Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
Meeting an anonymous client on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. Especially when the client lies and tells V.I. Warshawski he's the prominent banker John Thayer, looking for his son's missing girlfriend. But V.I. soon discovers the real John Thayer's son - and he's dead.

As V.I. begins to question her mysterious client's motives, she sinks deeper into Chicago's darker side: a world of gangsters, insurance fraud and contract killings. And while she must concentrate on saving the life of someone she has never met, it becomes clear that she is in danger of losing her own.

Newly available 25 years after a stunnig debut, Indemnity Only introduces one of the world's best-loved private investigator.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. The First V.I. Warshawski Mystery. Hodder, ISBN: 9780340935125 (July, 2007), 278 p., £7.99.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshwski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. The First V.I. Warshawski Mystery. Dell, ISBN: 0440210690 (July, 1991), $4.95.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
It's July in Chicago, when tempers wear thin; V. I. Warshawski wants to go home and beat the heat. But the private investigator is broke; she agrees to a late-night meeting with a client. When the man tells her he's John Thayer, head of Chicago's biggest bank, her spirits pick up. His mission for her sounds sim-ple: find Anita Hill, his son Peter's missing girlfriend.

That's the last good cheer V.I. gets for some time. She finds someone fast enough, but it's Peter, and he's dead. He's the son of Chicago's top banker, all right, but that's not the man who hired her. And it's true that Anita is miss-ing, but Hill isn't her last name.

Who is V.I.'s client? What does he want with Anita? Is he behind the goons sent to scare V.I. off the case? Or does the dead boy's boss, an insurance executive, know more than he's letting on?

By the time V.I. figures out the answers, she's in a race to find Anita where the prize is the young woman's life. And she learns there are hotter things in Chicago than July.

In this first novel featuring America's top female private eye, Sara Paretsky displays all the storytelling skills that have made her one of the best mystery writers working today.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. The First V.I. Warshawski Mystery. Delacorte Press, ISBN: 0385302606 (February, 1991), 244 p., $18.95.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY
MURDER
Start with a missing co-ed sought by a mysterious client who won't reveal his true identity. Mix in a dead boyfriend whose body you're unlucky enough to find. Then for good measure throw in the local cops who simply want you out of the way.

Combine the explosively revealing records of a major insurance company and the murderous goons of the city's most powerful union who've nailed you for a target.

It all adds up to a killer of a case for Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski, karate black belt, law school graduate, and every inch a woman.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. You don't have to be a man to catch this killer. Just a damn good privat eye... Ballantine, ISBN: 0345336348 (March, 1988), 215 p., $3.50.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (UK 1982)

From the Publisher:
Sara Paretsky takes the amiliar private-eye formula, and has a lot of fun with it. For one thing, she outrages propriety by giving us a female private-eye, and one with the unlikely name of Warshawski -- who is, like her author, of Polish extraction.

Clients are in short supply in Warshawski's world. So she's quite pleased when Thayer, the Vice-President of Chicago's biggest bank, hires her to find his son. And she's not so pleased when she discovers that the client isn't Thayer but McGraw, the boss of the International Brotherhood of Knifegrinders. (Our author's humour has a cutting edge to it.) And it's not a son he wants traced but a daughter: because he knows that Peter Thayer has been shot dead in the apartment he shared with Anita McGraw, and Anita has vanished.

Warshawski finds herself investigating a big insurance fraud and a murder contract, and confronting a formidable array of gunmen. But one woman is equal to ten thugs when she's Warshawski, karate expert and deadly marksman. It all makes delightful reading, fast-moving and light-hearted: just the book to raise one's spirits.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. A Novel. London: Victor Gollancz, 1982, ISBN: 0575031093, 244 p., £6.95.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
V. I. Warshawski is a tough Chicago private detective whose father was a policeman. Warshawski also has a law degree, is reasonably adept at karate when necessary, and happens to be a rather good-looking woman.

Approached by a mysterious client who wants her to find a missing University of Chicago co-ed, V. I. begins her search by discovering the body of a young man. Her investigation, now involving two mysteries, takes her into the records of a major insurance company, a leading bank, and the city's toughest and most corrupt union, as well as into physical conflict with some unpleasant types who want to discourage her efforts.

V. I. Warshawski has a wonderfully wry, warm way about her that attracts a varied assortment of friends, including Devereux, an ardent insurance executive; Jill Thayer, the teen-age daughter of a wealthy banker; and Dr. Lotty Herschel, who runs a medical clinic in a poor neighborhood. As she pursues her quarry they help and hinder her as only admirers can.

In Indemnity Only Sara Paretsky has given us a smooth and clever blend of action and insight. V. I. Warshawski is an exciting new sleuth whose exploits and personality promise to attract an enthusiastic following.

Sara Paretsky: Indemnity Only. A Novel. New York: The Dial Press, 1982, ISBN: 0385272138, 244 p., $14.95.