V. I. Warshawski (abridged)

Chicago private eye V. I. Warshawski knows from the start that Consuelo Alvarado's baby is trouble. Consuelo is 16. Diabetic. And the daughter of a friend. When she goes into labor too early, even V. I.'s wild drive to get her to the hospital can't save either Consuelo or her child. Soon V. I. is investigating possible malpractice at the emergency room - and falling for a doctor who works there.

Multimedia conglomerate Global Entertainment has purchased the Chicago Herald-Star, forcing the paper's staff to scramble for new jobs. Reporter Murray Ryerson, V.I. Warshawski's long-time friend, lands a plum job as host of a Global network television show. On her way home from a party in honor of Murray's success, V.I. stops to help a woman lying in the street. Her Good Samaritan act sends her straight into a case that exposes dark hidden truths behind the razzle-dazzle of the entertainment industry.

V.I. has been visiting Club Gouge, Chicago’s edgiest nightspot, where a woman known as the Body Artist turns her naked body into a canvas for the audience to paint on. The show attracts all kinds of people, from a menacing off-duty cop to Ukrainian mobsters and Iraq war vets - and V.I.’s impetuous cousin, Petra. A tormented young painter shows up, too, and the intricate designs she creates on the Body Artist drive one of the vets into a violent rage. But the vet’s family hires V.I. to clear his name....

When tweens in Chicago’s Carmilla Club hold an initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse, a man stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying. The girls include daughters of some of Chicago’s most powerful families: the grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is among the world’s wealthiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is running for the United States Senate. V. I. Warshawski, the questions multiply faster than the answers.