The V.I. Warshawski Series

Chicago-born private investigator V. I. Warshawski takes ferocious pride in “her” city in this popular series from best-selling author Sara Paretsky.

V. I. Warshawski is Chicago, the good (Lake Michigan, pizza, the Blackhawks) and the bad (the mob, political bosses, drugs). On the job as a PI, V. I. goes to great lengths, often at grave risk, to crack down on corruption, nab crooks, ferret out killers, and keep the city’s mean streets safe. In V. I., Sara Paretsky has created a believable female PI with the grit and the smarts to tackle dangerous, high-stakes crimes - and a soft spot for the city and the people she loves.

Susan Ericksen captures V. I.’s spirit and spunk, Chicago-style. The narrator inhabits Warshawski in all of her toughness, wise-cracking sarcasm, uncompromising honesty, and genuine warmth for those in her circle of true friends and close neighbors. Ericksen not only nails the local accents and quirks of Chicago-speak, her carefully paced, high-energy delivery takes listeners right into the action and lets them get swept away in the story.

Raised in rural Kansas, best-selling author Sara Paretsky first came to Chicago in 1966 to do community service work, in the same neighborhood where Martin Luther King Jr. was organizing, and continues to share V. I.’s passion for social justice. She founded Sara and Two C-Dogs Foundation, which supports girls and women in the arts, letters, and sciences; serves on the advisory board of Literature for All of Us, a literacy group for teen moms; and has mentored students in Chicago’s inner-city, among other commitments. Her gift for mystery has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement from the British Crime Writers Association.

Out of the 20+ installments in the series, three - Critical Mass, Body Work, and Hardball - are Earphones Award winners; another, Blacklist, won the Gold Dagger for Best Novel. The series also inspired a movie, V. I. Warshawski, starring Kathleen Turner as the tough-talking, fiercely independent PI.