Sara Paretsky

Death, conspiracy and burning buildings - coming home wasn't meant to be like this.A dangerous, depressed place reeking of bad memories, South Chicago is a neighbourhood private investigator V.I. Warshawski left a long time ago. But now she's back, drawn to the streets of her childhood once again to do a favour for a friend.It was never going to be easy - and when the mother of a local girl asks her to look into claims of sabotage at the factory where she works, V.I. quickly finds herself caught up in something far more sinister.They say home is where the heart is, but now, as she lies by the roadside with a piece of hot, twisted metal embedded in her shoulder, looking up at the factory's smouldering remains, Warshawski is beginning to wonder whether a trip down memory lane was such a good idea after all . . .

Coaching the basketball team at her former South Chicago high school, V.I. Warshawski investigates sabotage at the site of the area's largest employer, where an explosion has killed the facility's owner and launched a dangerous family rivalry.

V. I. Warshawski explores secrets and betrayals that stretch across four generations in this New York Times bestselling novel from one of the most compelling writers in American crime fiction... "A thoughtful, high-tension mystery."--The Washington Post Book World "A genuinely exciting and disturbing thriller."--Chicago Tribune As a favor to her most important client, V. I. agrees to check up on an empty mansion. But instead of a mysterious intruder she discovers a dead man in the ornamental pond--a reporter for an African-American publication whom the suburban cops are quick to dismiss as a suicide. When the man's shattered family hires V. I. to investigate, she is sucked into a Gothic tale of sex, money, and power, leading her back to McCarthy-era blacklists and forward to some of the darker aspects of the Patriot Act. As V. I. finds herself penned in to a smaller and smaller space by an array of people trying to silence her, and before she can untangled the sordid truth, two more people will die--and V.I.'s own life will hang in the balance.

Four troubled people meet beneath Chicago's shadowy streets and discover a woman who changes their lives forever in this powerful, haunting novel of magic and miracles, from the New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski series "Truly remarkable."--San Francisco Chronicle"Rich, imaginative, and] intensely moving."--Chicago Tribune"Astonishing and affecting."--Booklist They come from different worlds and meet at a time of crisis for all of them. Luisa, a drunken diva fallen on hard times, discovers on Chicago's streets a drama greater than any she has experienced onstage. Madeleine, a homeless woman, sees the Virgin Mary's blood seeping through a concrete wall beneath a luxury hotel. Mara, a rebellious adolescent cast out by her wealthy grandfather, becomes the catalyst for a war between the haves and have-nots as she searches among society's castoffs for the mother she never knew. As the three women fight for their right to live and worship beneath the hotel, they find an ally in Hector Tammuz, an idealistic young psychiatrist risking his career to treat the homeless regardless of the cost. Tensions in the city are escalating when a mysterious woman appears during a violent storm. Alluring to some, repellent to others, she never speaks; the street people call her Starr. And as she slowly transforms their lives, miracles begin to happen in a city completely unprepared for the outcome. In this extraordinary novel, Sara Paretsky gives voice to the dispossessed, to men and women struggling to bury the ghosts of the past, fighting for their lives in a world hungry for miracles, terrified of change.

V.I. Warshawski isn't crazy about going back to her old south Chicago neighborhood, but a promise is something she always keeps. Caroline, a childhood friend, has a dying mother and a problem -- after twenty-five years she wants V.I. to find the father she never knew. But when V.I. starts probing into the past, she not only finds out where all the bodies are buried -- she stumbles onto a very new corpse. Now she's stirring up a deadly mix of big business and chemical corruption that may become a toxic shock to a snooper who knows too much. "The best boldest work to date...A criminal investigation that is a genuine heroic quest." --The New York Times Book Review.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - " The best of Sara Paretsky's mystery novels . . . all of Sara] Warshawski's feminist and liberal proclivities are in full boil, propelling a complex and action-filled plot." Stubbornness has landed private eye V.I. Warshawski in big trouble at her Chicago office. With her grand old Loop building set to be razed, she's become a hold-out tenant amid frayed wiring and scary, empty corridors. Then she finds a homeless woman with three kids in the basement, and before she can rescue them, they disappear. Worst of all, she's been implicated in a murder--after the body of Deirdre Messenger, a prominent lawyer's wife, turns up sprawled across her desk. V.I., who had volunteered with Deirdre at a women's shelter, suspects her death is linked to a case of upper-class domestic abuse so slickly concealed that the police refuse to believe it. Increasingly at odds with the cops, V.I. is blindly plunging ahead after the truth. And her path may lead to corruption at the highest levels.or deep into the abandoned tunnels beneath Chicago's streets, where secrets are hiding in the dark like a child's--or V.I.'s--worst nightmare. "Riveting . . . a ripsnorting climax . . . Warshawski is] street-smart, feisty yet appealingly vulnerable."--Chicago Sun-Times

"V.I. Warshawski is one of the best . . . smart, tough, sexy."--Daily News (New York) "Sara Paretsky makes excellent use of local backgrounds in a carefully plotted tale of murder and great misdeeds in the world of Great Lakes cargo shipping."--Chicago Tribune When Chicago Black Hawks hockey legend Boom Boom Warshawski slips off a wharf and drowns in Lake Michigan, his private-eye cousin questions the accidental death report and rumors of suicide. Armed with a bottle of Black Label and a Smith & Weson, V.I. follows a trail of violence and corruption to the center of the Windy City's powerful shipping industry. Dodging elaborate attempts on her life with characteristic grit and humor, the one-of-a-kind detective wends her way through a maze of grain elevators and thousand-ton freighters, ruthless businessmen and gorgeous ballerinas, to ferret out Boom Boom's killers before they phase her out of the picture--permanently. "Hard-boiled detective fiction . . . a swift-paced and engrossing read."--The Philadelphia Inquirer "Slithers with suspense "--Chicago Sun-Times

The first V.I. Warshawski novel - " V.I. Warshawski] is . . . wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her."--Los Angeles TimesMeeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshwski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough--the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter--and deadlier--than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.