**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
**
"A proper hero for these times . . . To us, V.I. is perfect." --
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"Sara Paretsky's gloriously kick-ass private eye, V.I. "Vic"
Warshawski, is back . . . in a political-rot thriller that's the
definition of perfection in the genre." -- THE WASHINGTON POST
Chicago's legendary detective, V.I. Warshawski, knows her city's
rotten underbelly better than most, but she's unable to avoid it when
her goddaughter drags her into a fight over lakefront land use, in this
propulsive novel from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky.
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 her lover was murdered next to her
in a mass shooting at an outdoor concert. Not only does Bernie plunge
her and V.I. headlong into the path of some ruthless developers, they
lead to the murder of the young man Bernie is dating. He's a computer
geek working for a community group called SLICK.
V.I. is desperate to find a mysterious man named Coop, who roams the
lakefront in the middle of the night with his dog. She's sure he holds
the key to the mounting body count within SLICK. Coop may even know why
an international law firm is representing the mass murderer responsible
for Lydia's lover's death. Instead, the detective finds a terrifying
conspiracy stretching from Chicago's parks to a cover-up of the dark
chapters in America's meddling in South American politics. Before she
finds answers, this electrifying novel pushes V.I. close to the breaking
point: People who pay to play take no prisoners.
