Dead Land by Sara Paretsky
After Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski and her goddaughter Bernie leave a raucous meeting of the South Lakefront Improvement Council (SLICK), they pass a homeless encampment where Bernie recognizes a once famous singer living in a cardboard box. When Bernie goes back later that night to talk to the woman, there is a scuffle, and Bernie is arrested for harassment.
The charges are dropped, but Warshawski is concerned that Bernie may not stay out of trouble. While following up on the arrest incident, Warshawski sees a glimmer of a connection between the homeless encampment and the odd SLICK meeting. When one of the SLICK presenters is found dead, she knows she’s on to something. That something is the plot of Dead Land.
Like the previous nineteen Warshawski novels, Dead Land is cleverly plotted and paced. The humorless Warshawski with her righteous attitude may not be the easiest character to like, but she is absolutely fearless in her dogged pursuit of the bad guys, thugs and suits alike. (Makes me miss Kinsey Millhone)
What Other Reviewers Say
Washington Post: “Sara Paretsky’s gloriously kick-ass private eye, V.I. Warshawski, is back for the 20th time in a political-rot thriller that’s the definition of perfection in the genre.”
Who Wrote It
Sara Paretsky is The New York Times best-selling author of twenty crime novels featuring V.I. Warshawski. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago