Gone for Good: A Young Detective Tackles a Serial Killer

Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen, published in 2021, introduces Detective Annalisa Vega. The fourth book in the series is scheduled for release in August 2024.

Our Sleuth: Chicago Police Detective Annalisa Vega, 30, grew up surrounded by cops — her dad and his police buddies and their families formed a tight-knit community. Annalisa wanted to be a lawyer but then came murder and a broken marriage, and now she’s on the job herself.

The Setting: Chicago, present day.

The Premise: Twenty years ago, a serial killer known as the Lovelorn Killer stalked and murdered seven dark-haired women living in nice Chicago neighborhoods. Then he simply disappeared. Now, Vega is called to the scene of a crime with all the hallmarks of the serial killer’s bizarre rituals.

The case has special meaning for Vega because the seventh victim was a family friend, a cop’s wife, and the mother of her then-boyfriend Colin. Her dad chased the Lovelorn Killer for years without success before retiring; it’s the case he regrets even as he struggles with Parkinson’s disease. To top it off, Vega is saddled with a partner, Nick Carrelli, who happens to be her ex-husband.

My Take: First, a confession. Over my decades of reading mysteries, I have always been more interested in the characters than in figuring out the killer before the author’s reveal. For me, the murder is simply what brings together a group of disparate people and requires they interact until the mystery is solved. It raises the stakes, of course, and compels a sense of urgency before anyone else is hurt. But it’s the psychology of the people from all different walks of life that pulls me in.

So I delighted in this novel that delves deeply into the behavior of not just the serial killer but his victims, our protagonist and her family. We come to know Annalisa Vega and what drives her, and so we join in her anguish as the case shakes the very foundations of her beliefs and her life. The mystery intersperses the perspective of the eighth victim, who has goaded the serial killer back into action, with that of Vega as she alone puzzles out his identity. It turns out that’s not the most shocking part of the ending.

Opening Lines:

Detective Annalisa Vega had sworn off dating when the third guy in a row ended the evening by asking to see her handcuffs. Or maybe her stomach had turned during the last homicide she’d worked, in which the ex-husband blew out a glass door with a double-barreled shotgun, hunted down his terrified wife, and executed her as she cowered next to the bed they’d once slept in together. Hard to make upbeat chitchat over apps and cosmos after viewing the remains of a relationship like that.

Heads Up: Includes descriptions of the serial killer’s MO, involving the use of ropes to slowly strangle his victims while he watches. The passages aren’t lengthy and, if you prefer, you can skip past them. But their inclusion qualifies this book as noir.

Of Note: The author Joanna Schaffhausen holds a doctorate in psychology, “which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong,” according to her website.