A conversation with Sara Paretsky, author of "Pay Dirt," a V.I. Warshawski novel

American Writers Museum presents a discussion with renowned mystery writer Sara Paretsky about her new novel "Pay Dirt." This is the 23rd book in the V.I. Warshawski series, the original "female private detective," who finds herself in Kansas investigating a case with roots that go back to the American Civil War, plunging the reader into a conflict that is splitting today’s schools, libraries and legislatures into warring camps: how do we address the history of race in the United States? Paretsky is joined in conversation by Booklist editor Donna Seaman.
This conversation originally took place April 16, 2024 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum. For a full list of upcoming programs and events with the American Writers Museum, click here: americanwriter...
More about "Pay Dirt:"
V.I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that’s where trouble finds V.I.
Sabrina, one of Angela’s roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a missing person in a city where she knows few people and doesn’t have her trusted contacts is hard, but not as hard as the brutally negative reaction to the detective from some of the locals. When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a remote house, she lands herself in the FBI’s crosshairs and faces a violent online backlash. The men running the county’s opioid distribution are also not happy.
Discovering a dead body in the same house a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a local land-use battle with roots going back to the Civil War. She finds that today’s combatants are just as willing as opponents in the 1860s to kill to settle their differences.
V.I.’s survival depends on keeping one step ahead of players in a game she never intended to play, before the clock runs down.
Order your copy of "Pay Dirt" here: bookshop.org/a...
A Chicago-based author, SARA PARETSKY is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. Her latest V. I. Warshawski novel is "Pay Dirt." Paretsky is an ardent freedom of speech advocate.
DONNA SEAMAN is the Adult Books Editor for Booklist. A recipient of the Louis Shores Award for excellence in book reviewing and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, Seaman is a member of the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum and an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s MA in Writing and MFA in Prose and Poetry Programs. Seaman’s author interviews are collected in Writers on the Air and she is the author of "Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists." "River of Books: A Life in Reading," will be out fall 2024.