Bleak and filled with more despair than usual, Sara Paretsky’s newest crime novel Pay Dirt is as excellent as always. But you can tell that the last couple of years have taken their toll and that V I Warshawski is sadder and more tired than ever before. There’s the aftermath of Covid, with V I insisting on wearing a mask when she feels the need for one, and she is suffering from PTSD after a particularly violent murder involving both her and her beloved Peter. And somehow the world feels much harsher, and we know she will solve the crime, but will we feel safer for it?
V I is back in Kansas, in Lawrence, just overnight, to watch a basketball match. Suddenly there are several crimes that need to be solved, if only to allow V I to return home to Chicago, as long as she can prove she didn’t kidnap a student, or kill the dead woman she discovers. There is much going on in Lawrence, and these days it’s more possible than ever to buy your way out of trouble.
The dead woman had an agenda, and she irritated everyone she met. But what had she discovered? Or was she simply pretending?
The police keep reminding V I she’s not in Chicago where she can behave however she likes. But she’s almost completely on her own, with none of her usual friends for support, missing her dogs and missing Peter, who is staying very quiet somewhere in Spain.
But in the end there is some hope, and I do hope there is plenty more of it. And some of us have had grandmothers, whether they were singing ones or not.
The Occasional Bookwitch 