Nothing new about this book or about Paretsky any more either. She’s earned a place in American letters with her creation of crusty and contentious detective V. I. Warshawski, who made Paretsky one of the first and best of the modern generation of female crime writers.   I took up Tunnel Vision because I needed a break. The book did the job. Not Paretsky’s best, and I’ve read nothing of hers in a long time. However, it was nice being in Warshawski’s company again, aggravating and impossible though she is.

Paretsky constructs some conversations between her detective and one of the story’s prime suspects that could never have happened, but they’re entertaining and move the plot well. It’s diverting and clever, is Tunnel Vision, though not the place to look for the best of American mystery writing, nor even the best of Paretsky.