Status Updates From Breakdown (V.I. Warshawski ...

“We know that Leydon did not believe in God, or the Resurrection of the Body, but there is an immortality to love, to the love within Leydon that made her lay down her life for a stranger, to the love of her friend, Victoria, who risked her own life to see justice done to that same stranger.

My envelope also included a check, for fifty thousand dollars, drawn on Salanter Enterprises, labeled “for professional services.” Which covers a lot of ground indeed.

“Right now, it doesn’t matter what happened to you in the middle of that circle back there,” I said. “Being with Arielle and the others is going to be way better than a police interrogation. Why were you out after curfew? Did you know the dead man? Did you and your friends put a spike through his chest?”

“This is known as education,” I said. “You are learning, all seven of you, that actions have consequences.” I corralled them into an ungainly bundle and started pushing them toward Leavitt Street. As we got closer, blue lights flashed beyond the fence. Someone must have heard Tyler’s screams and called the police.

Lightning flashed in the eastern sky and clouds began to thicken across the moon again, a warning that Mother Nature hadn’t finished with us for the night. I didn’t want to stand arguing with these kids in a rainstorm, and I needed to call the cops to report the murder.

I started to say, “There’s a dead man in that tomb,” but that sounded ludicrous. “A man has been murdered up there. And not very long ago. I have to call the police. I’d like to protect you ladies from a police investigation, at least until you’ve gone home and talked to your parents about what you were doing here tonight.

This book was published about 12 years ago. Ukrainian mobsters come up very indirectly! With the current events in Ukraine, disparagement of who exactly lives in Ukraine is quite topical still!

And yet another topical issue: creationism! What will be next?

This is hardly a current book and yet one of the sub topics in the story that comes up early on is “illegal” immigrants in the country.