Paretsky, Sara. Hard Time (1999). Delacorte, 385 pages, $24.95 hardcover ISBN 0 385 31363
Whatever demons were haunting Sara Paretsky, she seems to have exorcised them in Ghost Country, for Hard Time brings back V.I. Warshawski in the author’s best novel yet.
When Global Entertainment, a media conglomerate, purchases the Chicago Herald-Star, V.I. Warshawski’s long-time friend, former reporter Murray Ryerson, becomes host of a television show on Global’s network. Driving home from a grand party celebrating Ryerson’s TV debut, V.I. almost runs over a woman lying in the street.
Never one to let go of a question, V.I. determines to find out who the woman was and why she was lying in that street at that time. Her search for answers to her questions takes her from inside the world of corporate glamour, power, and wealth to behind the bars of a women’s prison. As usual, V.I. worries over the fate of the marginal and dispossessed members of society. Fans of V.I. Warshawski won’t be disappointed in her latest appearance.
© 2000 by Mary Daniels Brown
