Theresa Schwegel

Schwegel's first novel, Officer Down, began life as a screenplay. Searching for a subject for her Master's Thesis, she struck on a friend's account of an affair with a married police officer. Schwegel was both perplexed and fascinated by her friend's predicament: "I couldn’t reason with her; I couldn’t understand her. But I had to write about her. The mystery: how could someone so smart be so incredibly foolish?" Though Schwegel was primarily interested in exploring why an independent, intelligent woman would carry on an affair with an obviously untrustworthy man, her thesis advisor, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Leonard Schrader, urged her to expand the law-enforcement angle of the story.

Schwegel shopped the screenplay version of Officer Down to Hollywood, but quickly became disillusioned. "In my experience, Hollywood ranks spec scripts a few points lower than scratch paper. Even if you know someone who knows someone (which I did), the odds don’t fall in your favor." Schrader encouraged her to rewrite the story as a novel, and Schwegel warmed to the expanded possibilities the form offered, later explaining, "In screenwriting, you don’t write about the couch unless the hero has a gun tucked between the cushions and his nemesis has just taken a seat... In a novel, I can describe the couch. I can tell you that the hero thinks it’s comfortable. I can tell you the hero’s ex-wife insisted on buying the too-expensive couch and now the bad guy is sitting on it, he thinks of her—the woman who got him into this mess… and on and on. In other words, writing for the screen is an action blueprint; writing a novel is custom-building from the action."

Using her friend's experience as a jumping-off point, Schwegel recast the story as a noir thriller, focusing on a hard-drinking beat cop—Samantha Mack—who discovers that her married lover—Detective Mason Imes—is a corrupt cop who is caught up in a drug ring. Developing the police-thriller aspect of the story necessitated heavy research into law enforcement and police culture. "The truth of the matter," Schwegel wrote later, was that "I was not a cop. I did not know any cops. I did not know anything about cops, with the exception of a few vague memories of the TV show “Crime Story.” I had no clue about procedure; I didn’t know the difference between a Sergeant and a Lieutenant." Through the course of rewriting both the screenplay and the novel versions of Officer Down, she immersed herself in the world of law enforcement. After selling the book, she wrote, "My proudest moment since St. Martin’s took on OFFICER DOWN was when my editor informed me that some people at the house asked if I was a cop."

Officer Down is narrated by police officer Samantha Mack. The story opens with Mack picking up a shift after being stood up by her married lover, Detective Mason Imes. Mack works the shift with her old partner, Fred Maloney; the two were formerly lovers, but Maloney is now married. After an awkward re-introduction, Fred takes them to meet with one of his snitches, who gives them a tip on the location of Marco Trovic. Trovic is a pedophile who Fred had arrested a few weeks earlier and who subsequently skipped bail. When Maloney and Mack arrive at the address provided by Fred's snitch, they are ambushed by a gunman, who kills Maloney and shoots Mack, knocking her unconscious. When Mack regains consciousness, she finds herself under the suspicion of an Internal Affairs officer named Alex O'Connor; the only fingerprints found at the scene were hers and Maloney's, which casts doubt on her story. Desperate to clear her name and bring Maloney's killer to justice, Mack launches her own investigation, but is stymied by O'Connor, her own Sergeant—and Imes, who increasingly seems to be more involved in Fred's death than Mack wants to believe.

On the night of the robbery, however, Ray unexpectedly stumbles upon the corpse of the store's owner, Petras Ipolitas. Fiore quickly devises a cover story and coaches Ray on how to keep the homicide detectives from suspecting their involvement. The next day, Fiore announces that he has located a suspect in Ipolitas's killing—Jurgis Ambrozas, a small-time criminal who Fiore seems to have a grudge against. In the course of his interrogation, Ray begins to suspect that Ambrozas has been set up to take the fall for the murder. He brings his suspicions to Detective Sloane Pearson, the homicide officer assigned to the case. Although initially reluctant, Sloane agrees to help Ray investigate the case "off the books". When Fiore learns of this, he accuses Ray of disloyalty, and soon Jed and the other trainees begin pressuring Ray to drop his investigation. Ultimately, Ray is faced with a moral dilemma in which he must choose between adhering to Fiore's "code of silence," or following the example of his father and pursuing the truth, wherever it may lead.

Leslie McHugh's marriage to Craig, an undercover cop in Chicago, is on the rocks because he's so distracted by his job, his other “life.” Her seventeen-year-old daughter is a real cop's kid and on a collision course with trouble, starting with her reckless boyfriend, Niko. Meanwhile, Leslie is lonely, bored, and starting to drink too much when she's home alone in the evening. When one thousand dollars goes missing from their bank account and Craig can't provide an explanation, Leslie takes matters into her own hands. She's determined to get to the truth and protect her family—no matter what the cost.

In 2008, Schwegel relocated to Chicago. In addition to bringing her closer to her family (Algonquin is a short drive from Chicago), the move also served a practical purpose: "When I lived in California I’d return to Chicago and take photos so I could keep the images fresh," she later recalled. "It’s easier now that I’m in the city--all I have to do is look out the window." Her fifth novel, The Good Boy, was released in November, 2013.

Officer Down was published by St. Martin's Press in 2005, and won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2006. Following the success of her debut, Schwegel has gone on to write a series of police thrillers, all set in the Chicago area and characterized by a gritty, unflinching sensibility. Of her predilection for "dark" stories, Schwegel has said, "I've always been a fan of noir, even in film school--the blacker the better for me. I just really am more interested in the underbelly, the underside of things." In 2008, she received the 21st Century Award for emerging Chicago-area writers, awarded annually by the Chicago Public Library Foundation.

Theresa Schwegel (born July 20, 1975) is an American author of crime fiction. She won the Edgar Award for best first novel from the Mystery Writers of America for Officer Down in 2006. In 2008, she received the Chicago Public Library Foundation's 21st Century Award for achievement in writing by an author with ties to Chicago.