Barbara Fister - text only

When Chicago private investigator Anni Koskinen takes on a new client, she finds herself working on an impossible case. After spending twenty years in prison, a black man convicted in a notorious rape case has had his sentence overturned. The victim wants to know who was really responsible for the crime that scarred her life. But even if Anni can find out who committed the brutal crime decades ago, a conviction will be impossible – unless the rapist has struck again.

The resourceful victim has uncovered evidence that a serial rapist may still be at work, attacking women with ferocious anger. But as Anni digs deeper, the politically ambitious State’s Attorney who prosecuted the original rape case insists that the conviction was solid, He believes there was no miscarriage of justice—other than that a violent felon has been released on a technicality.

As Anni’s cold case heats up, her friend Dugan, a CPD detective, is involved in a heater case of his own. An undocumented Mexican gang member has been arrested for the murder of a missing woman whose uncertain fate has gripped the city and fueled anti-immigrant sentiment.

As both investigations unfold, the impact of racial prejudice radiates cracks through the criminal justice system. And it is through those cracks that Anni must try to glimpse the truth.

"Koskinen connects with an array of well-drawn supporting characters . . . Thoughtful attention to the complexities of police work and social justice lift this gritty mystery well above the norm. Koskinen's empathy with both cops and victims as well as her fierce, brittle independence make her easy to root for."
Publishers Weekly

". . . packs a real punch. It will appeal to Sara Paretsky fans and mystery readers who long for tough and savvy female investigators."
Library Journal

"Fister is a master of plotting and pacing . . . first-rate."
Steve Weinberg, The Star Tribune

'Fister presents us with Koskinen's own richly developed world peopled with interesting characters . . . an engaging and complex read"
Ann Pearson, Reviewing the Evidence

Anni Koskinen is out of a job. After ten years in the Chicago Police Department, her moral compass led her across the thin blue line to testify against a fellow cop – and, in the aftermath, she lost the only career she ever wanted.

As she is putting a new life together, a gentle church worker appears on her doorstep and asks for a ride out of town. It’s not until the FBI gets involved that Anni realizes she has helped a fugitive escape. And not just any fugitive.

It’s hard to grasp that Rosa Saenz, a popular figure in her largely Latino parish, was once involved with a radical faction of the American Indian Movement. It’s even harder to believe that Rosa was responsible for the murder of an FBI agent in 1972.

But even a close friend in the Bureau urges Anni to work with Rosa’s defense team to find out what happened all those years ago. Because it soon becomes clear that it’s more important to the authorities to find Rosa guilty than to find the truth.

Caught in the vortex of a no-holds-barred federal investigation, angry cops who believe she's once again working for the wrong side, and a dangerous group of white supremacists bent on establishing their own version of history, Anni’s investigation into crimes of the past throws her in the path of a clear and present danger. And this time, she stands to lose much more than her job.

"Barbara Fister is the heir apparent to Sara Paretsky. In the Wind is an intriguing mystery, filled with great characters, an interesting and needed perspective on the city of Chicago, and a strong grounding in the politics and history of the past thirty years. Read it. You'll love it."

Kris Nelscott, Edgar and Shamus award nominated author of the Smokey Dalton series

“An engaging character, a fast-paced plot, and a story that draws thought-provoking parallels between the turbulent 1970s and the world we live in today. An excellent second novel!”
Marcia Muller, creator of the Sharon McCone series

"A tour de force of masterful storytelling . . . Barbara Fister has created a vivid, intricately plotted and emotionally resonant novel that will stay with you a long, long time."
Louise Ure, author of The Fault Tree

"To the fine list of tough female PIs like V. I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, and Sharon McCone, eager readers can now add another terrific name: Anni Koskinen. In the Wind is smart and tough, and Barbara Fister, delivers her story with the wallop of a good right cross."

William Kent Kruger, Anthony award-winning author of the Cork O'Connor series

"Chicago comes to life in this bold, thought-provoking, unabashedly political mystery."
Sean Chercover, author of Big City Bad Blood and Trigger City

read an excerpt (.pfd)

more about In the Wind

infrequently asked questions

get a copy of In the Wind

On Edge
Dell, December 2002 (ISBN 0-440-23751-3)

A flip of a coin sends Konstantin Slovo, a Chicago cop who's had all he can take, eastbound on I-90 with no destination in mind. His impulsive flight ends in Brimsport, Maine, where gulls cry, waves wash against a rockbound coast - and the town's worst nightmare is coming true.

Almost twenty years ago, an investigation into allegations of child abuse spiraled out of control, ending without convictions - leaving the community scarred by suspicion, distrust, and anger. Slovo, all too experienced with crimes against children, arrives in Brimsport just as a search is on for a missing girl, the third child to be abducted and murdered in recent months. He's drawn into the race to stop it from happening again - and to end the horror before the town tears itself apart. Because whoever is behind these killings knows Brimsport's tortured past and is using its worst fears to push it over the edge.

"On Edge is a knockout thriller." John Orr, San Jose Mercury News

"On Edge kept me on the edge of my seat." Judith Flavell, The Mystery Reader

"Just the paperback to browse when your plane enters a zone of turbulence and the pilot turns on the fasten-seat-belts sign." Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times

more about On Edge

what booksellers said about On Edge

About Me
A native of Madison, Wisconsin, I've lived in Kentucky, Texas, the Middle East, North Africa, and on the coast of Maine. Now I live in rural Minnesota, where I work as an academic librarian at a liberal arts college. My research interests are wide, not to say idiosyncratic, but they all have to do, one way or another, with how various media shape our understanding of the world. I'm particularly interested the role of anxiety in the formation of social issues. Even my fiction gets into that act, exploring the way communities sometimes embrace oversimplified expanations for evil in On Edge and how anxiety becomes a device for the suppression of dissent in In the Wind.

Good crime fiction is immensely satisfying. It's entertaining, has well-paced, involving stories and intriguing characters. It provides that little rush of adrenaline - which, as Val McDermid has said, is "a fabulous drug. It produces a great high, it's legal and it's free." For many readers, crime fiction is reassuring because in the end order is restored. But the best crime fiction does more than reassure. It helps form our understanding of social issues, and by drawing us into an exploration of that which disturbs us, it can give our deepest fears narrative form and meaning.

At least, as Chandler said, such is my faith.