Bleeding Kansas (2008)

In a break from her V.I. Warshawski mysteries, Sara Paretsky cooks up Bleeding Kansas, an unruly melodrama that begins when a glamorous lesbian Wiccan relocates from NYC to the heartland. Soon, an impressionable local matron is dancing with witches, while a cartoonishly nasty, narrow-minded clan of hard-line Christians responds to her activities with violence. (At least in this novel, they represent what's the matter with Kansas.) To overcomplicate an already hectic narrative, Paretsky throws in star-crossed lovers, fundamentalist Jews, the Iraq war, and a decades-old fire. It's probably time to call Warshawski back into action. B-