Indemnity Only (1982)

A client gives V. I. Warshawski a false name and a missing-person assignment that rapidly becomes a murder investigation. Paretsky establishes her Chicago private eye through decisions under pressure: whom she believes, whose interests she distrusts and what risks she will take for someone exposed to danger. The fraud and violence give this opening a full plot of its own. Start with Indemnity Only to meet an investigator whose professional tenacity and existing friendships already feel capable of carrying more cases.