SOURCE: “‘Friends Is a Weak Word for It’: Female Friendship and the Spectre of Lesbianism in Sara Paretsky,” in Feminism in Women's Detective Fiction, edited by Glenwood Irons, University of Toronto Press, 1995, pp. 156-69.

In the following essay, Pope analyzes the approach/withdraw orientation towards lesbianism that she asserts exists in Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski detective series, focusing on the relationship between Warshawski and her best friend Dr. Lotty Herschel.

The opening chapter of Sara Paretsky's seventh V. I. Warshawski novel, Guardian Angel, is titled ‘Sex and the Single Girl.’ Here is the first paragraph: ‘Hot kisses covered my face, dragging me from deep sleep to the rim of consciousness. I groaned and slid deeper under the covers, hoping to sink back into the well of dreams. My companion wasn't in the humor for rest; she burrowed under the blankets and continued to lavish urgent affection on me...