Windy City Blues — Sara Paretsky

FRIENDS & FAMILY CAN BE MURDER

Decked out in her silk shirts and no-nonsense attitude, V.I. has barely finished her morning coffee when she sees an ad in the paper asking for information about her own mother, long dead. Enter her newfound Italian cousin Vico, with a score to settle--in blood. So much for family ties. But when V.I.'s friend Dr. Lotty Herschel is suspected of killing her professional rival and stealing his priceless statue, V.I. cuts to the art of the case-and it's not a pretty picture at all! Then a high school classmate summons V.I. to a race at the Old Swimming Hole--only to leave her swimming with the sharks. By now V .I. could use a relaxing facial. Instead, she gets the business when her pal Sal's beautician-sister transforms a client into a stiff....