by Sara Paretsky (2005)
A nagging conscience makes V.I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls' basketball team at her South Side alma mater-which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V.I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad. But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart...with the exception of Billy Bysen. He's the earnest teenage grandson of the chain's gruff, tight-fisted founder. And when Billy disappears-along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart's management team-V.I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago's dirtiest places, and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets.
Laura Childs
Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is catering a Charleston benefit, a "Ghost Crawl" through Jasmine Cemetery, when the organizer drops dead—and it looks like foul play. Theodosia stirs things up with her own investigation, and gets into hot water up to her neck.
Sara Paretsky
How do you look for someone who vanished four decades ago? And how do you deal with the news that your father might have been a cop on the take? Ask V.I. Warshawski.
edited and with an introduction by Otto Penzler
"Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, resourceful, and brilliant female sleuths in mystery fiction ... For the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the most iconic women of the detective canon over the past 150 years, captivating and surprising readers in equal measure. The 74 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most determined of gumshoe gals, from debutant detectives like Anna Katharine Green's Violet Strange to spinster sleuths like Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams, from groundbreaking female cops like Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly to contemporary crime-fighting P.I.s like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, and include indelible tales from Agatha Christie, Carolyn Wells, Edgar Wallace, L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace, Sara Paretsky, Nevada Barr, Linda Barnes, Laura Lippman, and many more. Meet determined law-enforcing ladies and captivating criminal masterminds of all kinds, including a brilliant scientist who solves a murder using a single tea leaf ; a master thief who leaves a calling card at the scene of the crime lest the servants be wrongly accused ; a powerful woman who oversees a rogue band of vigilantes ; a nosy detective best known for her outrageous hats who solves a murder using tropical fish ; an X-rated sleuth who gets shanghaied by an unsavory character ; a puritanical villainess hell-bent on avenging a perceived wrong ; and, last but not least, a crime-solving nun who unravels a complicated poisoning plot" --
Dorothy Cannell
Ellie, who has had her share of disappointments and uncertainties, is fighting another battle. Having recently had twins, she's feeling the overwhelming (but welcome) responsibility of having two adorable babies and is trying to regain her self esteem. It is this quest which leads Ellie smack into the middle of another murder mystery.