Synopses & Reviews
Racine Avenue is going upscale bad news for hand-to-mouth residents like V. I. Warshawski. As tax bills skyrocket, newcomers pressure old inhabitants into fixing up their homes or moving out. To the yuppies on the block the worst eyesore belongs to old Hattie Frizell, whose yard is "returning to native prairie, complete with hubcaps." Their block club wants her and her five dogs gone.
V. I. and Hattie have a relationship of sorts: one of those five dogs gave V. I.'s dog Peppy an unwelcome litter. When Hattie slips in her bath and is rushed unconscious to the hospital, V. I. feels compelled to get involved. But neighboring lawyer Todd Pichea and his wife, Chrissie, act swiftly to get the courts to make them Hattie's legal guardians. V. I. returns from a business trip to find they've put the old woman's dogs to sleep. Furious, V. I. starts poking around in the Picheas affairs, hoping to turn up something scandalous enough to make them lose their guardianship.
Hattie isn't the detective's only worry. When her downstairs neighbor's oldest friend disappears, Mr. Contreras persuades V. I. to investigate. As she probes both problems, V. I. uncovers a scandal linking one of Chicago's oldest industrial families to union fraud and a politically connected bank. Her investigation takes her into the depths of the steamy Sanitary Canal and brings her eyeball-to-eyeball with her ex-husband, Dick Yarborough. When her dear friend Lotty Herschel and her own lawyer turn against her, V. I. is left alone to struggle with the most serious case of her career.
Review
"Suspense rarely flags through the slightly excessive length here densely textured, adroitly plotted, and one of the author's best." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"America's most convincing and engaging female private eye." Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
"The best of the Warshawski novels "--Los Angeles Times Book Review Underneath V. I. Warshawski's wisecracking P.I. exterior lies a real pushover. When elderly neighbor Mr. Contreras asks her to look into a fellow union retiree's sudden disappearance, she says "yes" from her heart, not her head. And when a crotchety eighty-year-old dog owner starts wrangling with a Yuppie-Come-Lately couple on their blue-collar street, again, it's V.I. to the rescue.
Only it all goes to hell in a handbasket when Mr. Yuppie turns out to be a lawyer in V.I.'s ex-husband's law firm, and the missing retiree turns up floating facedown in a canal. And now V.I.'s strapping on her shoulder holster to snoop into Chicago's labor unions and politicos, because being on the side of the angels won't win her any halos... but it's the perfect place for an encounter with violent death.
Praise for Guardian Angel
"A fast-paced, complicated mystery... the real joy of Guardian Angel is Paretsky's smooth pen and continuing cast of characters."--New York Daily News
"No one, male or female, writes better P.I. books than Paretsky, and Guardian Angel is the best to date "--The Denver Post
"One monster of a plot."--Booklist
"Some crime series grow stale over time, but there's no sign of fatigue here. This is partly because the recurring characters continue to develop and engage the reader, and partly because of the moral intelligence that informs the writing."--Spectator
About the Author
Sara Paretsky is the author of the bestselling V. I. Warshawski novels, including, most recently, Fire Sale and Blacklist. The winner of many awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger award for lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers' Association, she lives in Chicago.