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...

Chicago private investigator V. I. Warshawski plunges into the darkest and most emotionally shattering case of her career when she tries to unravel the mystery of a battered and discarded woman she finds lying in the street.

Private eye V.I. Warshawski knows her friend Consuelo's pregnancy is already risky-she's sixteen and diabetic. Despite V.I.'s efforts to provide Consuelo with proper care, both mother and daughter die in the local hospital. Suspecting malpractice, V.I. begins an investigation- and a reluctant romance with an ER doctor. But deadly complications arise when a series of vicious murders and an attack on a women's clinic lead her to suspect a cold-blooded...

After her golden retriever has puppies, and her yuppie neighbors put them to sleep while dog-sitting, V.I. uncovers a corporate network of murder and corruption.

No one would accuse V.I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she'd be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that's precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo's plea for help. For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot...

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...

The Body Artist allows her audience to use her naked body as a canvas for their impromptu illustrations. V.I. Warshawski watches as people step forward to make their mark. 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 later, the woman is shot outside the club. She dies in V.I.'s arms and the police move quickly to arrest the angry vet. V.I. is hired...

Carmilla, Queen of the Night, is a shape-shifting raven whose shape-shifting exploits thrill tween girls all over the world. When Chicago's Carmilla Club holds an initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse, murdered vampire-style. The girls include daughters of some of Chicago's most powerful families. And for V. I. Warshawski, the questions multiply faster than the answers.

When V.I. Warshawski is hired to investigate the fire at the hotel, her aunt disappears, and her aunt's young friend is found dead at a construction site. V.I. is warned off the case by both a high-ranking police officer and a major Chicago developer-who also happens to be a close friend of the chairman of the Cook County Board. After three terrifying attempts on her life. V.I. doesn't know whether it's the politicians, the police, or the developers...

No one would accuse V.I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she'd be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that's precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo's plea for help. For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot...