Hard Time: A V. I. Warshawski Novel

Hard Time: A V. I. Warshawski Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “When it comes to creating character, evoking place, and writing crackling and convincing dialogue, Sara Paretsky has no peer—and Hard Time proves it once again.”— Chicago Tribune “Terrific . . . expertly plotted . . . This book [is] her best.”— The New York Times Book Review In an instant, the lives of two women collided. One was behind the wheel of a Trans Am she liked to drive too fast. The other was lying in the road, dying an agonizing death. When Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski got out of her car to look at the woman she almost hit, she began a long, harrowing descent into a world of shadowy secrets and tangled lives—and into the darkest heart of her city. In Hard Time , which heralds the triumphant return of the much-loved heroine V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky revisits the gritty urban landscape she illuminates with brilliant compassion and vivid color. For as V.I. unravels the mystery of a battered and discarded woman, she moves through circles of the rich and the troubled, into the bitter home of a powerful Chicago family, into the pampered world of a TV star, and behind the razor wire of a women’s prison. What V.I. finds is a web of conspiracy—and explosive secrets hidden in the darkest places of all. . . . ”You’ll feel handcuffed to this book until you’ve finished—probably at 3 a.m.”— The Denver Post Praise for Sara Paretsky and Her Detective Series Featuring V. I. Warshawski “The best on the beat? V.I. Warshawski [is] the top of the line.” — Chicago Tribune “Who is America’s most convincing and engaging professional female private eye? V.I. Warshawski, the star of Sara Paretsky’s series about white-collar crime and wall-to-wall corruption in Chicago, now clearly leads the growing field.” — Entertainment Weekly “What really continues to amaze and impress about this series is V.I. herself, undoubtedly one of the best-written characters in mystery fiction.” — The Baltimore Sun “Parentsky’s work does more than turn a genre upside down: Her books are beautifully paced and plotted. . . . The dialogue is fresh and smart.” — Newsweek Among the first, and perhaps the most compelling, female private investigators of contemporary fiction, Sara Paretsky's incomparable character V. I. Warshawski at last returns to the page in her first full-length appearance since 1994's Tunnel Vision. Hard Time is the work of a master--a riveting novel of suspense that is indisputably Paretsky's best V.I. Warshawski novel yet. Multimedia conglomerate Global Entertainment has purchased the Chicago Herald-Star, forcing the paper's staff to scramble to stay employed. Reporter Murray Ryerson, V.I.'s longtime friend and sometime rival, manages to reinvent himself as the host of a television show on Global's network. On her way home from a party celebrating Murray's debut, V.I. almost runs over a woman lying in the street. Stopping to help, V.I. soon learns that her Good Samaritan act will drop her squarely in a boiling intrigue. In a case that forces her to go head-to-head with one of the world's largest providers of private security and prison services, a case that exposes dark hidden truths behind the razzle-dazzle of the entertainment industry, V.I. will be ahead of the game if she gets out alive. In an instant, the lives of two women collided. One was behind the wheel of a Trans Am she liked to drive too fast. The other was lying in the road, dying an agonizing death. When Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski got out of her car to look at the woman she almost hit, she began a long, harrowing descent into a world of shadowy secrets and tangled lives -- and into the darkest heart of her city. In her eagerly awaited new novel, which heralds the return of the much-loved heroine V.I. Warshawski, Sara Paretsky revisits the gritty urban landscape she illuminates with brilliant compassion and vivid color. For as V.I. unravels the mystery of a battered and discarded woman, she moves through circles of the rich and the troubled, into the bitter home of a powerful Chicago family, into the pampered world of a TV star, and behind the razor wire of a women's prison. What V.I. finds is a web of conspiracy -- and explosive secrets hidden in the darkest places of all.... Sara Paretsky is the author of many novels, including her V. I. Warshawski series, which began with Indemnity Only . She lives in Chicago Media Circus Lacey Dowell clutched her crucifix, milky breasts thrust forward, as she backed away from her unseen assailant. Tendrils of red hair escaped from her cap; with her eyes shut and her forehead furrowed she seemed to have crossed the line from agony to ecstasy. It was too much emotion for me at close quarters. I turned around, only to see her again, red hair artlessly tangled, breasts still thrust forward, as she accepted the Hasty Pudding award from a crowd of Harvard men. I resolutely refused to look at the wall on my right, where her head was flung back as she l