Rating: 
Summary: Well-written mystery
Review: V.I. Warshawski is back at it as she is asked to investigate some mysterious activity in a deserted mansion. Her investigation leads to the discovery of a dead black journalist and suddenly she is thrown into the past histories of some of Chicago's wealthiest families. She discovers secrets long-hidden by prominent people and delves into the Communist "witch hunts" of the McCarthy era and the current crackdown on immigrants from the Middle East. Paretsky's political opinions, as voiced by her leading character, are all too apparent, but she does spin a multi-layered mystery with well-drawn characters. Paretsky's many fans should enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing and very tedious plot makes 415 pages go slow
Review: We've had to wait a little over two years since Paretsky's last V.I. Warshawski private eye adventure ("Total Recall"), so anxiously dove into this new one. Soon VI stumbles across the drowned body of an "African-American" reporter whose death is attracting virtually no police attention in the wealthy Chicago suburb where his remains were discovered. Hired to look into the matter by the family, VI spends day and night trying to find virtually any clue. Much of the story involves 50-year-old happenings during the 1950's Communist "witch-hunt"; and it soon became difficult to track all the names and places and characters being described, most of whom we couldn't have cared less about. A side story about an Egyptian teenager kept in hiding, ostensibly because nothing but his national heritage had branded him to be a terrorist, did little to contribute to the plot. Rather, it served as a platform onto which the author could preach at us re the Patriot Act and American liberties being usurped post-9/11 in the name of national security.While VI was her normal competent and resourceful self, we found ourselves just slogging through the book with virtually no redeeming entertainment. Even as all the truths unravel at the end, we felt little relief or satisfaction, other than in achieving that final page. We feel it is one of the weaker entries in the otherwise fairly good VI series, and have to wonder if the author (or maybe just us) grows as tired as was our leading lady throughout most of this rather dull read.
Rating: 
Summary: Politics does not mix well with mystery
Review: What a disappointment. I have enjoyed her previous novels; loved the protagonist, and now she has gone and screwed up her mystery and tried to mix in a big dose of left wing political commentary. What a bummer! Not only did she tee me off with her politics, but it was not a very good book. It rambled, going back and forth in time--like she was trying desperatelyto prove her point. I will never pick up another Sara Peretsky novel. This has cured me.
Rating:
Summary: Too much is ultimately too little
Review: When a mystery writer undertakes to write in a literary style, the results are usually terrible. However, in this case the writer is Sara Paretsky, and the results are merely overblown pomposity. V.I. draws little circles on paper to keep up with the family trees of Chicago publishers, who are tied to each other and to a Roy Cohn character who does everything but wear a dress into the hearing room, while supposedly keeping his homosexuality secret.
I like Sara Paretsky. But this was not her best work. I felt like her little circles led nowhere, and I was right.
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