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Summary: It s good to have VI back
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
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Summary: V.I. Warshawski-darker and disturbing.
Review: This outing of Sara Paretsky's always readable V.I. Warshawski series is more darker and disturbing than usual. V.I. is older and more unsure of herself. She alienates her friends more than usual.The look inside our prison system and the legal sweatshops within is unsettling. As a result, one of her best books.
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Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK!
Review: Very thri;lling and funny. Lots of detail. Its a captivating book
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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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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.
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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.
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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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Summary: Paretsky doesn't slip...
Review: A sweeping mystery that shows off the true power of Chicago money, power, and politics. From V.I.'s apartment to a modernized prison to the fashionable upscale neighborhoods, each new location is brought to vivid detail. In this book, you really wonder who the true victim is? Nicole Aguilando? Robbie? V.I.? All of the above? It starts off simple enough. V.I. is invited to a party featuring the latest action film queen. At the party, she is approached by a childhood friend of the superstar who has more than a few questions on his mind. It sounds simple to start off....right? But, when Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski heads home, she finds Nicole Aguilando lying in the street, badly beaten and clinging to life, her entire world is turned upside down. To top it off, she is wearing a shirt with the action queen's image on the front. Nicole was in prison for stealing a valuable necklace from her employer. Who was her employer? W.I.'s direct competition -- the president of Carnifice Security. Nicole succumbs to her injuries but that doesn't answer how she got out of prison in the first place. Enter a slimy Chicago cop who wants nothing more than to pin something (ANYTHING) on V.I. to put her away. With more twists and turns than you can imagine, V.I. befriends the son of her opponent and even goes to jail for protecting him. It's there she learns about the new jail system and what power and money (and a little political greasing) can accomplish. A highly recommendable action packed read.
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