Sara Paretsky, Brush Back, book review

The latest in Sara Paretsky’s excellent V I Warshawski series which follows the work of a private detective in Chicago. (This is No 17 and by now Warshawksi has a more lovingly detailed backstory than a Marvel superhero.)

This one revisits an episode from V I’s early years in a crime-ridden part of South Chicago.

Stella Guzzo, the mother of V I’s ex-boyfriend, has been released from prison after beating her own daughter to death – and has accused V I’s late cousin of being the real culprit. Warshawksi tussles with gangsters and scumbag journalists as she tries to probe Stella’s claims but, as ever, it’s Chicago, with its peeling streets and shuttered steel mills, that’s the most vividly drawn character.