V.I. Warshawski is one of the best . . . smart tough sexy. --Daily News (New York) Sara Paretsky makes excellent use of local backgrounds in a carefully plotted tale of murder and great misdeeds in the world of Great Lakes cargo shipping. --Chicago Tribune When Chicago Black Hawks hockey legend Boom Boom Warshawski slips off a wharf and drowns in Lake Michigan his private-eye cousin questions the accidental death report and rumors of suicide. Armed with a bottle of Black Label and a Smith & Weson V.I. follows a trail of violence and corruption to the center of the Windy City s powerful shipping industry. Dodging elaborate attempts on her life with characteristic grit and humor the one-of-a-kind detective wends her way through a maze of grain elevators and thousand-ton freighters ruthless businessmen and gorgeous ballerinas to ferret out Boom Boom s killers before they phase her out of the picture--permanently. Hard-boiled detective fiction . . . a swift-paced and engrossing read. --The Philadelphia Inquirer Slithers with suspense! --Chicago Sun-Times