You Can’t Go Home Now by Michael Elias

• Author:
• Michael Elias

In this smart, relevant, unputdownable psychological thriller, a woman cop is on the hunt for a killer while battling violent secrets of her own.

Long Island City PD homicide detective Nina Karim tells her boss that police shows on TV—and especially Angie Dickinson in Police Woman—inspired her to become a cop. But the real motivator was the murder of Nina’s physician father, worked for Planned Parenthood and was presumably killed by an anti-abortion zealot. Working in law enforcement seemed the best way to find the “cowardly bastard” who did it, a promise Nina made to her younger brother and mother, both now dead.

Years later she’s still searching, when an old friend comes up with a new lead while Nina is working on a possible connection between the murders of persons who savagely abused their domestic partners. This leads her to a secret women’s shelter in Queens, where residents can stay until it’s safe for them to go home, prompting Nina to go undercover as an abused wife. In a rousing climax, Elias (The Last Conquistador, 2013) deftly ties together the plot threads of Nina’s personal quest and her current assignment. A compulsively readable thriller that could take Elias to another level of acclaim.