The novel is intricate and involving, its latticework plot including an act of vandalism at a synagogue and encounters with people Warshawski grew up with in South Chicago...Although Paretsky employs a technological gizmo as a major plot point, Overboard offers the comforts of a throwback, enlisting classic PI-story motifs, such as disguises, heartless villains, escapes on foot and feats of physical daring...Would it even be a Warshawski novel without that last one?
In MWA Grand Master Paretsky's timely, propulsive 21st V.I. Warshawski novel, the private investigator's dogs get loose during a walk and lead her to an unconscious teenage girl on Chicago's lakefront...She has no identification, but wakes long enough to whisper the word nagyi before EMTs take her away...When the girl later vanishes from the hospital and a possible witness is murdered, Vic resolves to find and protect her from further harm...Subplots involving hate crimes perpetrated against a Jewish Orthodox synagogue and a family of hustlers from Vic's old neighborhood add to this thorny tale of corruption and greed...Paretsky's dizzyingly complex plot strains credulity, but the tale's relentless pacing, sky-high stakes, and strong social justice advocacy should keep readers invested in the expertly crafted characters' fates...Series fans will get their money's worth.
Paretsky ties this rapidly expanding bolus together with such an assured sense of inevitability that fans may overlook the relative lack of surprise...Not just murder, but adultery, hate crime, fraud, elder abuse, police misconduct, and dysfunctional families...Enjoy.
