Synopses & Reviews
In 1939, Dr. Lotty Herschel, V. I. Warshawkis closest friend in Chicago, escaped the Holocaust in Vienna with her childhood playmate, Kitty Saginor Binder. Though the two drifted and animosities grew between them over the years, when Kittys daughter finds her life in danger, she turns to Lotty for help. In turn, Lotty summons V.I. to take the case.
The threats on the daughters life at first seem a simple case of bad drug dealings, but V.I. soon discovers that they are just the tip of an iceberg of lies, secrets and silence whose origins trace back to the deadly race among America, Germany, Japan, and England to develop the atomic bomb. And while the secrets may be old, the people who continue to guard them will do anything to make sure they stay buried.
Review
“Both Warshawski and Paretsky are at the top of their forms."—
Tampa Bay Times “Paretsky at her best, describing with a reporter's eye and a painter's vision the light and texture of a place.”—Washington Post
“No one, male or female, writes better PI books than Paretsky.”—The Denver Post
“Paretsky still writes with the kind of dazzling, diamond-hard clarity that can break your heart on every other page.”—Chicago Tribune
“A daring departure…A career-crowning achievement.”—The Sunday Times (London)
Synopsis
Chicago's V. I. Warshawski confronts crooked politicians and buried family secrets in this gritty mystery from
New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky.
No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but she'd happily avoid tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that's what she ends up doing when she responds to a plea for help from an old high school flame, Frank Guzzo.
Frank's mother Stella was convicted of killing his kid sister, but now that she's out of prison, she's looking for exoneration. Even though the Warshawskis and Stella never got along, V. I. agrees to make a few inquiries after she sees how hard life has been on Frank and her other childhood friends.
Only, that small favor leads her straight into the vipers' nest of Illinois politics--and soon her main question isn't about Stella's case but whether or not she'll make it out of this investigation alive...
A Washington Post Best Mystery of 2015
About the Author
Sara Paretsky is the author of nineteen books, including her renowned V. I. Warshawski novels, the most recent of which is the
New York Times bestseller
Breakdown. Her many awards include the Cartier Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Crime Writers Association and the 2011 Mystery Writers of Americas Grand Master Award. She lives in Chicago.