Overboard: A V.I. Warshawski Novel

Sara Paretsky

May 2022 · V.I. Warshawski Novels Book 21 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

"Readers can find comfort in the dedication V.I. gives the cries for help she hears from friends, neighbors, and strangers... Very few series authors deliver as masterfully as Sara Paretsky.” — San Francisco Book Review

Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a nefarious conspiracy preying on Chicago’s weak and vulnerable, in this thrilling novel from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky

On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski’s dogs lead her on a mad chase that ends when they discover a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word. V.I. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago powerbrokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl. And now V.I.’s own life is in jeopardy as well.

Told against the backdrop of a city emerging from its pandemic lockdown, Overboard lays bare the dark secrets and corruption buried in Chicago’s neighborhoods in a masterly fashion.

Ratings and reviews

law-enforcement, private-investigators, family, family-dynamics, violence, murder, multicultural, multigenerational, Chicago, crime-fiction, criminal-injustice-system, crooks, triggers, antisemitism, dogs, pets**** As someone who worked alongside good coppers and deputies for years, I found the behaviors of the "self-entitled bad cops" in this story more than disgusting and very hard to read. The same goes for the blanket condemnation of care homes that are chronically understaffed by people who are more than just underpaid and verbally abused for the thankless work that they do. But the mystery and solution are very well done, and I think it's a good thing for fiction to record the timely realities of living through a pandemic. There is a lot of action at a fast pace, plot twists, red herrings, and exposure of bad politics and worse policework. I requested and received a free ebook copy from William Morrow Books via NetGalley.

About the author

Hailed by the Washington Post as “the definition of perfection in the genre,” Sara Paretsky is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago.