It was just another day in Arizona – and then the monster showed up.

Marketing manager, Katherine ‘Kitty’ Katt had just finished a day on jury duty. When she stepped out of the Pueblo Caliente courthouse, all she was thinking about was the work she had to get caught up on. Then her attention was caught by a fight between a couple – a domestic dispute that looked like it was about to turn ugly. But ugly didn’t even begin to cover it when the “man” suddenly transformed into a huge, winged monster right out of a grade Z science fiction movie and went on a deadly killing spree. In hindsight, Kitty realized she probably should have panicked and run screaming the way everyone else was doing. Instead, she got mad, searched her purse for a weapon and, armed with a Mont Blanc pen, sprinted into action to take down the alien.

In the middle of all the screeching and the ensuing chaos, a tall handsome hunk of a guy in an Armani suit suddenly appeared beside her, examined the body, introduced himself as Jeff Martini with ‘the agency’, called out to an Armani-clad colleague to perform crowd control, and then insisted on leading her to a nearby limo to talk to his “boss”.

And that was how Kitty’s new life among the aliens began.

Three-Dot Po (1984) [short story]
Review by ravart73 (2013-05-21)
One of Paretzky's earliest stories, her signature character, V.I. Warshawski begins to show the promising career that will unfold. Paretzky strings together a series of action scenes creating a narrative that moves rapidly and sustains the reader's interest. The dialogue is sparse, only that required to advance the story. In spite of the minimal use of descriptive language, I found myself visualizing each scene even though I have never been to Chicago, the locale of story. Veteran readers of this genre will 'solve' the case before the end of the story since significant clues are revealed early. The real story is the interplay between Warshawski and the victim's dog, Three Dot Po, who becomes a character who, though mute in human terms, is hardly clueless. Though the story appeared in an anthology in 1984, it's selection for a collection of best American mystery stories of the century is well merited. Paretzky clearly has earned her place in the 'canon' of mystery writing and this early story demonstrates her mastery of the form.

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