hard-boiled detective...

Blood Shot by Sara Paretsky
After reading the fifth novel in Paretsky's indomitable V.I. Warshawski mystery series, you certainly can't say you don't know the author's political leanings. When Caroline Dijak, the daughter of a friend from Warshawski's old neighborhood asks V.I. for help locating her father, the private eye reluctantly agrees. What begins is an investigation involving murder, incest, insurance fraud, and a cover-up going back thirty years. The plot of Blood Shot involves Caroline's quest for the father she never knew. Her mother, Louisa, is dying, and will not tell her. Warshawski is called in and begins her investigation, but before she gets very far, Caroline calls it off, a friend is murdered and V.I. begins to investigate that death. This novel was rich in plot developments and revealed a layer of Warshawski's character that previous novels have only begun to peel. I'm intrigued and plan to keep on reading this series, because I can sense they will only get better as we learn more about the motivation behind Warshawski and her battle with inner demons. My only gripe is that it is taking a long time to get a reader hooked. I think most readers would probably have given up by now, but if they haven't, it is well worth the read! As a "hard-boiled" mystery series, the V.I. Warshawski novels are probably on the light side, although she gets into more than her share of battles and tussles with the bad guys. Its always a pleasure to read a good mystery novel with a feisty heroine, though, rather than a novel with a damsel in distress...