Rating: 
Summary: Great Audio Book - Unabridged a Must
Review: Since I spend much of my time on the road due to commute and occupation I listen to audio books. This is a great one for on the road commuting. Couldn't wait to get in the car to listen.
It is the first of the V.I. Warshoawski books I have listened to and I plan to listen to any other unabridged versions. The ones that don't have unabridged versions will be read.
I did enjoy some insight into the prison life. I don't think I would like much more then was given. No one likes a lot of real life horrors. I also enjoyed the fact that this was a woman over 40 who could be a hero in her own way.
The performance given was great.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard... to stop reading
Review: Starting the V.I. Warshawski Series from the last entry has been very interesting. My first contact with Vic was that strange but effective mixture of hardboiled mystery with World War Literary Drama.
On that matter HARD TIME is very different. For instance it focuses only in Warshawski investigating an apparently no-brainer hit and run death.
Paretski manages to write a very compelling novel, where many storylines collide into one big conspiracy (a bit far-fetched one may say) buy thrilling enough to keep me awake long hours to reach the end.
HARD TIME is far from perfect, it keeps emphazising certain "clues" that have very predictable outcomes (that folder badly labeled, those unbelievable cameras, Mr. Contreras' imprudence, etc). But nevertheless it manages to seduce you by pure force of Vic's well written personality.
At the end I feel it is a fuller and more rewarding novel than the average mystery. I'll keep reading Paretski.
Rating:
Summary: As good as ever
Review: This is a good read in the Paretsky/VI tradition: plenty of pace, readable, and gripping. The author has lost none of her touch, and the characters, not least VI herself, come across as very real. To take one example, VI has to earn a living, and so we get a detour to Georgia. Also, the prison scenes are vivid and well drawn, if very disturbing.Note the emergence of the "wise priest" figure at the end: and VI becoming a regular attender at mass. Are we to expect a Chesterton/Graham Greene/Piers Paul Reid type of scenario in future?
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