Vic Warshawski’s relations tell her she should stay at home and get a husband and children to keep her busy. Vic doesn’t listen to them. And she just gets on with her work – as a private detective. And there’s no problem in finding that kind of work in Chicaco, where murder happens all the time.
When Boom Boom, a farmer ice-hockey star, dies in an accident by falling under a ship, the city mourns. Nobody suspects murder. But Boom Boom was Vic’s cousin, and she was very fond of him. She doesn’t understand how a strong young man can just slip and fall into the water like that. Then she finds Boom Boom’s girlfriend going through his personal paper in his apartment. Vic didn’t even know that Boom Boom had a girlfriend . . .
Soon Vic knows that she on a murder investigation. Somebody else knows it too, because another murder quickly follow, and some rather strange accidents. Nothing is going to stop her . . .