Meeting an anonymous client on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. Especially when the client lies and tells V.I. Warshawski he's the prominent banker John Thayer, looking for his son's missing girlfriend. But V.I. soon discovers the real John Thayer's son - and he's dead.
As V.I. begins…
There are 22 books in the V.I. Warshawski series. The newest book is Pay Dirt .
2
Deadlock
'Who're you working for then, Warshawski?' 'My cousin.' 'Boom Boom? He's dead.' 'I know. That's why I'm working for him.'
Boom Boom's body was found floating near the docks, chewed up and spat out by a ship's propeller. More like brother and sister than cousins, Vic and Boom Boom looked…
-
Catyana's list on the best book to solve mysteries and learn something at the same time
-
Gary's list on the best mysteries that make characters of cities
3
Killing Orders
Killing Orders
Years ago V.I. Warshawski's Aunt Rosa treated the detective's beloved mother in an unforgiveable way. Now, after she's accused of stealing $3 million from the Dominican priory where she works, Rosa calls upon the ties of blood to clear her name.
V.I. is not prepared to forgive so easily. Until…
4
Bitter Medicine
Consuelo is sixteen, heavily pregnant and married to an unemployed gangster. The last thing she needs is a negligent doctor.
When she is rushed into the Friendship private hospital, the staff are reluctant to treat her. Fortunately she has Vic Warshawski, family friend and ex-lawyer, with her.
But Consuelo and…
5
Blood Shot
Blood Shot
When V.I. Warshawski is asked to search for the father of a childhood friend, she assumes it'll be a straightforward case. But the return to her old Chicago neighbourhood reignites dark memories from her past - memories she'd sooner forget.
As the body of another old friend suddenly turns up,…
6
Burn Marks
Burn Marks
7
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
The seventh novel in the V.I. Warhawski crime series, set in Chicago, from prize-winning author Sara Paretsky.
V.I. Warshawski's Chicago neighbourhood is prospering. As it's out with the old and in with the new, long-term residents like elderly Hattie Frizell find themselves viciously under threat . . .
But that's…
8
Tunnel Vision
Tunnel Vision
The discovery of a destitute family in her office basement leads V.I. Warshawski to homeless charity Home Free. But the organisation's frosty reception gives V.I. cause for concern, especially when one of its board members is then found murdered, sprawled across her desk . . .
Taking on the case,…
9
Hard Time
Hard Time
While driving home after celebrating friend Murray Ryerson's big break into TV hosting, V.I. almost collides with a fatally wounded woman lying in the street.
The deceased is Nicola Aguinaldo, former employee of security giant B.B. Baladine and recent prison runaway. Taking on the case, V.I. finds herself plunged into…
10
Total Recall
Total Recall
When V.I.'s close friend Lotty Herschel is approached by a man claiming to be a fellow Holocaust survivor, she's forced to recall a painful past she's tried desperately to forget.
Coming to Lotty's aid, V.I. decides to investigate the mysterious stranger. But her findings lead to the exposure of something…
11
Blacklist
The eleventh novel in the V.I. Warhawski crime series, set in Chicago, from prize-winning author Sara Paretsky.
During a routine stake-out of a major client's former home, V.I. stumbles upon something she didn't expect to find: a body. The police immediately dismiss the victim as a drunken intruder, but V.I.…
12
Fire Sale
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…
13
Hardball
One of the Sunday Times 100 Best Crime Novels and Thrillers since 1945
When V.I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she thought would be futile turns lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history rise up to force…
14
Body Work
Club Gouge: Chicago's edgiest night spot, where a woman calling herself the Body Artist invites the audience to use her naked body as a canvas.
The show attracts all kinds of people, from a menacing cop to Ukrainian mobsters and Iraq war veterans. A tormented young painter comes too, and…
15
Breakdown
Carmilla, Queen of the Night, is a shape-shifting raven whose fictional exploits thrill girls all over the world. When tweens in Chicago's Carmilla Club hold an initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse, a man stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying.
The girls…
16
Critical Mass
Private Eye V.I. Warshawski is roused one morning by an SOS from a woman on a farm south of Chicago. When V.I. gets there, she finds no woman - but a dead man in a cornfield, his body savagely mutilated.
V.I. is happy to leave the case to the local…
17
Brush Back
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…
18
Fallout
V.I. Warshawski's impossible god-daughter Bernie convinces her to look for August, a young film-maker who has disappeared. The evidence indicates that he has gone to Kansas in the company of Emerald, an older black movie actress who wants to film the story of her life. Her search takes V.I. from…
19
Shell Game
Winner of the Sue Grafton Memorial Award!
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2018!
Acclaimed detective V. I. Warshawski tackles a pair of perplexing cases involving those closest to her in this compelling and timely adventure that centers on some of the most divisive and pressing issues of our time…
20
Dead Land
'A novel full of surprises... It's vintage Paretsky, and hard to put down' - The Sunday Times
Named Top 10 Thriller of 2020 by Kirkus
Chicago is the city of broad shoulders, but V.I. Warshawski knows its politics: "Pay to Play". Money changes hands in the middle of the night;…
21
Overboard
On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski's dogs lead her on a mad chase that ends when they find 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. helps bring her…
-
Veronica's list on the best books with badass female detectives on location, location, location