Dead land

In this series bar-raiser, dauntless private detective V. I. Vic Warshawski digs into a famous musician's disappearance and uncovers a web of greed linking the South Side of Chicago, rural Kansas, and a Chilean mining town. As Vic awaits a community group's recognition of her goddaughter Bernie Fouchard's soccer team, the South Lakefront Improvement Council's (SLICK's) landfill-proposal presentation erupts into chaos, sparked by the enraged protests of local hothead Coop. Trekking to their cars, Vic and Bernie encounter a homeless woman pounding soulful music on a toy piano. Bernie insists that the woman is a famous musician, Lydia Zamir, who disappeared after her boyfriend, a migrant-workers' advocate, was murdered. Ignoring angry warnings from Coop, Bernie attempts to draw the musician off the streets. Coop's concern rings true when a young SLICK intern, whom Bernie was dating, is murdered near Zamir's camp, Bernie is targeted in a violent home invasion, and Zamir and Coop disappear. Vic responds, determined to run down the connections between SLICK, Zamir, and a high-powered law firm intensely interested in her investigation. Paretsky is celebrated for bringing Chicago to life through Vic's investigations into corporate wrongdoing and political corruption; here, while again mining that territory, she also offers a full-sensory foray into rural Kansas as Vic hunts for Zamir and Coop while dodging an assassin who somehow predicts her every move. A high point in Paretsky's long-running and much-loved series.--Christine Tran Copyright 2020 Booklist

In MWA Grand Master Paretsky's solid 21st V.I. Warshawski novel (after 2018's Shell Game), Warshawski's goddaughter, Bernadine "Bernie" Fouchard, persuades her to attend a meeting of the South Lakefront Improvement Council (SLICK), a Chicago community group. On the group's agenda is the Chicago Parks District's plan to fill in part of the lake to create a beach. The meeting erupts in protest, led by the mysterious Coop. Later, Warshawski and Bernie seek to help Lydia Zamir, a former famous singer-songwriter now living on the streets and suffering from the aftershock of the murder of her lover, Hector Palurdo, in a mass shooting. Warshawski looks into who killed Hector while also investigating the actions of SLICK after two of its speakers are murdered. Could Coop be involved? Warshawski knows well the shady politics that drive Chicago and the city's "pay for play" policies, but she wasn't expecting to uncover a conspiracy that reaches into South America. Never mind that the plot occasionally becomes mired in repetitious action. Warshawski's spirit and strength still shine. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Apr.)

Chicago detective V.I. Warshawski returns in the 20th installment of Paretsky's long-running mystery series (after Shell Game). After attending a contentious meeting on possible changes to the South Chicago lakefront, Warshawski gets involved in a murder investigation that links her goddaughter Bernie and an angry professional protestor. Soon, the good detective is knee deep in a quagmire of political corruption, social injustice, and the disappearance of an award-winning singer-songwriter. Paretsky packs a lot into each new adventure and though this installment is a multilayered story, it moves at a swift and poppy pace. There are times when Warshawski's escapades are a bit unbelievable--the trap she sets for the antagonists is highly implausible--but new readers should not look for logic; they should enjoy the fun of solving the mystery and rooting for Warshawski to bring down the bad guys. VERDICT This enjoyable romp through political corruption and social injustice in Chicago will please fans of the V.I. Warshawski detective series and readers who enjoy tough women PIs. [See Prepub Alert, 9/23/19.]--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL

V.I. Warshawski's search for a homeless woman with a fraught past leads her deep into a series of political conspiracies that stretch over generations and continents. Bernadine Fouchard, V.I.'s goddaughter, thinks that Lydia Zamir, whose songs about strong women she reveres, was shot dead along with her lover, Hector Palurdo, at a Kansas fundraiser four years ago. She's only half right. The 17 victims ranch hand Arthur Morton shot in Horsethief Canyon include Palurdo but not Zamir, whom V.I. and Bernie happen to hear banging out haunting tunes on a toy piano under a Chicago railroad viaduct. But they glimpse her only momentarily before the traumatized musician flees and eventually disappears. Soon afterward, Bernie finds herself in trouble when the young man she's been dating--Leo Prinz, a summer employee of SLICK, the South Lakefront Improvement Council--is murdered and she becomes a person of considerable interest to Sgt. Lenora Pizzello. The search for Lydia Zamir morphs into an investigation of her relationship with Palurdo, an activist against the Pinochet regime in Chile long before he was shot apparently at random. In the meantime, the disappearance of Simon Lensky, one of SLICK's elected managers, throws a spotlight on the organization's controversial proposal for a new landfill on the South Side. Everyone in the city seems to have strong opinions about the proposal, from Gifford Taggett, superintendent of the Chicago Park District, to Nobel Prize-winning economist Larry Nieland, to an inveterate protestor known only as Coop, who kicks off the story by vanishing after parking his dog with V.I., to her consternation and the ire of her neighbors and her own two dogs. As usual, Paretsky (Shell Game, 2018, etc.) is less interested in identifying whodunit than in uncovering a monstrous web of evil, and this web is one of her densest and most finely woven ever. So fierce, ambitious, and far-reaching that it makes most other mysteries seem like so many petit fours. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.