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Cassidy McCabe is a therapist working in her home in Oak Park, Chicago. Her husband Zach Moran is a reporter. Lately he's been depressed as he isn't enjoying his job due to a new editor that is giving him terrible assignments and making his life difficult. Plus their cat Sunshine has taken to being away all night. Cassidy is sure she's found another family.

Dalia Schiff is on medicine for schizophrenia. When she takes her meds, she can function normally. She recently rented Zach's condo in Marina City. Cass has befriended Dalia who is lonely. Then one day Dalia calls Cass hysterical, talking about Dark Angels and a corpse in a closet. Cass is afraid Dalia has gone off her meds and goes to try to help her. She goes with Dalia to the top of the building to show her there aren't any Dark Angels or corpses. While they don't find a corpse, they do see blood, and Cass calls the police. Dalia vanishes. Cassidy decides to investigate to try to help get Dalia to return and get help. Can she figure out if there's been a murder and who was murdered and why? Will Dalia return?

I really enjoy this series. Cassidy is a great character. I like her relationship with Zach. In this book that relationship is very strained. I think the author did a great job of conveying while still keeping the story moving with solving the murder.

I also like that while Cassidy is a therapist, I feel the author gives us just enough of a glimpse into her professional life to help us get to know her. Yet we don't have to get into each session with her. 

Even as she strives to help Dalia, we get real insight into the life of someone with schizophrenia without it stopping the momentum of the mystery.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series. I find them to be enjoyable and easy to read.

Dawn Dowdle

Cassidy McCabe and her husband Zach own a condo in the prestigious Marina Towers in downtown Chicago .  They rent it to a young woman, Delia, who tells Cassidy that she must rent the unit as it will keep her safe.  After checking with Delia’s psychologist and making sure Delia is on our meds, Cassidy and Zach rent to her.  But one night Cassidy receives a terrifying phone call from Delia.  Delia tells her that she must come over right away.  She can not tell her on the phone because people are listening and it is not safe.  Cassidy weighs her options but goes to find Delia in a frenzied state.  Delia tells her that “they” have found her and are after her.  Cassidy can’t figure out who they are, but eventually gets that while on the roof, Delia saw someone strung up and murdered.  Could she have seen a murder or has she gone off her meds and the deep end?  Cassidy is a counselor but out of her league here.
           
Cassidy investigates the roof to find a room consistent with Delia’s story.  She also finds a drain where in theory someone could have dismembered a body and allowed the blood to drain away.  And to the edge is a smidgen of a dark spot.  Could it be blood?  She calls the police and that makes Delia run.  Delia doesn’t even stop back at her apartment to get her purse.
           
Zach is a crime reporter and has taught Cassidy a few things about investigating.
Joan is the head of the Condo board security committee and works with Cassidy to see if any of the tenants are missing.  In no time they discover that Miles didn’t come and he might be the missing and murdered man. 
           
It doesn’t take long for the police to confirm that the dark spot is blood and that the DNA is that of Miles.   Did Tessa his wife kill him?  Did one of the lunch bunch kill him?  Miles and a few other tenants had a regular luncheon date.  Who was the man who attacked Miles in the foyer weeks prior?
           
As Cassidy investigates she finds Miles had many secrets and enemies. Delia remains missing and Zach slips into a depression over his new editor.  The new editor is not treating Zach with the respect of a veteran crime reporter but rather like an Intern and Zach is slipping away. 
           
Alex Mathews has written a clever who dun it.  She gives us a host of potential murderers, all with good reasons for getting rid of Miles.  As we cruise through the book we learn more about Cassidy, Zach, and Zach’s son.  She makes it easy for us to grow attached to them; for us to feel Zach’s pain with McCready his new editor.  She writes in such a way to evoke great empathy for the secondary story of Zach and McCready.  It is wonderful!
           
In the primary story of Delia and the murder of Miles she unravels just the right amount of clues at just the right time to allow us, if we can to put the pieces together and solve the puzzle before the reveal.  Excellent.
           
For a cozy with a tad bit of the sensational put in (the manner of death), Alex has written a superb, easy, enjoyable read.
           
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5!

 

Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D.

With her remarkably savvy style, Matthews one again creates a world of murder and mystery devoted fans of Cassidy McCabe will find impossible to put down.  Very highly recommended. 

Cynthia Penn, Midwest Book Review