Shell Game

August 20, 2018
Lotty Herschel, V.I. Warshawski’s stand-in maternal figure, needs her friend’s help in MWA Grand Master Paretsky’s riveting 20th novel featuring the intrepid Chicago PI (after 2017’s Fall Out). The police are trying to pin a murder on Lotty’s Canadian-born engineering student nephew, Felix, who’s involved with Engineers in a Free State, whose members include several Middle Eastern students. In the midst of trying to gently extract information out of the recalcitrant Felix, Warshawski’s own past turns up on her door in the form of Harmony Seale, the niece of her sleazy lawyer ex-husband. Harmony wants Warshawski’s help in finding her older sister, Reno, who moved to Chicago for work but has fallen off the grid. Warshawki reluctantly tries to track down the wayward Reno and finds herself in the middle of a corporate power struggle, where rich men take what they want and young women caught in the middle bear the brunt of power grabs and worse. Paretsky isn’t one to tiptoe around injustice, and this entry proves once again that she’s one of the sharpest crime writers on the scene today. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Agency.

August 15, 2018
V.I. Warshawski (Fallout, 2017, etc.) goes to bat for a niece of her own and a grandnephew of her best friend.When an unidentified corpse turns up in the wilds of Cap Sauer's Holding, Lt. McGivney of the Cook County Sheriff's Office has to grasp at straws, and his most promising straw is a piece of paper in the dead man's pocket with Felix Herschel's phone number. Felix, whose grandfather was the brother of obstetrician Lotty Herschel, says he doesn't know what the man eventually identified as Elorenze Fausson was doing with his number. In the absence of any other suspects, however, McGivney remains interested, and Warshawski resolves to find evidence that exculpates him or incriminates someone else. Meantime, Harmony Seale, whose late mother was the sister of Warshawski's long-ago husband, attorney Richard Yarborough, has come in from Portland looking for her sister, Reno, and she wants Warshawski to help. The trail of Reno, who worked for bottom-feeding payday lender Rest EZ, leads back to a getaway weekend for high-rolling executives at which she was part of the entertainment, and the closer Warshawski looks at the clues, the more it looks as if her ex is in this mess up to his neck. It would be a relief to work on the murder of Elorenze Fausson if Warshawski didn't keep getting attacked by huge, implacable Slavic thugs--and if the two cases didn't give uncomfortable signs of growing together in an intricately woven pattern that includes kidnapping, the theft of a priceless antiquity, an elaborate and painstakingly detailed insurance fraud, and some unlikely romance for Warshawski.It's pretty obvious early on who the criminal is, but that's true in most Sherlock Holmes stories, and the knowledge doesn't hurt any more here than there. The considerable pleasure comes from following the legendary heroine through an impenetrable maze of felonies knowing that you're in a master's hands.

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October 1, 2018

Fan favorite V.I. "Vic" Warshawski is back in her 20th adventure (after 2017's Fallout), toggling between intense cases involving her dear friend Lotty's grandnephew and her own niece by marriage. Felix Herschel is a prime suspect for the death of an unidentified man found in the woods. V.I., discovering Felix reticent, investigates Felix herself as ICE starts to play a larger role in the case. Meanwhile, one of V.I.'s two nieces has vanished, and the other is frantic to find her. To Vic's simultaneous delight and angst, her ex-husband seems at least tangentially involved in Reno's disappearance, since he'd pointed her in the direction of a job with a predatory loan company. As Vic digs deeper, danger edges closer to her and her niece Harmony. Clearing Felix, finding her niece Reno, and keeping everyone safe in the process might just be asking too much. As ever, Paretsky manages to keep V.I. topical and culturally relevant, delving into fears of immigrant communities and the heavy hand ICE plays, while examining abuses levied by wealthy corporations against the poor. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of Warshawski and for book clubs seeking fast-paced reads with excellent current-events hooks. There's plenty here to consider. [See Prepub Alert, 4/19/18.]--Julie Kane, Washington & Lee Lib., Lexington, VA

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