Blacklist by Sara Paretsky
SYNOPSIS
Eager for physical action in the spirit-numbing wake of 9/11, VI Warshawski is glad to take on a routine stake-out for her most important client, Darraugh Graham. His ninety-one year-old mother has sold the family estate, but Geraldine Graham keeps a fretful eye on it from her retirement apartment across the road. When Geraldine sees lights there in the middle of the night, Darraugh sends V I out to investigate-and the detective finds a dead journalist in the ornamental pond. The man is an African-American; when the suburban cops seem to be treating him as a criminal who stumbled to a drunken death, his family hires V I to investigate.
As she retraces the dead reporter’s tracks, V I finds herself in the middle of a Gothic tale of sex, money, and power. The trail leads her back to the McCarthy era blacklists, and forward to the ominous police powers the American government has assumed today. V I finds herself penned into a smaller and smaller space by an array of business and political leaders who can call on the power of the Patriot Act to shut her up. Only her wits, and an unusual alliance she forges with Geraldine Graham and a sixteen year old girl save her.
For Geraldine Courtney Wright, artist and writer-valiant, witty and formidable-a true grande dame: I cannot rest from travel; I will drink life to the lees …
THANKS
Dr. Sarah Neely provided valuable medical advice. Jill Koniecsko made it possible for me to navigate Lexis-Nexis. Judi Phillips knew exactly how a robber baron would have constructed an ornamental pond in 1903. Jesus Mata helped VI. with her neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Sandy Weiss was a demon on technology topics and Jolynn Parker’s Fact Factory as always turned up amazing results. Eva Kuhn advised me on Catherine Bayard’s music tastes. The senior C-Dog did his usual witty riff on chapter titles; chapter titles, as always, are provided in loving memory of Don Sandstrom, who cherished them.
Michael Flug, archivist at the Vivian Harsh Collection, was immensely helpful in directing me to documents about the Federal Negro Theater Project. Margaret Kinsman introduced me to this great resource in my backyard.
The great forensic pathologist Dr. Robert Kirschner died in the summer of 2002. His presence in prisons and at mass graves from Nigeria to Bosnia, from El Salvador to Chicago’s South Side, brought a measure of justice to victims of torture and mass murder, and his loss is a grievous one. Despite the nature and importance of his work, Dr. Kirschner also took pleasure in VI’s adventures. For the last sixteen years, he found time to advise me on the ways and means her adversaries used to murder. During his final illness, we talked about the unpleasant ends the characters in Blacklist were meeting. I miss him as an adviser, a friend, and a great humanitarian.
This is a work of fiction. I do mention historical events, such as the Federal Theater Project, the Dies Committee, HUAC, and some figures active in the arts in the nineteen-thirties, like Shirley Graham, as part of the background of the novel, All characters who actually play a role in the story, as well as events like the destruction of the Fourth Amendment, are solely the fabrication of a brain made frenzied by chronic insomnia. Any resemblance to any real person, institution, government or legislation is purely coincidental.
CHAPTERS
1. A Walk on the Wild Side 2. The Iron Dowager
3. Hands Across the Water 4. Once More Unto the Pokey, Dear Friends 5. Stochastic Excursion 6. Neighborhood Joint 7. No Rest for the Sick 8. Twinkle,Twinkle, Little Light (Wonder If You’re There Tonight) 9. Ice Cube Editor
10. Trackless Desert 11. A Child’s Garden of Verses 12. The Wabash Cannonball 13. Quicksand?
14. Gaps in the Newsreel 15. House of the Dead 16. Burke and Hare
17. Timmy’s in the Well 18. Crocodile in the Moat 19. Under the Dragon’s Spell 20. Lair of the Star Chamber Man 21. Jigsaw Puzzle
22. But Where Are the Pieces of the Jigsaw?
23. The Family Retainer 24. Scuba Diver
25. Scaling the North Face 26. The Jaws of a Giant Clam 27. Well, Howdy, Lieutenant 28. When You Need a Ride-Steal a Car 29. Back to the Briar Patch 30. Warming Up
31. Superhero
32. Golf Cart Hearse 33. Patriot Acts
34. What Bill of Rights?
35. Among Friends-for a Change 36. Bedside Manner
37. A Boy’s Best Friend 38. Conversation Between Hardheads 39. Dirty Laundry
40. Tangle,Tangle, Lives Entangled 41. Charity Begins at Home 42. Silence Is-?
43. Stiffed at the Morgue 44. Boy Wonder
45. The Ice Cube Man Cometh 46. Hamster on a Wheel 47. Tough on a Rhino Hide 48. Seizures
49. Terrorist on the Run-or in an SUV
50. Loves’ Labors Lost 51. The Dead Speak
52. Someone’s Packing 53. Death for the Undeserving 54. Unnatural Sleep
55. Shoot-Out at the Eagle River Corral 56. Death Notices
57. Lovers Lost-and Found
BLACKLIST
CHAPTER 1
A Walk on the Wild Side