Paretsky is a really good writer who brings South Chicago to life. I wasn't a huge fan of the "headstrong teenager rushes into trouble and needs to get rescued" subplot, but overall I really liked this. ( )

This is one of Paretsky's best. Yes it's true to form. Yes the same characters are there. Yes it's still Chicago. Yes she gets beat up. Yes there's the young innocent who appears early on and you know by the end she'll be in danger but V.I. will get there just in time to rescue her. But somehow when V.I. is dealing with her south side roots the events feel real. Yes there are evil corporations and mob connected characters but it's her home base that keeps her grounded. This one has the Cubs, and Wrigley Field as major characters. We learn more about her cousin Boom Boom and the Blackhawks. We know that V.I. will clear him of the slander thrown out by the railroaded neighbor who loves to throw out bile for everyone. Somehow it still makes a good read. ( )

"For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister, Annie, to death. Stella Guzzo was an angry, uncooperative prisoner and did a full twenty ...

This series was recommended many years back as being like Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series. I've been reading through the series in order, or in some cases, such as this one, listening to them while I drive. They changed narrators for this book (compared to some of the earlier ones I listened to on audiobook) which means the voices of the characters changed. Some were okay and some (like Mr. Contreras) were very different.

A friend of V.I.'s cousin Boom-Boom shows up out of the blue asking V.I. to help out his recently-released mother who is still claiming she didn't murder her daughter. At the same time, Boom-Boom's goddaughter is staying with V.I. while checking out NorthWestern's hockey program. The catch is that the mother actively disliked and dislikes the Warshawski family--so instead of being grateful for V.I.'s help, she slaps V.I. with a restraining order and tries to smear Boom-Boom's name. This latter infuriates the goddaughter who demands that V.I. do something to clear his name--and then when she feels V.I. isn't acting, takes matters into her own hands, endangering them both. ( )

Too long by half, and deadly boring. Rushes to its conclusion in the last few chapters. ( )