Chicago's unique brand of ball is sixteen-inch slow pitch, played in
leagues all over the city for more than a century. But in politics, in
business, and in law enforcement, the game is hardball. When V. I.
Warshawski is asked to find Lamont Gadsden, a man who's been missing for
four decades, a search that she figured would be futile turns lethal.
Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history, as well as
haunting family secrets -- her own and those of the elderly sisters who
hired her -- rise up to brush her back from the plate with a vengeance.
To complicate matters, Petra, a young cousin whom V.I. has never met,
arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign. It does not
take long for the high-spirited yet likable Petra to win over V.I.'s
affections. When Petra goes missing after a break-in at the office, V.I.
is determined to find her beloved cousin. As the search to locate Petra
becomes more desperate, V.I. is also having difficulties tracking down
Lamont Gadsden. Unable to catch a break, she learns that a nun who
marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., has died before she can reveal
crucial evidence. V.I. herself almost dies in a blazing fire, and new
information has emerged about her father's role in a politically and
racially charged trial almost forty years ago. Afraid to discover that
her adored father might have been a bent cop, V.I. takes the
investigation all the way to its frightening end.
