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Rating: Summary: A V.I. NOVEL BUT LOTTY'S BOOK Review: As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I have been enjoying Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels for years. I am glad she has resumed writing them, especially TOTAL RECALL. In many ways, TOTAL RECALL is Lotty Herschel's book. Lotty is V.I.'s friend and mentor. Lotty is the closest thing to a mother V.I. has. In several chapters, Lotty takes central stage and returns us to those horrible days of Holocaust. In time present, a man named Paul Radbuka has surfaced making startling claims regarding his conection to Lotty and her companion, Max. V.I. begins to investigate this man and his claims at the same time she is involved with an insurance investigation involving a black man named Aaron Sommers. As the story progresses, the reader learns much about Lotty, her past, and the horrors of Nazism. Ms. Paretsky also links Holocaust reparations to the issue of reparations for slavery. TOTAL RECALL is an excellent novel addressing some most serious themes. Excellent book.
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.
Rating: Summary: A Pleasant Surprise Review: I read some of the Amazon reviews before reading this book and I wasn't expecting much. Sara Paretsky's characters and plots are a little hard to decipher at times. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by TOTAL RECALL. The plotting was interesting and integrated and held my attention well. The characters were a mix of old familiar people like Max and Lotty and new ones such as Paul Radbuka. Paretsky handled the characters well even through she did a lot of skipping around between plots and subplots.V.I. Warshawski is a "real pip" of a main character who always has a dozen things going on. In this novel she is verbally assaulted and professionally abused by friend and foe alike. Even Max's young granddaughter, Calia, gets down on "Aunt Victory". Nothing she does pleases anyone, but she keeps plugging along, tying threads together until things make sense. Paretsky uses Chicago as her setting and really manages to paint a very believable picture of the town. TOTAL RECALL is a solid combination of place, people and plot that entertains the readers and can be recommended with confidence.
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