Hardball

When V.I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she thought would be futile turns lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history rise up to force her back with a vengeance -- a nun who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. dies without revealing crucial evidence, and on the city's South Side, people spit when she shows up. The elderly sisters who hired her are also keeping important information to themselves. Then V.I. finds that her family is keeping secrets of their own. A young cousin whom she's never met arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign, but disappears under mysterious circumstances. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop, deception and corruption following her at every step, V.I. finds all her certainties under threat, but takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end.

ISBN 0340839155   Pages 464 ISBN13 9780340839157 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 610 Publisher Hodder & Stoughton General Division   Published in London Imprint Hodder & Stoughton Ltd   Height (mm) 235 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 156 Publication date 10 Sep 2009   Spine width (mm) 34 DEWEY 813.54   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

'It's hard not to get caught up in her passion ... Snappy dialogue, tight plotting and realistic situations make Paretsky's unapologetically politicised thrillers a pleasure to read, whatever your viewpoint.' -- Daily Mail 'She is writing with the kind of passion for social justice that inspired Chandler and Hammett ... a narrative as gripping as it is emotionally wrenching.' -- Joan Smith, The Sunday Times 'Details are so rich and the dialogue so snappy that the mystery whizzes by.' -- Guardian 'Packed with social themes and moral energy, held together by humor, compassion and sheer feistiness, this novel shows why Paretsky and her heroine are such enduring figure in American detective fiction' -- Publishers Weekly (starred) 'With the creation of V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky did more than anyone to change the face of contemporary women's fiction.' -- Express on Sunday 'Tough, complex and moving, Paretsky is still at the top of her crowded genre.' -- Bookseller 'The thing about Sara Paretsky is, she's tough ... she doesn't flinch from examining old social injustices others might find too shameful (and too painful) to dig up ... it's a distinct pleasure to hear her unapologetically strident voice once again' -- New York Times on HARDBALL 'An ambitious novel layered in the grit of recent American racial history. Paretsky has always written intelligent mysteries ... realising the potential of the homgrown hard-boiled detective genre to investigate the more troubling mysteries at the heart of our national identity.' -- Washington Post

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