Rating: 
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: After celebrating her friend landing a prestigious television job, V.I. Warshawski heads home. However, her drive proves very eventful as V.I. runs into a fireplug to avoid hitting a battered female lying prone in the street. The medics take Nicola Aguinaldo to a nearby hospital, but she dies anyway. The police initially behave nastily towards V.I. for no apparent reason. By the next day, the Chicago police try to tie the dead person to V.I. Apparently, Nicola escaped from a prison where she was held for stealing jewelry from the spouse of security mogul B.B. Baladine. V.I. is soon arrested and placed in jail. Still, not even a stay in prison keeps V.I. from investigating why Nicola was beaten to death and why she herself has been locked away on bogus charges. After being away for several years, the return of V.I. Warshawski is a thing for fans of female private investigators to celebrate. The story line matches the elation as the tale is filled with emotion, angst, and tattered friendships. The support cast is wonderful and V.I. is at the top of her top form. This may be the best tale in Sara Paretsky's long running series. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back V.I.!
Review: 5 years was way too long to wait for another V.I. Warshawski mystery. I'd almost forgotten how good Sara Paretsky is. She has the tough, hard-bitten female P.I. thing down to a science and has set a benchmark for any others that write in this genre. This is probably her best book in this series and I heartily recommend it to anyone. V.I. is a little older than when we last saw her, but not any more afraid to take on the world. Ms. Paretsky is not afraid to take on race, gender and con discriminations and she makes it fun to read at the same time.
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: Darker than most
Review: Sara Paretsky brings back her V.I Warshawski series, and little has changed. V.I. is still her feminist best, a complex character with a lot of anger toward others--much deserved, but not all--who finds relationships difficult. It's refreshing to have a main character who isn't totally likeable. I'd guess that V.I. represents a lot of the viewpoints Paretsky herself holds, especially given the plotting of her novels and the role of women in them. I've read the other Warshawski novels and this one is much the same; although I found the plot somewhat simpler than the earlier works--sometimes almost unbelievably so. This is the first Warshawski novel I've been ahead of V. I.--"why doesn't she see that?" isn't a good thing to think when reading a detective story. But even so, this book is more complex and darker in tone than most female detectives--and most male detectives, for that matter. Certainly Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton (and Robert Parker!) are easier, snappier reads; but nowhere near as meaty. I really wish that the marketing departments would exercise more care on the book blurbs--I thought this one gave away far too much and ruined much of the suspense. Still, a worthy contribution to the series.
Rating:
Summary: Sara-Thanks for bring VI back!!
Review: I've been reading VI Warshawski stories for years, actually after I saw the movie. Though at first I thought her characters (in the early books) were two dimensional, I feel in love with the way the stories read. With Hard Time, Sara brings us back to Chicago with VI having a new office, no man in her life, and not too far past when Burn Marks ended. She does a wonderful job in showing us two ends of life from the very rich to the very poor. I enjoyed the fact that Sara was able to make you smell and breathe the environment in which VI was living in prison, as well as the various establishments of the rich-of which VI didn't feel comfortable at and that came across well. I absolutely loved the book and hope that there will be a new one coming out soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Dubious ideas
Review: I liked some things about this book, however I am astonished by liberal ideas that Paretsky tried to squeeze in. Why is being rich bad? Why should everyone help an illegal immigrant? Why should we support illegals? Half of prison contingent is illegal, so let them work, they came to this country, broke our laws, and why should they not be punished for it? How come good neighborhood and beautiful houses are shameful, but criminally entering this country and stealing from people are not shameful? I think that Paretsky has some perverted sense of justice. I did not like a lot in this book, and I think that maybe better editing was needed. This was not supposed to be a book with social doctrines and divide and split ideas. It was supposed to be easy mystery/detective story.
Rating: 
Summary: Breaking rocks
Review: It has been a while since V. I. has been working the streets of Chicago. She hasn't gotten any smarter or mellowed in her time away. She got some money and actually has an office, but it is still V. I. This time round she needs some editing and a shrink's couch. Give it a rest, chill woman, it is time for some real change in your life and storylines.
Rating:
Summary: First half-too long...2nd half - fantastic!
Review: Hmmm...Paretsky's been around for a while. I haven't picked up one of her books for probably two years. After a while, these prolific mystery authors who churn out a yearly contribution for wasting time on tend to repeat themselves. this time I did not find that was so. I really enjoyed the last half of the book, which exhibited all the good writer qualities that won Paretsky such a large audience in the first place. The first half of the book was probably necessary to build the last half of the book. It just seemed it could have been done tighter; less words, more action, not as long. There were a few departures from the main plot as Paretsky went off on tangents, and got in a few lectures. Like many TV sitcoms which go on for too long (MASH for one)...Paretsky is falling into the usual "I need to make a difference" trap. This time the lecture was on women's prisons and political/financial shenanigans. This isn't to say the 'lecture' wasn't interesting, or didn't help with the plot. Just...you have to be careful. I know a lot of books, a lot of shows which have turned off their loyal audiences by overdoing the political/social good motivations of the authors or the writers of TV scripts. This was an enjoyable book. The last half sped by quickly. Warshwski is getting older, like all of us. The body is failing to respond as she wants it, and her concerns about being alone and not having the wherewithal to support herself in old age is a fear that faces many throughout the U.S. It's nice to see an established author facing reality of aging on her protagonist, so the rest of us don't feel so lacking! Karen Sadler,
University of Pittsburgh
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, plot too obvious
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, except for the prison time sequence. That part seemed more like an expose of the prison system than a necessary part of the story line. I already knew the perpetrator of the crime and the motivation before VI ended up in prison.
Rating:
Summary: She's at it again.
Review: Finding a near dead woman in the street sets our altruistic, idealistic detective off on a trail which sees her left for dead in the same way. Why does she do it?? Because she's V I Warshawski and she cannot give up. I have to agree with some reviewers that the ultimate cause of her troubles was flagged fairly early in the novel but it didn't detract from it for me, as the value was in the unfolding of the plot twists and the characterisation of Vic and her cohort. Like Vic herself, once embroiled, I had to keep going. It was a nice touch to make a few literary nods, to Dante for example. This and the various touches of political commentary are what take Paretsky's novels out of the realm of the ordinary hard-boiled detective story - in fact, she has Vic wryly comment on how she's not exactly an action hero from that genre. The author she most brings to mind for me is Carl Hiaasen. I do wonder at some things. Too many of her characters seem to be all good - Morrell, Contreras, Father Lou - or all bad - Baladine and Lemour. Occasionally the writing got a little pedestrian, as if Paretsky had to take a breather after an extended action piece and the several recaps of where Vic had got to were not needed at all.
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