Fallout, by Sara Paretsky

Fallout by Sara Paretsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For years, my favorite V.I. Warshawski mystery was Hardball. However, Fallout, by Sara Paretsky is right up there, either a close second, or even my favorite V.I. Warshawski mystery.

(Full disclosure: I have yet to find any part of Sara Paretsky's series that I didn't like.)

V.I. is at loose ends: her neighbor, Mr. Contreras, is in the Caribbean with family, her lover is out of town for a month. But those loose ends don't last long: Enter Bernadine Fouchard. The daughter of Vic's one of late-cousin Boom Boom's Blackhawk teammates, Bernadine and a co-worker ask Vic to try finding an African-American coworker/film student, who has gone missing.

Vic's search leads her from Chicago to Lawrence, Kansas, way out of her comfort zone. Accompanied with her dog, Peppy, V.I. searches through a university town, decommissioned missile-silos, fields, all while uncovering long-standing racial tensions.

During V.I.'s search, the body-count starts adding up, which leads the local police department to question Vic's reason for being in Lawrence. Every time Vic gets close, another mystery sneaks in.

How does Fallout end? Will Vic solve all the mysteries involved with the case? (Of course she does, but not without putting herself in jeopardy.) How does she solve it? Will her lover be back in Chicago when she gets back? Will Mr. C. help out, even from a distance? Read this absolutely fantastic addition to Sara Paretsky's series.

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