Hardball

This caused riots in which the police were attacked for protecting King. For Paretsky, “my summer in the city was the defining time of my life.” She has been a resident of Chicago since, and her stories of fictional detective, VI Warhawski, in 12 novels preceding this one, have showcased the city with its lakes, parks, expressways, underground malls, suburban trains and extremes of weather.

Since Warshawski’s debut in 1982, both she and Paretsky have been unfairly accused of being humourless feminists. Paretsky is tough, as hard-boiled private eyes have to be. But she has a sense of humour, albeit heavily sarcastic. VI is showing signs of her age, highlighted here by the introduction of her cousin, Petra, a 23-year-old from Kansas who is spending her own “defining time” working on the campaign of a Kennedy-like political candidate. Petra is typical of her generation, living online and on her cellphone, exuberant, careless, self-confident. She is like a creature from another planet to the suspicious, world-weary VI.

Hardball’s plot is complex and while set in the present, it is animated by events from the summer of ’66, when, during a riot, King narrowly escaped assassination. VI is now employed by a dying woman to investigate the disappearance of her young nephew, one of Martin Luther King’s protectors, in the winter of ’67. A key witness, a nun who marched with King, dies in VI’s arms after a firebomb attack. VI is badly burnt, but struggles on. Petra, after showing an unusual curiosity about Warshawski family history, disappears, and a retired cop is murdered. How are all these events linked, and could it be possible that VI’s adored late father, a Chicago police officer, was a bent cop?

Sara Paretsky not only writes a good detective story, but uses the genre to examine how recent history has changed American national identity. The hardball of the title refers not just to baseball, and Chicago-style politics, but also to police corruption.

Paretsky subtly sustains social comedy in the background involving, as always, VI’s elderly, dog-loving neighbour, Mr Contreras. New faces include a deceptively sweet-looking female pastor who helps VI outwit the Chicago police department and a new neighbour, a double-bass player with an off-beat sense of humour. VI’s Italian mother, an aspiring opera singer, recently deceased, is frequently recalled, often with tears, as VI’s burn injuries render her more vulnerable than usual. This is an intelligent, fast-paced thriller with a feelgood ending in which VI acquires a new boyfriend (yes, it’s the double-bass player, the only predictable thing in the book), and learns a lesson about how the past can both poison and redeem the present.