"Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough-the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent...

America's premier female private-eye writer, Sara Paretsky follows the success of her latest paperback bestseller Blood Shot with Burn Marks. This time the engaging V.I. Warshawski, a Chicago P.I., e corruption in local politics while investigating a case of arson.

Nine stories on PI V.I. Warshawski of Chicago, mostly involving friends and family. In one, at the request of an Italian cousin she searches for sheet music which belonged to her mother, in another a friend asks her aid in recovering a stolen family sculpture.

"V .I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that's where trouble finds V.I. Sabrina, one of Angela's roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a...