Dream House

A novelist haunts the Old West Side

by Mary Beth Lewis

posted 2/4/2009

Valerie Laken played a mean second base on the O Team—the Observer’s co-rec softball team—a few years back. I usually played catcher, and I enjoyed chatting with her on the bench or over postgame beers. She had a house on the Old West Side a few blocks from mine, and to my surprise she was interested in details of murders in the neighborhood.

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