Dead Land

Chicago detective V.I. Warshawski returns in the 20th installment of Paretsky’s long-running mystery series (after Shell Game). After attending a contentious meeting on possible changes to the South Chicago lakefront, Warshawski gets involved in a murder investigation that links her goddaughter Bernie and an angry professional protestor. Soon, the good detective is knee deep in a quagmire of political corruption, social injustice, and the disappearance of an award-winning singer-songwriter. Paretsky packs a lot into each new adventure and though this installment is a multilayered story, it moves at a swift and poppy pace. There are times when Warshawski’s escapades are a bit unbelievable—the trap she sets for the antagonists is highly implausible—but new readers should not look for logic; they should enjoy the fun of solving the mystery and rooting for Warshawski to bring down the bad guys.