Blacklist

Rating:
Summary: A Little too Political
Review: A client of V.I.'s hires her to check on his mother, Geraldine Graham, who lives in an exclusive area of Chicago. She's been seeing someone at night at Larchmont Hall, the ancestral mansion of V.I.'s client. Geraldine's home faces the mansion she'd lived in for so long and she's been seeing lights up in the attic at night. V.I. checks and tackles a girl from the wealthy neighborhood. They struggle, the girl gets away and V.I. finds a body in the fish pond. And he's black. Obviously not from this blueblood stronghold.

V.I. calls the cops who are also on the lookout for a suspected Arab terrorist, who is actually the young boy who was washing dishes at the cafeteria in the prestigious prep school. Is the boy really a terrorist? What has Geraldine been seeing in that attic? Why was the rich kid at the deserted mansion so late at night? Who killed the reporter in the pool? And what does the Patriot Act have to do with the fifties Blacklist?

I'm afraid it's all a bit of a stretch and a little too political for me. I don't mind politics in a book and sometimes I even like it, for example in Richard North Patterson's latest BALANCE OF POWER, the characters were either for or against gun control and you know right from the get go where the author stood, but even though it wasn't fair and balanced, I was able to put apart the author's politics and get on with the story. Not so in BLACKLIST, Ms. Paretsky wears her politics on her sleeve through the whole book. Conservatives bad, Liberals good is the message here and we get lots of examples. That said, her politics did disguise the killer quite well. I mean a liberal couldn't have done, could he?

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating:
Summary: Bogged Down in Politics, but a Fun Read Nevertheless
Review: A long time client and old friend of V.I.'s asks her to check on his ninety-year-old mother who thinks she's been seeing somebody at Larchmont Hall, the deserted family mansion. But though Geraldine Graham may be old, she's not imagining things, there has been somebody there and V.I. finds it to be true when she discovers a body in the pool. She calls the cops and all of a sudden she's thrown into an investigation that spans fifty years from the Blacklist to the Patriot Act.

The first half of this book is a racing read, then we come to a screeching halt as V.I. gets bogged down in speculation and Paretsky gets bogged down in politics. However, even though the author is a screaming liberal, her politics only slow the story down for the middle bit, then the story takes off again and races right up to a surprising, but not very satisfying ending. However, I must admit that the ending probably mirrors what would have happened in real life under the circumstances.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: "One of Paretsky's Best V.I. Stories!"
Review: A Pandora's box of blood, sex, money, and scandals passed down from generation to generation sets the stage for this page-turning thriller after V.I. Warshawski finds the corpse of a reporter in the bottom of a pond. V.I.'s most chilling case to date! (Highest Recommendation!)

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing but ultimately disappointing
Review: Another engrossing read from a true professional. Paretsky never fails to deliver a riveting read. Although, this one is not quite up to her previous standards, it is still far and away above most of the mysteries the most popular authors churn out.
There wasn't as much fleshing out of characters as she usually does but perhaps, that is because I really missed reading so little about Lottie and Max.


Rating:
Summary: Much Ado about nothing
Review: At least I can't cry about the money I spent, since I do use the library almost exclusively. To say this book was too long and too boring would be to simplify things. And how does a character become such a big part of the story when he wasn't even there? I am referring to lost lover Morrell. If V.I. makes a profit in her crazy investigative career it's a miracle. Massage's and motels for a few hours rest, 3 traffic tickets for overparking because she couldn't get back to her car in time, just a few examples. What was the big coverup anyway to justify 3 murders. Livestyles of the rich and famous, you can keep it.

Rating:
Summary: Blacklist
Review: Blacklist is an intelligent, suspenseful pageturner. Paretsky seems to have put her heart and soul in this one. I have read all the other V.I. series and this is one of the best. I recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Above-average V.I.
Review: BLACKLIST is Parestsky's very fine homage to the late Ross Macdonald. VI Warshawski's investigation of a reporter's murder uncovers a cesspool of fifty-year-old family troubles: infidelities, intrigues, backstabbing, betrayal and general rich-folk cussedness -- but the book is marred by ham-fisted political "messages". But ride over that -- otherwise this is as good a tale as Paretsky has ever told. Which is to say, very, very good.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

Rating:
Summary: A Lengthy but Good and Insightful Read
Review: BLACKLIST, Sara Paretsky's eleventh V.I Warshawski novel, is a continuation of the colorful career of Vicky (V.I.) Warshawski, Private Investigator. Feeling abandoned by absent boyfriend Morrell, a journalist now working in Afghanistan, Warshawski takes on a case for her wealthy client, Darraugh Graham. Graham's mother, Geraldine, lives in a retirement cottage that overlooks her former home in the suburbs of Chicago. Self-appointed family watchdog over the defunct estate, Geraldine sees late-night activity inside Larchmont Hall. Warshawski's job is to investigate and put to rest rumors of a break-in on the grounds.

Her problems compound when she visits the site a second time and apprehends a teenage girl. The two wage a healthy verbal battle. The saucy youngster takes off with Warshawski in pursuit, but is no match for fast young legs. The detective next stumbles into a five-foot deep garden pond and surfaces with a dead body in her grasp.

The novel contains a complicated maze of family names. It might have helped to list the characters in a frontispiece to keep the reader's attention. Two family histories are intertwined, with relationships that stretch backwards several generations. It is a tale of wealthy dowagers, gentlemen and their progeny who conceal secrets from days past.

Larchmont Hall is the setting where old scores are settled with feuding residents who return to confront former ghosts. The animosities go back to the days of the famous McCarthy hearings in Congress that exposed real and would-be Communists. Historical realities of the Cold War period in America are drawn by the fictional characters that represent intellectuals whose lives were ruined by their political associations. The detective works in a post-September 11th world where terrorists are now the real and imagined threat to law officers.

The dead body Warshawski discovers is a black journalist, Marc Whitby, who is researching the life of a famous black dancer-artist, Kylie Ballantine. Ballantine's career was ruined when she was exposed as a member of a Communist-leaning group. Warshawski unearths dirty laundry from an entire elite community whose past history has been long dormant. Her elderly client unwittingly involves herself in the tangled mess of secrets aired. Graham is a plucky sidekick to Warshawski and plays a significant role in the investigation.

The long list of characters includes testy small-town legal officers and a confused teenage girl who takes on a truant foreign companion accused of being a terrorist. Warshawski's client, Darraugh Graham, has dark memories of Larchmont Hall and has no desire to return there. Close neighbors include a powerful publishing house family whose patriarch's reputation was smeared in the McCarthy hearings. An elderly legalist dies before his memories are opened to the public.

Warshawski is in a constant state of turmoil and comes across as not only feisty but neurotic. She untangles a complicated web of information but appears in a constant mid-life crisis of her own. One would hope that the previous series's novels had pictured her as a more likable heroine. The references to her out-of-the-country boyfriend did little to endear him as a relevant character.

Overall, BLACKLIST is a lengthy but good read and gives us insight into a time in recent history that most involved would gladly forget. We are reminded that government can be invasive if allowed. Our most sacred freedoms are not to be taken lightly.

--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

Rating:
Summary: Too Much Lecturing
Review: book was too long and the author pontificated too much

Rating:
Summary: interesting viewpoint
Review: Contrary to many of the other reviews I did not find this book too political. It was refreshing to see another American view point from the one we often perceive - that the ends justify the means and constitutional rights must be suspended (or, in the case of non-Americans, don't always apply).
It's not unusual for Paretsky's books to set up a target for attack. It's a while since I read the last one, but if my memory is right I recall attacks on the pharmaceutical industry, the Church, big business etc.
I certainly don't always agree with what she says, as sometimes it can be expressed in very black and white terms and I do find VI a bit of whinger, but she is always both entertaining and thought provoking, no less so than in this book.