Fallout: A V.I. Warshawski Novel

In Fallout, V.I. Warshawski sets out to do a favor for the godchild of her cousin and ends up in Lawrence, Kansas uncovering covert operations from earlier decades. The story is fictional, but its author, Sara Paretsky, discloses that it is loosely based on a factual event. She hastens to admit that she made changes to the geography of Lawrence to better suit the story.

Warshawski is tasked with locating a Chicago videographer who disappeared with his client, retired actress Emerald Ferring. Ferring has hired him to create a documentary film of her life. The two have left Chicago, headed for Ferring’s birthplace in Kansas, unaware that the videographer is being sought by law enforcement for a crime committed at his place of employment in Chicago.

Paretsky has presented a richly detailed story in which fiction and history intersect. Among the factual issues (though not specific to the town of Lawrence) are family dysfunction, bigotry, and suspicion of outsiders in a small town. These elements are masterfully blended into a riveting story that moves quickly and demands the reader’s attention.