History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 7/10

• Plot: A client using a false name hires V.I. Warshawski to find his son’s girlfriend, and the son is found dead.
• Clues: Solid and practical, involving insurance fraud and union corruption.
• Reveal: Satisfying, with V.I.’s toughness tested physically.

V.I. Warshawski, a private investigator in Chicago, is hired by a man calling himself John Thayer to find his son’s girlfriend, Anita McGraw. V.I. discovers that the man is not who he claims to be. Soon the real Thayer’s son is found murdered, and V.I. is drawn into a web of insurance fraud and labour union politics.

Sara Paretsky created V.I. as a response to the hard-boiled tradition, in which women were usually victims or femmes fatales. V.I. is tough, independent, stubborn and funny, a former lawyer who knows how the system works.

The Chicago setting is vivid, from luxury apartments to union halls. V.I.’s friendships, especially with the doctor Lotty Herschel, give the series its warmth.

The mystery is well constructed, though the business details can be dry. Some characters are thin, and the villains are fairly obvious.

The 7 reflects a strong debut that helped transform the private-eye genre. Paretsky’s later novels, such as Bitter Medicine and Blood Shot, deepened the character and her social concerns.