This is a wonderful addition to the long-running and most-beloved V.I. Warshawski series. This is book 22, and it is as action packed as all the other books in the series. At the beginning we see a very different V.I. She is recovering from an horrific event of the previous fall, and she is unsure of herself, depressed, and not eating and sleeping well. She is in Kansas where she has gone to see a friend of her niece, Bernie, who is playing in an important game and about to break a record in college sports. One of Bernie's friends disappears while they are there, and Bernie asks V.I. to find her. With much reluctance V.I. agrees. She finds the girl unconscious and in a drug house. She manages to get her to safety, but she also discovers the body of an unknown woman in that same house. V.I. tries to find out what happened to the woman, and by doing so she unleashes a rat's nest of corruption and murder in small-town Kansas. Lots is covered in this book--political and corporate corruption, long-held community secrets, and a history of racial prejudice. V.I., at much risk to her health, just has to find out what is behind all this crime, and while doing so, she turns the small town onto its head and digs up some very old secrets that founding families do not want uncovered. It is always an event for me when a new V.I. book comes out and as soon as I hear of one, I place a hold on it so that I can read it right away. I was glad to read that Ms. Paretsky is not done with V.I. yet, and that another book will come out some time in the future. I will be sure to read that immediately as well. ( )

Book Page: V.I. Warshawski returns for her 22nd adventure in Sara Paretsky’s latest mystery, Pay Dirt. In this installment, the PI is not in her usual digs in Chicago, but rather in Lawrence, Kansas. That will not keep her out of trouble, though; she manages to find that pretty much anywhere. This time it’s in the form of Sabrina Granev, a teenage soccer player barely clinging to life after being found in a drug house, and a second woman who was not so lucky—found dead in the same house a few days later. The mystery explores financial greed; closely held family businesses; the mutual back-scratching of corporate interests, politicians, law enforcement officials and jurists; and a bunch of ripped-from-the-headlines points of contention: critical race theory (and ongoing racism in general), the specter of reparations, conspiracy theories, “wokeness” and more. And of course there are a couple of murders, and if the bad guys have their way, they will add Warshawski to that (growing) list. Warshawski remains in top form as she ages; battered some by life, perhaps a bit more acerbic and wryly cynical, but still a keen observer and first-person chronicler. As was the case with the 21 volumes that preceded it, Pay Dirt is unputdownable, a worthy addition to one of the finest series in modern suspense fiction.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky is recommended for die hard fans of the long running series featuring Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski.

Friends of V .I. Warshawski send her to Lawrence, KS to recharge and relax while enjoying a weekend of college basketball. Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. After Angela's housemate Sabrina goes missing, V.I. agrees to help in the search for the young woman. V.I. faces plenty of local suspicion but no local support in her search. When Sabrina is finally found suffering from an O.D., V.I. gets her to the hospital. Then the FBI gets involved and question V.I. about her kidnapping the girl and a murder.

This 22nd outing of the P.I. is full of the expected twists and turns in an intricate, complicated plot. Warshawski is an intelligent, tough, tenacious, and insightful main character who does not give up even when everything is seemingly against her. The investigative part of the narrative is interesting and will hold the attention of most readers.

Looking back over the years to the novels much earlier in the series, I can recall great pleasure reading each new V. I. Warshawski novel. That has started to lessen with recent novels and I believe the series and I are sadly going to go our separate ways now for several reasons. Again, Paretsky makes sure Kansas is depicted as a backward place (getting tired of this habitual plot element). Present day Lawrence, KS, doesn't remotely resemble the city she portrays in the novel. Additionally my fluid rule that authors need to keep their editorializing on personal social/political views on contemporary topics to themselves as it is divisive and diminishes the novel applies. Thanks to HarperCollins for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
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