Sara Paretsky

The wonderful thing about Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels is that they are exacly that: novels. Ambitious books with complex story lines that make us look more closely at the world around us and confront us with ethical dilemmas. I don't think it's a stretch to say she is the Charles Dickens of our time, balancing entertainment and a fight for a more just world.

Dead Land is no exception. Warshawski finds herself attending a community group meeting in order to see the soccer team show more coached by her goddaughter receive end-of-season recognition. This moves Warshawski into the middle of a particularly deadly international scheme. I don't want to say more because I don't want to spoil things for other readers, but this book is remarkable.

Do yourself the kindness of picking up a copy of Dead Land as soon as it's released in April. The rewards of this novel are manifold.

I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via EdelweissPlus. The opinions are my own. show less

Wow. You would think Sara Paretsky had a crystal ball and could look into the future of America with this book.

"Blacklist" taking place in a post 9/11 America where everyone who is a Muslim is automatically a terrorist is starting to wear on VI. Due to her protesting during her college days, she knows what a slippery slope the US is in right now with allowing The Patriot Act to allow the government to spy on its citizens all for the great good of security. When VI is asked by one of her show more long-standing clients to look into his mother's accusations that someone has broken into their old home, VI comes across a dead journalist/writer. And it looks like his investigations into a pioneer in the African American art scene during the Red Scare in the U.S. has run into an America that is ready to do whatever it can in the name of terrorism.

I loved this book and it in turn broke my heart while reading. VI can be self righteous. But you definitely (or I did) get where she is coming from. You can see parallels to what the US did back in the 50/60s to those who they claimed where Communists to them saying anyone with brown skin is automatically an enemy. VI ends up running into a powerful publisher and a character who reminded me a little too much of Glen Beck while I was reading.

We get the usual cast of characters in this one. We also have VI feeling lost now that her lover Morello is in Afghanistan investigating the Taliban. She makes a lot of comparisons to her being Penelope and him being Odysseys. I would have to say though that no one puts VI in the corner, so it was a bit much to have her being all fire and brimstone towards anyone who is blocking her ability to figure out who murdered this journalist to them being all weepy over the state of her love life.

The ending shocked me (in a good way). I wish that sometimes Paretsky would do what Sue Grafton does with her Kinsey Millhone detective books and write an epilogue. I hate things being left twisting in the wind. show less

This one was a page-turner! Sara Paretsky has taken on three huge causes with this one, and has put her PI, V.I. Warshawski in extreme danger while doing so. The book is about urban planning and civic corruption. It's also about inequality with the "haves" having a whole new set of rules than the "have-nots"do. I loved the book. In it we see V.I. in her native Chicago chasing bad guys and gals like normal, but we also see her in the plains of Kansas where she ends upfighting for her life and show more trying to run from some truly deplorable individuals. As always, Sara Paretsky introduces some particularly nasty villains, but these villains are villains with money, and a whole set of rules that seem to let them operate without impunity. This is a very powerful novel with a lot of detail about urban planning, conservation, and political machinations and genocide all the way back from the 1990's in Chile. V.I. is trying to get her young goddaughter Bernie (Bernadette) out of a very sticky situation that threatens Bernie and those around her. Then V.I. starts digging, and uncovers a very tangled web of lies and deceit and outright murder (both of the individual kind, as well mass murder which occurred in Kansas four years ago.) We meet another dog as well. Peppy and Mitch are not impressed to have another big dog claim V.I.'s attention, but she acquires the dog when the owner leaves him with her and goes on the run to get away from the powerful bad guys that seem to have taken over the Chicago south side. Bear is a good dog, and V.I. is happy to have him as a partner while she's in Kansas. For those who are long-time readers of this series like me, you better grab ahold of this book and read it right away. It's that good! For those new to the series, this actually wouldn't be a bad place to start, and then you will have all the lovely backlist to comb through to bring yourself up to date. I envy you your journey. show less

I had begun to despair of enjoying reading after my last few books, but this one brought back my faith in the literary arts. A memoir, mostly, of the writer's life, accompanied with some level of history, politics, and opinion, this book is a treasure. The author describes an early life that resonates, and explains the path that led her to being a writer. She talks about significant moments in her life, and spends at least one chapter on the world of the present (2006, when she was writing show more the book). It's frightful in many ways to see how prescient she was, almost as if she knew Roe v. Wade would soon be history, along with other things that weren't really on the horizon in the earliest decade of this century. This is also a book that has obviously had the services of an editor, even if it is only the author. Someone knows how to use punctuation, complete sentences, and other things that help make a book readable. show less