Rating: 
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: Not so Good
Review: The plot of the book has been mentioned by others so won't be included here. I did not like this book for 2 reasons:1. The plots, a bit hard to believe and follow, are also developed way to slowly. The first half of the book seems to just repeating the same words of the characters, I suppose to be sure we understand Paul's situation, understand Rhea's methods and opposition, understand Lotty's fears and confusion. With all the repetition the plots don't move forward much. I will admit, though, that I read to end to see how it all came out. Even then, everything was not clearly resolved at least as far as Paul goes. 2. The characters. There was not one main character you could like, from the whiny and spoiled Calia to Lotty to VI Warshawski herself. None were comforting or comfortable, someone to fall back on the plot takes a nasty turn. None of the characters took control and said, "Slow down, let's bring some sense to all of this." Seems like Max should have been the one but he didn't. And I don't like heroes or heroines (V.I.) who constantly break the law with no remorse. She was guilty of tampering with evidence, witholding evidence, tampering with a crime scene, breaking and entering. Not exactly my ideal person. And like another reviewer mentioned, her constant complaining about being tried was a very tiring itself. Perhaps she needed better vitamins. This is the first Sara Paretsky book I have read and will probably be the last.
Rating: 
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: Too much book, too little reward
Review: I've read all of Paretsky's books so far, and I will read more--because she's a good writer, and I'm not giving up after one grindingly boring experience. Yes, there were good moments in this book, and a glimmering of history which redeems it. But in a world saturated with holocaust stories, Paretsky's use of this background and character motivation was neither exceptional nor believable. And in a genre which depends on strong characters, suspense, and careful plotting, the obsession with the WW II background causes the novel to trip and stumble, and the reader to yawn and wish the book would come to an end.
Rating:
Summary: don't bother
Review: Very disappointing. I had promised myself a relaxed evening and bought the book, but there was nothing at all to hold my interest. The writing is confusing, the characters hard to keep apart, and the plot is the only mysterious part, meaning that I never really got interested before I just gave up.
Rating:
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?
Rating:
Summary: Total Recall
Review: When she agrees to help lathe operator Isaiah Sommers press his claim for his recently deceased uncle's piddling $10,000 policy with Ajax Insurance, V.I. Warshawski has no idea that the case will blow up in her face-first with her former lover Ralph Devereux's insistence that Ajax paid out the policy ten years ago when they got proof that Aaron Sommers had died, then with the stunning news that muckraking Alderman Louis Durham has publicly tarred her as an Ajax toady determined to bilk the Sommers family out of their rightful due. But an unsought case is even uglier. A Holocaust survivor named Paul Radbuka, his repressed memories of his unspeakable past restored by hypnotherapist Rhea Wiell, has convinced himself that he's related to Vic's old friend Dr. Lotty Herschel. Now he's stalking Lotty and her intimates, Max Loewenthal and Carl Tisov, trying to force them to acknowledge him. As Lotty's nerves fray, a trail of corpses begins to form behind the two cases-the owner of the independent firm that sold the Aaron Sommers policy, the Ajax clerk in charge of the Sommers file-and Radbuka himself is shot. Just how, Vic wonders, are her two investigations related-and what's the deeper connection between the issues of Holocaust reparations and reparations for African-American slavery? Paretsky loves to bite off more than she can chew, and her tenth novel (after Hard Time, 1999, etc.) is her most fiercely ambitious to date. No wonder the heroically mounting complications are never quite brought under control: her furious energy keeps the final pages still churning.
Rating:
Summary: CHASING RABBITS
Review: Private detective Victoria Washawski has an easy task. Her client has been denied an insurance claim that was supposidly paid out ten years ago. Off she goes to resolve this matter but not before she detours into Chicago politics, the puzzling behavior of her friend Lotty, a so-called holocaust survivor, a few murders here and there and insurance fraud. To make matters worse she makes all the people associated with her quest for justice resentful and angry at her. Whew, what a full plate of intrigue. Sara Paretsky has given us a great story but we find Victoria going around chasing various rabbits leading to no where. The convoluted twists and subplots get to become so confusing to the point where you're wondering exactly what is this story about. The answers can be just as puzzling... You are lead from one thing to another not sure of the point of Paretsky's plot. Eventually you may come to some resolution if any at all. In spite of the rabbit chasing the story is pretty interesting. One thing I found interesting is her portrayal of the Black characters in this book. Ms Paretsky certainly is unable to capture the nuances of African-American dialect which is very apparent in her work. She peppers her characters with the stock Black stereotypes of men and women. They come across as surly, ungrateful, greedy, criminal and overly sensitive to race. Ms Paretsky needs to do more research in portraying Black and other non-white characters in her work. Sticking to stereotypes just doesn't work.
Rating:
Summary: The Best VI Yet!
Review: I was hooked from the first page. I had held off on reading this one, something about the previews kept me away. I have enjoyed it from start to finish. The plot was great, and I thought her writing was really able to make me feel VI's frustration at several points. I'm about to go buy this for my mother. . . I can't give it high enough praise.
Rating:
Summary: This book is Terrible!
Review: My first and last book by this author. The writing is horrible; the dialogue is simply awful. The plot is just stupid and the character development is unbelievable. The detective commits so many crimes herself in this story that in real life she would be charged, tried and convicted in about 10 minutes (but this author would stretch it out to 100 pages). If you want real writing, look to Stuart Woods or Michael Connelly. Don't look here, however.
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