For the history of race in Lawrence, I’ve relied partly on my own memories and partly on This Is America? The Sixties in Lawrence, Kansas by Rusty L. Monhollon and Bill Tuttle’s “Separate but Not Equal,” in Embattled Lawrence, edited by Dennis Domer and Barbara Watkins. Langston Hughes grew up in Lawrence on the old east side, but for the purposes of this novel I’ve concentrated African-American life on the north side of the river.

As always, many people helped make this work possible. Professors Bill and Wendy Picking head the list, for taking time from significant professional obligations to advise me on biological matters. Dr. Raymond Zilinskas, who is an authority on biological weapons, was most helpful in the earliest days of my work on this novel.

Angela Wilson, formerly a district attorney in Douglas County, explained court procedures in Kansas for the moments when V.I. Warshawski inevitably ran afoul of the law. Jonathan Paretsky not only made that connection but drove me around the town and county to check locations.

Retired Lawrence police officer John Lewis has been most kind with his advice. As usual, I have taken liberties, some conscious, some inadvertent, with the advice I’ve received. Marzena Madej kept us all going in Chicago while I worked on this book: many thanks are due to her.

Finally, I’m grateful for the active support and insight of my editor, Dan Mallory, who has helped renew my confidence in my writing voice and in V.I. herself.

The chapter titles are dedicated to my husband and to the memory of Don Sandstrom, who cherished them.

I hope everyone will forgive my mistakes—this is a work of fiction and shouldn’t be relied on for any political, personal, social, or economic data. Any mistakes are my misconstructions of what I read or heard; please don’t blame the messengers.

All the characters in it are completely imaginary, except for the three professors whose photographs are in the lobby of the cell-biology research center that V.I. visits.

Note: I finished writing Fallout in August 2016, so no mention is made of cataclysmic events later in the year.

About the Author

SARA PARETSKY is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen previous novels, including the iconic V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to receive both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers’ Association in Great Britain. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

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Also by Sara Paretsky

• Brush Back
• Critical Mass
• Breakdown
• Body Work
• Hardball
• Bleeding Kansas
• Fire Sale
• Blacklist
• Total Recall
• Hard Time
• Ghost Country
• Windy City Blues
• Tunnel Vision
• Guardian Angel
• Burn Marks
• Blood Shot
• Bitter Medicine
• Killing Orders
• Deadlock
• Indemnity Only

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