CRITICS ARE CALLING
GUARDIAN ANGEL
“PARETSKY’S BEST WARSHAWSKI NOVEL.”* HERE’S WHY …

“RICH IN CHARACTER AND ATMOSPHERE … GUARDIAN ANGEL shows Vic in a different, somewhat softer light. She’s certainly not mellow, but refreshingly introspective, and uncharacteristically vulnerable.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

“AMONG TODAY’S P.I.’S NOBODY COMES CLOSE TO WARSHAWSKI!”

—Publishers Weekly

“SUSPENSE RARELY FLAGS … densely textured, adroitly plotted, and one of the author’s best.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“V. I. WARSHAWSKI IS THAT RARITY AMONG FICTIVE P.I.’S—A FULLY REALIZED CHARACTER … Sara Paretsky’s sensitivity and moral perspective, coupled with her fine talent, make her a significant American novelist.”

—Mostly Murder

“WITH EACH NOVEL PARETSKY LETS INTREPID DETECTIVE V. I. WABSHAWSKI (AKA ‘VIC’) TAKE A FEW MORE PHYSICAL LUMPS, THOUGH THE MORE INTERESTING DINGS ARE EMOTIONAL ONES. Here Paretsky constructs and maintains one monster of a plot.… The author’s gift for finding the precise urban setting and crafting her narrative jigsaw puzzle with unerring accuracy remains intact.”

—Booklist

“EVENTFUL … DRAMATIC … Sara Paretsky has hit the big time … she gets better and better!”

—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“GUARDIAN ANGEL is a good detective story and an even better novel, welcome news for the reader who wants more than just a plausible whodunit.”

—Boston Sunday Globe

“What a long way this Vic has traveled. Makes you want to go more of the distance with her!”

—Chicago Sun-Times

*Chicago Sun-Times

Title Page

Copyright

Published by
Dell Publishing
a division of
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
1540 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

Copyright © 1992 by Sara Paretsky

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

The trademark Dell® is registered in the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.

eISBN: 978-0-307-48571-7

v3.1

Epigraph

“Tread softly, because you tread on [their] dreams.”

—W. B. Yeats

1

Sex and the Single Girl

Hot kisses covered my face, dragging me from deep sleep to the rim of consciousness. I groaned and slid deeper under the covers, hoping to sink back into the well of dreams. My companion wasn’t in the humor for rest; she burrowed under the blankets and continued to lavish urgent affection on me.

When I covered my head with a pillow she started to mew piteously. Now thoroughly awake, I rolled over and glared at her. “It’s not even five-thirty. You can’t possibly want to get up.”

She paid no attention, either to my words or my efforts to dislodge her from my chest, but looked at me intently, her brown eyes opened wide, her mouth parted slightly to show the tip of her pink tongue.