Sara Paretsky's private detective V.I. Warshawski returns with a new addition to the outstanding series. Hardball will be in bookstores everywhere in September.
Paretsky's character of V.I. "Vic" Warshawski was one of the first of the strong female PIs who are as hard-boiled as the guys and the this character has never disappointed the reader.
Hardball allows fans to a slight peak inside Vic as this story involves her current family and memories of her beloved parents.
Against her better judgement V.I. assumes an investigation of the disappearance of a young Black man who has been missing for forty years. Lamont Gadsden has not been seen in Chicago since the night prior to the big snow that paralyzed the city for days. His aunt wants him found before she dies and Vic cannot refuse the request.
Johnnie Merton is in prison for crimes that will keep him there for the remainder of his life. He was an old client of Vic's when she worked for the Public Defender's Office, even then his power over the Black community was enormous and he scared Vic though she refused to give him the power over her by allowing him to see her fear. Merton is Vic's opening link to Lamont, but he refuses to aid her search.
Vic cousin Petra, a recent college graduate comes to Chicago to work on the political campaign of a rising politician. She swiftly makes her presence know both to Vic and her employers.
The hunt for the missing civil rights worker and Petra's employment create a tornado of power as Chicago politics: past, present & future collided in a thrilling page turner. The violence is stark and graphic of the world of the 1966 race riots and the political consequences of that era as Vic remembers bits of her childhood with connections to the present.
With the veteran Partetsky welding the pen there are sifts and convergences in plot lines that make for a rapid pace tied in the shrunken fabric of social history.
Nash Black, author of Writing as a Small Business and Sins of the Fathers
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