" New York Times-bestselling author Sara Paretsky's brilliant protagonist V.I. Warshawski returns in another hard-hitting entry, combining razor-sharp plotting and compelling characters with a heady mix of timely political and social themes. V.I. Warshawski's closest friend in Chicago is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel, who lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Lotty escaped to London in 1939 on the Kindertransport with a childhood playmate,...

"Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a nefarious conspiracy preying on Chicago's weak and vulnerable, in this thrilling novel from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky. On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski is led by her dogs on a mad chase that ends when they discover a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word....

V.I. Warshawski may have left her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she learns that she cannot escape it. When V.I. takes over coaching duties of the girls' basketball team at her former high school, she faces an ill-equipped, ragtag group of gangbangers, fundamentalists, and teenage moms who inevitably draw the detective into their family woes.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST

"A proper hero for these times . . . To us, V.I. is perfect." — THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Sara Paretsky's gloriously kick-ass private eye, V.I. "Vic" Warshawski, is back . . . in a political-rot thriller that's the definition of perfection in the genre." — THE WASHINGTON

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The year of her 15th birthday is one that Lara Grellier will never forget. The first Gulf War is raging in the Middle East; her unstable mother has become increasingly erratic in her behavior; the townspeople in Lawrence, Kan., are leery of the two unmarried women who have moved into the area and are rumored to be Wiccans, and Lara's brother has run off to join the Army.