Last Known Address" spins the tale of Sloane Pearson's search for a serial rapist as well as her search for some measure of order in her personal and professional life. Theresa Schwegel's readers would have been better served if she had been less obtuse in her plot and character development. Possibly I am just insufficiently smart and edgy to appreciate the choppy writing, 3rd person present tense (with occasional lapses) delivery and the rambling, almost surreal side stories intended to create atmosphere and insight into the protagonist's inner life. For me it was unsatisfying, circuitous and not worth the time and effort needed to wade through the book.