Critical Mass by Sara Paretsky
In Critical Mass, Sara Paretsky ties a case her heroine, private eye VI Warshawski, is working on (looking for a missing man named Martin Binder) with her friend Lottie's past in Europe around the time of World War II.
Binder's grandmother, Kitty, is VI's client. She also was one of Lottie's playmates back in Vienna before the war. Both girls were shipped off to safety on the Kindertransport and both ended up eventually living in the Chicago area years later. Though they're not exactly what you might call friends.
Martin works for a large company involved in computer and energy technologies.
When he disappears, the company fears he is selling company secrets to the competition.
VI thinks he may have discovered something fishy about the company and is trying to stay
under the radar till he can find the truth.
Soon VI is dealing with powerful tycoons, Homeland Security, meth dealers, corrupt law enforcement
and way too many clues that don't add up to a coherent solution.
As always, there's a lot of non-stop action. But there's also an interesting subplot about the development of the nuclear weapons industry during/after the war that ties into what Martin's company is working on now.
Paretsky said she based one of the characters in that plot, a brilliant scientist named Martina (Kitty's mother), partially on an actual woman scientist of the time.
Binder's grandmother, Kitty, is VI's client. She also was one of Lottie's playmates back in Vienna before the war. Both girls were shipped off to safety on the Kindertransport and both ended up eventually living in the Chicago area years later. Though they're not exactly what you might call friends.
Martin works for a large company involved in computer and energy technologies.
When he disappears, the company fears he is selling company secrets to the competition.
VI thinks he may have discovered something fishy about the company and is trying to stay
under the radar till he can find the truth.
Soon VI is dealing with powerful tycoons, Homeland Security, meth dealers, corrupt law enforcement
and way too many clues that don't add up to a coherent solution.
As always, there's a lot of non-stop action. But there's also an interesting subplot about the development of the nuclear weapons industry during/after the war that ties into what Martin's company is working on now.
Paretsky said she based one of the characters in that plot, a brilliant scientist named Martina (Kitty's mother), partially on an actual woman scientist of the time.
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