Standalone: A Dickie Cornish Mystery

Early in Chambers’s strong sequel to 2020’s Scavenger, unlicensed Washington, D.C., PI Dickie Cornish, a former drug addict who was once homeless, is approached on the street by ex-con Al-Mayadeen Thomas, who says he needs the detective’s help. When Thomas pulls out a gun, Cornish agrees to go with him to an abandoned motel, where Thomas begs Cornish to find his missing six-year-old daughter, K’ymira, who he believes has fallen prey to a human monster who has taken other kids. Thomas says he’ll do something to ensure Cornish remembers K’ymira, then kills himself with a bullet to the brain. Cornish returns to his tiny apartment, where he’s stunned to find D.C. police chief Linda Figgis, who also wants him to locate K’ymira. Figgis notes that the girl’s disappearance was the one unsolved cold case from her previous position as a police commander. Cornish’s subsequent investigation opens up a very ugly can of worms with disturbing political implications. Chambers makes the smell and harrowing vibe of the mean streets of the nation’s capital come alive. Readers searching for a grittier version of Joe Ide’s Isaiah Quintabe will find him in Cornish. (Oct.)