Bitter Medicine — Sara Paretsky

Private eye V.I. Warshawski has reluctantly agreed to drive her young friend Consuelo Alvarado, sixteen and pregnant, and Consuelo's punk husband, Fabiano, to a job interview. Without the escort, Fabiano probably wouldn't go.

Then Consuelo goes into premature labor and V.I. must rush her to a nearby hospital. Consuelo and her baby do not survive. V.I. observed how slowly the emergency room staff went to Consuelo's aid. Is it malpractice?

The question has no sooner occurred to her than she learns that Consuelo's doctor has been brutally murdered. So V.I. finds herself on an investigation that will leave her with her apartment ransacked, her face slashed, and her sympathies pulled in too many directions. At least her shrewd instincts are still intact.