V.I. Warshawski's attempts to help a sour-faced old aunt who has been accused of stealing stock certificates from a pious order of Dominican brothers lands her in trouble with two of Chicago's most powerful institutions--the Church and the Mob.

V.I. Warshawski, a private investigator, is up against corrupt politicians, big government, political coverups, and the idle rich when she tries to solve the case of her community activist friend's murder.

V.I. Warshawski agrees to help out an old client by checking on an empty family mansion only to find a body and a mystery that goes back to the McCarthy era.

The enigmatic performer known as the Body Artist takes the stage at Chicago's Club Gouge and allows her audience to use her naked body as a canvas for their impromptu illustrations. V. I. Warshawski watches as people step forward, some meek, some bold, to make their mark. The evening takes a strange turn when one woman's sketch triggers a violent outburst from a man at a nearby table. Quickly subdued, the man-an Iraqi war vet-leaves the club. Days...

"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,...

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 the military base Emerald was born on, to the farm where she grew up outside a university town, ploughing up past and present-day secrets as she goes. What...

In this short story from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky, acclaimed detective V.I. Warshawski must confront gun violence in her own Chicago hometown. Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski is no stranger to the sound of bullets. Growing up in the Windy City, it was a way of life: loved ones taken too early, gangs patrolling the streets by night, police too quick to touch a trigger. Now, in the wake of a string of high school shootings across...

"Chicago may be the city of broad shoulders, but its political law is "Pay to Play." Money changes hands in the middle of the night, and by morning, buildings and parks are replaced by billion-dollar projects. Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski gets pulled into one of these clandestine deals through her impetuous goddaughter, Bernie Fouchard. Bernie tries to rescue Lydia Zamir, a famed singer-songwriter now living on the streets; Zamir's life fell apart when...