Bleeding Kansas - Sara Paretsky

The Grelliers and the Schapens are two families who have been farming in the Kaw River Valley for over a hundred and fifty years, their lives connected through the generations by history and geography. Gina Haring, bringing with her the liberal air of the big city, moves into a dilapidated house near both families' properties. Gina has secrets, her own reasons for being in the Kansas countryside, and they're not necessarily what the people around her imagine. Susan's involvement with her stirs up the wrath of the Schapen clan - and has cataclysmic results for her own family.

Sara Paretesky is the author of thirteen previous books, including eleven V. I. Warshawski novels. She is the winner of many awards, including the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers' Association.

'It's hard not to get caught up in her passion . . . Snappy dialogue, tight plotting and realistic situations make Paretsky's unapologetically politicised thrillers a pleasure to read, whatever your viewpoint.'

'Timely tale of fear and conflict in heartland America'

'Sara Paretsky has demonstrated in Bleeding Kansas the superb skills as a novelist that were already known and admired by the avid followers of V.I. Warshawski. It is likely that V.I. herself, after reading this book, would not be able to resist rushing off to Kansas to try shaking some common sense as well as peace into the Grelliers and the Schapens. '

'An ambitious, intricate saga of warring families in the American heartland, shot through with contemporary politics, bigotry, money, redemption, lesbianism and power'