4 stars for a hard edged story of high level corruption at a private prison. V. (Vic) I. Warshawski is a private investigator in Chicago, Illinois. She is on the way home from a party when she almost hits a woman lying in the street. She swerves to avoid her and crashes her car into a fire hydrant. She and her friends try to save the dying woman, but the woman dies shortly thereafter in the hospital. Even though Vic was breathalyzed negative, she threatened with an arrest the next day on a trumped up hit and run charge.
This gets Vic to investigating how the woman came to be lying in the road severely injured and comes up against powerful people who try to destroy her.
Hows she manages to solve the mystery and overcome the powerful enemies is a thrilling story. There are scenes of sexual abuse and violence, so this may not be appropriate for cozy mystery fans.
Two quotes:
Vic describing a relationship: "It's true that Murray and I once had a fling, but that was history so ancient there weren't even any archaeological remains to look through."
Wealthy neighborhood: "Each house--if that's what you call something with twenty rooms and four chimneys--was set so far back behind trees and fences that you saw only fragments of facades or gables."
I read this book in 4 days.