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Summary: If you like REAL mysteries, move on...
Review: 500 pages of boring dribble. Typical political nonsense: rich people are evil, corporations are evil, the judicial system is evil, and all poor people and prisoners are simply victims of all above. The plot and action are all too unrealistic. I am a mystery reader, I like to be taken through unexpected journies. I like suprising twists and turns. I like characters who seem to be so unreal, but so close to people you really know. Nothing suprising in this book at all. And the book just fizzles at the end when the killer and motive are revealed. Even more unvbelievable is how VI gets "even" with at least some of thos evil entities listed above. If you like to read about the plight of the poor and how evil the world is, be my guest and get this book, everyone needs to make a buck, even Sara. If you like real mysteries, skip this one!
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Summary: True Mystery
Review: A stupid book. I can't recall all of Monsignor Knox's rules for mystery writers, but one of them has to be that your detective shouldn't be an unlikeable moron. This one, for whom ratiocination is clearly a burden, is forever exhausted by her labors. The story is preposterous, the characters are goofy and cartoonish, and the dialogue is unbelievably embarrassing. The most chilling revelation is in the acknowledgments, where we learn that the author was a Visiting Scholar at Oxford. How can this be possible?
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Summary: oh dear!
Review: As other readers have observed, this is a grindingly boring, endlessly repetitious book--and that's NOT because she tackles political or social or historical issues. I generally like Paretsky and have certainly liked other ambitious novels, but not this one. It's too bad publishing houses don't provide editors who can really work with a flawed manuscript these days.
Rating: 
Summary: One marvelous book
Review: I am a very vivid reader with interests form detective story to politics, from history to genetics, from time travel to physics. I read a lot, on average 6-8 books a week. This is the BEST book I have read in a long while. It has so much history, human psychology, analytical and deduction skills and such a humane statement in it that you continue thinking about this book and characters long after you finish reading it. It might be a little slow in the beginning, but than it was much too fast for me at the end. Once you get to the first corpse, you cannot put the book down. Lotty Herschel's character is the best-written personage. It is such a vivid description of all the atrocities and horrors of WWII that made me cry many times during the book, all these people who were on top of the world a lost everything, and the reality of it happening again. It is such a psychological drama, and such a sweet sorrow with such an optimistic ending that you want to read about these characters over and over again. I am sorry to see some people give this book 1 star, they are just cold, hard, unsophisticated, and neglectful if they cannot see beauty of these book. Read it - you will enjoy it.
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Summary: Masterful Detective Story; Really Good Novel
Review: I enjoyed this book from start to finish, couldn't put it down, didn't want it to end. Why can't I give it 10 stars? V.I. Warshawski has become a mature woman with a realistic lovelife and real friends. It was a pleasure to spend time with her (although I'm worried she's going to starve to death; she never seems to eat anything). The complex insurance and "recovered memory" scam she is "detecting" was interesting and I never doubted any of it. Plenty of blood, gore, action and surprises. As usual I enjoyed the Chicago scenery, especially the occasional notes on the Cubs. The story of Lotty, finally revealed after all this time, makes perfect sense. I always wondered what her "problem" was, as no doubt did Paretsky. I think Paretsky handled it well, revealing it as if Lotty is telling her the story, which in the end it turns out, she is. Why do so many people think less of a book because it's a "mystery?" This is as good a novel as many pieces of "literature" I've read, and way better than some of those lyrical and tedious first novels reviewers go nuts over.
Rating: 
Summary: Where Is the Mystery?
Review: I found this latest entry in the V.I. Warshawski series oddly compelling. I really shouldn't have liked this book. This series has never really made it onto my must-read list -- maybe its V.I.'s character? Even the Chicago milieu isn't very interesting. In Total Recal, the "myster(ies)" werent't very mysterious (there were several in this convoluted plot) and the solutions relied on a variety of coincidences. The plot was quite unbelievable. What kept me reading was the Lotty subtext. Again, there was no real mystery (A woman takes a leave of absense due to "illness" and disappears, never to speak to her lover again? -- hmmm, I wonder what that means?). What kept me reading was to see 1) if I was right about what was going on -- I was; and 2) Lotty's story.
Rating:
Summary: Where Is the Mystery?
Review: I found this latest entry in the V.I. Warshawski series oddly compelling. I really shouldn't have liked this book. This series has never really made it onto my must-read list -- maybe its V.I.'s character? Even the Chicago milieu isn't very interesting. In Total Recal, the "myster(ies)" werent't very mysterious (there were several in this convoluted plot) and the solutions relied on a variety of coincidences. The plot was quite unbelievable. What kept me reading was the Lotty subtext. Again, there was no real mystery (A woman takes a leave of absense due to "illness" and disappears, never to speak to her lover again? -- hmmm, I wonder what that means?). What kept me reading was to see 1) if I was right about what was going on -- I was; and 2) Lotty's story.
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Summary: Paretsky's Best Book to date!
Review: I have always enjoyed her books, but this was the most profoundly great story she has written yet. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened to V.I.?
Review: I have read every VI Warshawski novel and, up until now, loved them all. This is a go-nowhere, who cares book. The tie in of the characters is so unbelievable that you have a hard time following the plot and don't really care anyway. The political views are boring and VI has totally lost all the personality I once admired. She is becoming boring and, therefore, I was bored! Does Lotty have to be miserable ALL THE TIME? There was no development of any of the characters and none of them were their usual selves. Don't read this book. It stinks!
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Summary: What an Awesome Effort
Review: I love Sara Paretsky's novel's. They are certainly deeper than your average who-dunit, and it takes a bit of effort to get into the plot, but once there it is well worth the effort. In many ways, this is probably Ms. Paretsky's strongest effort to date. She takes on some really deep and difficult issues, and handles them really well while weaving them into the stroyline of the book. This book centres around Lotty Herschel, the closest thing to a mother that VI has. We see how current events drag Lotty into an abyss that was her life as a Jewish child during the appalling Second World War. The book examines the lasting issues that have followed these Holocaust children throughout their life. Living in a free country, we can only imagine the horror and fright that these Jewish people went through, both those that were lucky enough to get away, and those so many that didn't. This is a powerful novel, and it grabs out the reader's guts and spits them out like none I've read for some time. It's complex and deep and if you take the time to read it, you won't be disappointed. In many ways (dare I say it) it reminds me of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. It is truly a classic.
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