# Critical Mass

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![Critical Mass](https://quivercdn.com/covers/hodder-paperbacks/sara-paretsky/critical-mass_978-14-4475-870-2.jpg?v=2026-04-30%2014%3A34%3A10)

- Book: [Critical Mass](https://www.bookquiver.com/sara-paretsky/critical-mass) ([Critical Mass.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/sara-paretsky/critical-mass.md))
- Authors: [Sara Paretsky](https://www.bookquiver.com/sara-paretsky)
- Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
- ISBN: 978-14-4475-870-2
- Published: 2014-08-28
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Private Eye V. I. Warshawski is roused one morning by an SOS from a woman on a farm south of Chicago. When V. I. gets there, she finds no woman - but a dead man in a cornfield, his body savagely mutilated. V. I. is happy to leave the case to the local sheriff: it looks like a falling out among meth dealers. But back in Chicago, she learns that the missing woman is a protégée of her oldest friend and confidante, Dr Lotty Herschel, and is compelled to investigate. What V. I. uncovers pulls her into a world of nuclear secrets and high-stakes computing, with roots reaching back to the Second World War. The detective soon finds herself in a hall of mirrors where she can't tell reality from video games, and her life is on the line. For V. I., this is her most profound, and terrifying, adventure yet . . .