You don't need a weatherman to see which way this new Windy City eye blows.

Flawed and occasionally prickly Chicago cop GEORGIA DAVIS was a memorable supporting character in Hellmann's Ellie Foreman amateur sleuth series, but she really comes into her own as a private eye (and Hellman ups the ante considerably) in 2008's Easy Innocence, investigating the baseball bat murder of a popular student attending a snooty preppy high school on Chicago's North Shore. A local sex offender who's not quite all there stands accused, and it looks like a slam-dunk, until the suspect's protective sister asks Davis to investigate.

Then all hell breaks loose. Fortunately, Davis's savvy blend of compassion and gritted-teeth sense of justice is more than up to the task -- and bodes well for a sequel. Warshawski better watch her back.

Besides the Ellie Forman series, she's the editor of the recent Chicago Blues anthology.

UNDER OATH