To all appearances, Lily Sedako is an unexceptional retiree - a seventy-something single woman living in Chicago, her days filled with the routine tasks of normal life. But underneath that exterior, lies a remarkable past. A former CIA field agent, she spent her career in various Central Asian countries, but most notably in Hayalistan, a former USSR territory. But everything went sideways when Lily's connections to the mountain tribes resulted in her being moved to a new post and Rani, the tribal leader and first democratically elected President was removed, presumed killed, in a coup back in 2002.

All of this is long behind her when she receives an anonymous package containing a magazine with an article about Hayalistan - an article with a previously unknown photo showing Lily in the background. This was no mistake - someone out there is trying to expose Lily, after more than two decades, for reasons unknown.
Lily, however, is no one's pawn even now. Determined to find out who is behind this, how they obtained these forbidden photos, and what their goal is before she is a casualty in someone else's scheme.

Using hard won skills and personal connections from her former life, Lily is determined to unravel the machinations going on now and what really happened back in Hayalstan more than twenty years ago.

In a powerful novel about love, power, corruption, aging, trust...and revenge, Bad Company reaffirms Sara Paretsky place as one of the pre-eminent crime writers of our time.