Alongside Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller, Paretsky created the modern archetype of the modern female detective: V.I. Warshawski roams the mean Chicago streets with a feminist sense of righteousness, anger and fallibility and has inspired countless other authors and characters. Tara Moss’ Mak Vanderwall is a more contemporary Australian counterpart, feisty, indomitable, with both a troubled past and a present full of action and suspense.
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Sara Paretsky - HARDBALL. Asked to find a man who’s been missing for 40 years, VI retraces his steps to the civil rights struggles of the 60s and uncovers her usual nest of vipers and personal family secrets.
Tara Moss - HIT. Glamorous Mak Vanderwall now works part-time for a Sydney PI but has a knack for bending the law in her investigations. Which is no help in maintaining personal relationships and her latest case takes her into dangerous corners and streets.
One of the Sunday Times 100 Best Crime Novels and Thrillers since 1945
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.
