Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a mystery with roots dating back to the Civil War in this edge-of-your-seat thriller from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky.

V .I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that's where trouble finds V.I.

Sabrina, one of Angela's roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a missing person in a city where she knows few people and doesn't have her trusted contacts is hard, but not as hard as the brutally negative reaction to the detective from some of the locals. When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a remote house, she lands herself in the FBI's crosshairs and faces a violent online backlash. The men running the county's opioid distribution are also not happy.

Discovering a dead body in the same house a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a local land-use battle with roots going back to the Civil War. She finds that today's combatants are just as willing as opponents in the 1860s to kill to settle their differences.

V.I.'s survival depends on keeping one step ahead of players in a game she never intended to play, before the clock runs down.

Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter--and deadlier--than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.

Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Includes stories by:

• Doug Allyn
• Colin Barrett
• Jerome Charyn
• Michael Connelly
• Susan Frith
• Tom Larsen
• Sean Marciniak
• Stefon Mears
• Kieth Lee Morris
• Gwen Mullins
• Jo Nesbo
• Joyce Carol Oates
• Annie Reed
• Kristen Kathryn Rusch
• Anna Scotti
• Ginny Swart
• Ellen Tremiti
• Joseph S. Walker
• Colson Whitehead
• Michael Wiley

Plus a bonus vintage story from the annals of mystery fiction, written over a century in the past.

Sara Paretsky makes excellent use of local backgrounds in a carefully plotted tale of murder and great misdeeds in the world of Great Lakes cargo shipping.--Chicago Tribune

When Chicago Black Hawks hockey legend Boom Boom Warshawski slips off a wharf and drowns in Lake Michigan, his private-eye cousin questions the accidental death report and rumors of suicide. Armed with a bottle of Black Label and a Smith & Weson, V.I. follows a trail of violence and corruption to the center of the Windy City's powerful shipping industry. Dodging elaborate attempts on her life with characteristic grit and humor, the one-of-a-kind detective wends her way through a maze of grain elevators and thousand-ton freighters, ruthless businessmen and gorgeous ballerinas, to ferret out Boom Boom's killers before they phase her out of the picture--permanently.

Hard-boiled detective fiction . . . a swift-paced and engrossing read.--The Philadelphia Inquirer

Slithers with suspense!--Chicago Sun-Times

Readers can find comfort in the dedication V.I. gives the cries for help she hears from friends, neighbors, and strangers... Very few series authors deliver as masterfully as Sara Paretsky. -- San Francisco Book Review

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's dogs lead her 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. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago powerbrokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl. And now V.I.'s own life is in jeopardy as well.

Told against the backdrop of a city emerging from its pandemic lockdown, Overboard lays bare the dark secrets and corruption buried in Chicago's neighborhoods in a masterly fashion.

V. I. Warshawski isn't crazy about going back to her old south Chicago neighborhood, but a promise is something she always keeps. Caroline, a childhood friend, has a dying mother and a problem--after twenty-five years she wants V.I. to find the father she never knew. But when V.I. starts probing into the past, she stumbles onto some long-buried secrets--and a very new corpse. Now she's stirring up a deadly mix of big business and chemical corruption that may become a toxic shock to a snooper who knows too much.

[Paretsky's] work does more than turn the genre upside down: her books are beautifully paced and plotted, and the dialogue is fresh and smart.--Newsweek

Her best and boldest work to date . . . a criminal investigation that is a genuine heroic quest.--The New York Times Book Review

Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a mystery with roots dating back to the Civil War in this edge-of-your-seat thriller from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky.

V .I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that's where trouble finds V.I.

Sabrina, one of Angela's roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a missing person in a city where she knows few people and doesn't have her trusted contacts is hard, but not as hard as the brutally negative reaction to the detective from some of the locals. When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a remote house, she lands herself in the FBI's crosshairs and faces a violent online backlash. The men running the county's opioid distribution are also not happy.

Discovering a dead body in the same house a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a local land-use battle with roots going back to the Civil War. She finds that today's combatants are just as willing as opponents in the 1860s to kill to settle their differences.

V.I.'s survival depends on keeping one step ahead of players in a game she never intended to play, before the clock runs down.

Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a mystery with roots dating back to the Civil War in this edge-of-your-seat thriller from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky.

V .I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that's where trouble finds V.I.

Sabrina, one of Angela's roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a missing person in a city where she knows few people and doesn't have her trusted contacts is hard, but not as hard as the brutally negative reaction to the detective from some of the locals. When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a remote house, she lands herself in the FBI's crosshairs and faces a violent online backlash. The men running the county's opioid distribution are also not happy.

Discovering a dead body in the same house a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a local land-use battle with roots going back to the Civil War. She finds that today's combatants are just as willing as opponents in the 1860s to kill to settle their differences.

V.I.'s survival depends on keeping one step ahead of players in a game she never intended to play, before the clock runs down.

V.I. Warshawski knows her friend Consuelo's pregnancy is already risky--she's sixteen and diabetic--but when the baby arrives prematurely, suddenly two lives are at stake. Despite V.I.'s efforts to provide Consuelo with proper care, both mother and daughter die in the local hospital. Suspecting malpractice, V. I. begins an investigation--and a reluctant romance with an ER doctor. But deadly complications arise when a series of vicious murders and an attack on a women's clinic lead her to suspect a cold-blooded cover-up. And if V.I. isn't careful, she just might have delivered her final case...

As a favor to her most important client, V. I. agrees to check up on an empty mansion. But instead of a mysterious intruder she discovers a dead man in the ornamental pond--a reporter for an African-American publication whom the suburban cops are quick to dismiss as a suicide.

When the man's shattered family hires V. I. to investigate, she is sucked into a Gothic tale of sex, money, and power, leading her back to McCarthy-era blacklists and forward to some of the darker aspects of the Patriot Act. As V. I. finds herself penned in to a smaller and smaller space by an array of people trying to silence her, and before she can untangled the sordid truth, two more people will die--and V.I.'s own life will hang in the balance.

V.I. Vic Warshawski and her neighbor share responsibility for a currently pregnant dog--but Mr. Contreras complains that her detective work keeps her too busy to help with little Peppy. Still, that doesn't stop him from adding more to her plate by asking her to investigate the disappearance of his friend, a fellow retiree. At the same time, Vic's trying to look out for a vulnerable eighty-year-old down the street whose property is considered an eyesore by the newcomers gentrifying the neighborhood.

When Mr. Contreras's friend turns up dead in a canal, and the old lady on the block winds up in the hospital, Vic is swept into a world of organized labor, money, and politics--and discovers a distressing personal connection to the case. Vic may not always succeed as a guardian angel--but when things go wrong, she can chase down the demons--in this suspenseful novel from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and crime-fiction pro (People).

Paretsky's emphasis on character comes at no expense of action: Vic's investigation is as physical as it is mental, taking her inside Chicago's industrial world and up against bad guys who use everything from bats to heavy machinery to thwart her. Among today's PIs, nobody comes close to Warshawski. --Publishers Weekly

The richest and most engaging yet of Ms. Paretsky's thrillers. --The New York Times

Densely textured, adroitly plotted. --Kirkus Reviews

One monster of a plot. --Booklist

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

When V. I Warshawski gets word that her closest friend and mentor Lotty Herschel's nephew has become a suspect in a murder, the legendary detective will do everything she can to save him. The cops found Felix Herschel's name and phone number on the unknown victim's remains, but Felix insists he doesn't know why.

As Vic digs deeper, she discovers that the dead man was obsessed with Middle Eastern archaeology--the first clue in a bewildering case that leads to a stolen artifact and a shadowy network of international criminals. But the trouble multiplies when Vic's long-lost niece, Reno, goes missing. A beautiful young woman with a heartbreaking past and a promising future, Reno is harboring a secret that may cost her her life. V.I. can hear the clock ticking on her niece's safety and is frantic in her efforts to find her.

Vic won't leave any stone unturned until these very personal cases are cleared--a complex investigation that will entangle the Russian mob, ISIS backers, rogue ICE agents, a nefarious corporation preying on the poor, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen antiquities stretching from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East.

In Shell Game, no one can be trusted and nothing is what it seems, except for the indomitable detective and her thirst for justice.

Stubbornness has landed private eye V.I. Warshawski in big trouble at her Chicago office. With her grand old Loop building set to be razed, she's become a hold-out tenant amid frayed wiring and scary, empty corridors. Then she finds a homeless woman with three kids in the basement, and before she can rescue them, they disappear. Worst of all, she's been implicated in a murder--after the body of Deirdre Messenger, a prominent lawyer's wife, turns up sprawled across her desk.

V.I., who had volunteered with Deirdre at a women's shelter, suspects her death is linked to a case of upper-class domestic abuse so slickly concealed that the police refuse to believe it. Increasingly at odds with the cops, V.I. is blindly plunging ahead after the truth. And her path may lead to corruption at the highest levels.or deep into the abandoned tunnels beneath Chicago's streets, where secrets are hiding in the dark like a child's--or V.I.'s--worst nightmare.

Riveting . . . a ripsnorting climax . . . [Warshawski is] street-smart, feisty yet appealingly vulnerable.--Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago's Club Gouge attracts an eclectic audience, from bohemian types to Ukranian mobsters to young men just back from the war. And tonight, V.I. Warshawski is in the crowd too. The edgy stage show stars The Body Artist, who invites audience members to draw on her naked flesh. But things get a lot edgier when a woman sketches a picture on the Body Artist--and one of the veterans flies into a drunken rage. Next thing V.I. knows, she's cradling the woman's dying body in an alley, and a PTSD-stricken soldier is presumed guilty. But he's also comatose after a drug overdose, and the mystery of what exactly set him off--and what kinds of shady activities are really happening at Club Gouge--will lead V.I. to a truth as explosive as the IEDs that lurk on the roadsides of Iraq.

Bonus in this Edition: A Short Story Featuring V.I. Warshawski

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

Includes a Bonus Short Story

LEE CHILD says she's a genius.

P.D. JAMES called her the most remarkable of today's suspense writers.

STIEG LARSSON loved her work so much, he named her in his novels.

And now SARA PARETSKY returns with the most extraordinary novel of her legendary career: FALLOUT.

Before there was Lisbeth Salander, before there was Stephanie Plum, there was V.I. WARSHAWSKI. To her parents, she's Victoria Iphigenia. To her friends, she's Vic. But to clients seeking her talents as a detective, she's V.I. And her new case will lead her from her native Chicago... and into Kansas, on the trail of a vanished film student and a faded Hollywood star.

Accompanied by her dog, V.I. tracks her quarry through a university town, across fields where missile silos once flourished -- and into a past riven by long-simmering racial tensions, a past that holds the key to the crimes of the present. But as the mysteries stack up, so does the body count. And in this, her toughest case, not even V.I. is safe.

Exciting and provocative, fiercely intelligent and witty, FALLOUT is reading at its most enjoyable and powerful.

When a group of Chicago tweens holds a ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse--stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying. V.I. Warshawski arrives on the scene to escort the girls home-but protecting them places her at the tangled center of the investigation. And the girls include daughters of some of Chicago's most powerful families: the grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is among the world's wealthiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is running for the United States Senate.

For V.I., the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Durango--or to Salanter's childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles to find an answer, she finds herself fighting enemies who are no less terrifying for being all too human.

Takes off with a bang--literally...V. I. remains a paragon among PIs, and Fire Sale is one of Paretsky's best books yet.--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A conscience can weigh a PI down more than the heaviest firearm--and get her into more trouble too. It's that nagging conscience that makes V. I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls' basketball team at her South Chicago alma mater--which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V. I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad.

But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart...with the exception of Billy Bysen, the earnest teenage grandson of the chain's gruff, tightfisted founder. And when Billy disappears--along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart's management team--V. I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago's dirtiest places and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets...