Critical Mass: V.I. Warshawski 16

A daring departure for Paretsky . . . and a career-crowning triumph. - The Sunday Times

Paretsky's most ambitious novel so far: interesting, exciting and well worth reading. - Literary Review

A literary comfort blanket with all the must-loved elements - Warshawski risking her neck for friends, cooing over cute dogs, exchanging sassy dialogue with her neighbour Mr Contreras and refusing to do housework - reassuringly present. And yet Paretsky never shies away from tough subjects: this latest case takes in everything from the Holocaust to abuses of power by Homeland Security. Paretsky is brave enough to write feel-good reads that often take you to places where you feel far from good. - Telegraph

Sara Paretsky is American's answer to P.D. James, with added violence. Her private eye, V.I. Warshawski, who comfortingly grows old alongside her readers, is so skilfully embedded in her landscape that I once drove through Chicago guided by a friend solely on her knowledge of the Warshawski oeuvre. Critical Mass is a heady mixture of crack cocaine and nuclear physics, not to mention Nobel Prizes and internet hacking by the security services. - The Tablet