Shell Game

Fan favorite V.I. "Vic" Warshawski is back in her 20th adventure (after 2017's Fallout), toggling between intense cases involving her dear friend Lotty's grandnephew and her own niece by marriage. Felix Herschel is a prime suspect for the death of an unidentified man found in the woods. V.I., discovering Felix reticent, investigates Felix herself as ICE starts to play a larger role in the case. Meanwhile, one of V.I.'s two nieces has vanished, and the other is frantic to find her. To Vic's simultaneous delight and angst, her ex-husband seems at least tangentially involved in Reno's disappearance, since he'd pointed her in the direction of a job with a predatory loan company. As Vic digs deeper, danger edges closer to her and her niece Harmony. Clearing Felix, finding her niece Reno, and keeping everyone safe in the process might just be asking too much. As ever, Paretsky manages to keep V.I. topical and culturally relevant, delving into fears of immigrant communities and the heavy hand ICE plays, while examining abuses levied by wealthy corporations against the poor.