Pay Dirt

by Sara Paretsky

Part of V.I. Warshawski, book 22

First published 2024

V.I. Warshawski arrives in Kansas shaken by her latest case, where a father killed the missing child she had tracked down. Her friends hope college basketball will restore her spirits, but when Angela's roommate Sabrina vanishes, V.I. stays behind to search. She locates Sabrina near death in a drug house, but the rescue brings unwanted attention from the FBI and local dealers. Days later, V.I. finds a dead body in the same house and realizes she has stumbled into something much larger. The murder connects to a land dispute that reaches back to the Civil War era. Modern combatants prove as deadly as their 1860s predecessors, and V.I. must navigate a dangerous game where the rules remain hidden. Her survival requires staying ahead of players who view her as both threat and target in their ongoing battle over territory and power.

Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller

Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: fish-out-of-water, survival

Setting: Kansas

Period: Civil War

400 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow

Content warnings: drug-use

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