Blood Shot

As I've previously read some of the series after viewing the movie with Kathleen Turner as Victoria 'V.I.' Warshawski, also known as Vic, reading another novel in the series is returning to spend time with a favorite character as created by Sara Paretsky.

In this novel, Vic returns to the old neighborhood on the South side of Chicago - memories abound and it was an interesting turn to learn how Vic would pivot the intrigue into a solved case.

"I felt a little prickling along the base of my neck, that primitive adrenaline jolt that lets you know you're getting close to the saber-toothed tiger"

Sara Paretsky's veteran private investigator, V. I. Warshawski, is summoned to her childhood suburbs in this family/industrial mystery, in which the kid next door wants Vic to find her father. Vic stumbles onto a industrial negligence cover-up, and as usual, is shortly on the trial of the bad guys...

As usual, there is a decent sized cast as Vic battles with the police, her client, a geriatric doctor and his battleaxe sister - Cleo is my favourite character in the whole book, I think - and a swathe of villains. Vic's downstairs neighbour makes plenty of overprotective appearances, as show more always, and her friends Lotty and Max come back too. I can't say there's masses of character development of Vic herself, but Caroline is quite a riddle and it's good to see her evolve; ditto the mayor's son Art.

I didn't see any of the plot thread resolutions coming, so that's a big commendation. The various threads all tie up neatly, but it was good to see the different threads (Caroline's paternity, the murder of a key character, the historical industrial relations issue, and the doctor's past) being attended to in reasonably equal measures.

The writing is of a better quality than I had remembered Paretsky's to be - she uses words like submoronic, pilfering, "exuberant philathropy" - it's not Pulitzer-winning but it's a pleasant surprise to see a crime writer stretch their vocabulary every now and again. The book was very easy to pick up again, despite the multiple plot threads.

One for Eighties nostalgics and private investigator fiction fans. show less

2017 reread: While some aspects of this 5th entry of the Warshawski series are slightly dated, overall it remains an exciting PI story. Paretsky creates a great sense of place with her descriptions of various parts of Chicago, especially the economically struggling South Side. I found that even though I recalled some aspects of the story from my previous reading (20 or so years ago), much of the story took me by surprise, making this a more exciting read than I had expected.

V I Warshawski is a private investigator who in this book is working outside her usual field of expertise for a family friend. On a daily basis she exhausts herself beyond endurance, flirts with death, irritates both friends and enemies (and she has plenty of the latter) as she tries to bring the Big Shots - the corrupt Big Shots - to justice. Like Warshawski, I rapidly became exhausted by it all. I only picked this book up from the 36 Bus exchange shelf (brilliant idea, that) because I had nothing else to read at that moment. One book from the series is quite enough, thank you, even though it is in fact well and intelligently written.

2017 reread: While some aspects of this 5th entry of the Warshawski series are slightly dated, overall it remains an exciting PI story. Paretsky creates a great sense of place with her descriptions of various parts of Chicago, especially the economically struggling South Side.

I found that even though I recalled some aspects of the story from my previous reading (20 or so years ago), much of the story took me by surprise, making this a more exciting read than I had expected.

I picked up this Bookcrossing book in a cafe because I thought that it might be time to give Sara Paretsky another chance. I had given up reading her novels about VI Warshawski when I tired of her endless criminal investigations of her extended family. Ironically, this novel is the UK edition of the first novel with which I had a problem when it appeared as Blood Shot. I did not recognise it under its UK title until I started to read it. Almost twenty years ago, I was more disappointed with the absurdity of the solution to the mystery than I was with the largely uncommercial basis of Warshawski's business because this one is about helping a childhood friend rather than one of her inumerable cousins. I remembered the book when the show more basketball game starts late in the first chapter. That is not very far in. All the chapters are short. That is part of Paretsky's style. As is the use of frequent recaps as if she does not really trust her readers to pay attention. Despite this, the books all have pace. None of this is enough, however. The plots become formulaic and the characters do not develop. And by this fifth book I was no longer getting pleasure from the Chicago locations. If I want repetitive formulaic detective novels in a familiar city, I need look no further than the witty staccato conversations of Robert B Parker's Spenser novels. show less

Seriously. The first part of the book started off so well. Then it just descended into ridiculous levels of absurdity that I had a hard time overlooking.

Also, it just needs to be said, VI (Vic) just sucks. I don't particularly like her character. She is one of those people who will come up to you in a bar and tell you how edgy she is when in fact drinking whiskey and taking baths does not make you edgy. Also being a slob (housekeeping wise) also doesn't make you edgy. The main reason why I gave this three stars is that for one Paretsky doesn't have a love interest (there is something stupid with a cop) but for all intents and purposes, Vic is solo in this book.

When Vic is coaxed to come back to her old high school to suit up again (she show more played basketball) she is then nagged into taking a case from her former neighbor that she used to babysit. Vic is asked by Caroline (the neighbor) to please find out who Caroline's biological father is. Paretsky takes a long winding road to get there, but eventually readers figure out that Caroline's mother got pregnant as a teen and thrown out of her house. She somehow found a place to live and work, and gave birth to her daughter. Now that Caroline's mother is dying, she wants to reach out to find any other relatives she may have out there.

Vic is annoyed at the request and reluctantly starts a search. I won't get into it via this review. But honestly, how Vic gets to where she does that leads to some big conspiracy really didn't work for me. Vic is fired repeatedly by Caroline and asked to stop looking for her father and Vic just keeps going. It doesn't work for me since Vic complains incessantly about the case but is annoyed at Caroline and calls her spoiled and a brat from the beginning of the book until the end. She even shakes her at one point.

There are some familiar characters in this one. I enjoyed Lotty, loathed Max, and got really sick of Vic's downstairs neighbor Mr. Contreras. I felt like Max is insufferable just like I did in the last book. And I hated how Mr. Contreras was way too involved with Vic's comings and goings. At this point, I think he harbors a crush on her and it just was making me feel slightly claustrophobic dealing with him around all of the time.

The writing was okay and in some cases made me cringe. Vic calls something oriental. She also mentions Lottie looking like a Mandarin due to her dark eyes and small face at one point. I just thought there were way too many plot holes in this book and the reasoning why Vic kept investigating did not ring true. Paretsky does this thing where VI is the way she is in order to prove she's tough, but she just proved she doesn't have a lot of common sense in this case. And I for one am sick of her and her constant back and forth with the the character of Bobby Mallory. Vic is in her 30s at this point, she still acts like a teenager around him and is too glib by far.

The book ends, but it's not done in a satisfying way. You don't really know what becomes of the bad guys. And Vic has to fight off losing her home due to the machinations of one man. But that's about it. show less