Hard Time

Rating:
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

Rating:
Summary: SLOW TO START, BUT ENDS WITH A BANG.
Review: I could put this book down, and did several times. In fact I read two other books while I was reading this one, so I can't say that it kept my interest from the beginning. I couldn't quite understand a P.I. taking this much time and effort to work on a case she wouldn't be paid for. I also didn't quite buy the risks she took to solve the case. I must say that her portrayal of prison life was unnervingly accurate and I wish that more writers would tackle the subject of incarceration and the inhuman treatment of prisoners right here in the good ol' USA. Georgia is a prime example of the "company store", except that prisoners in Georgia are not even paid for their work. The powers that be don't even try to pass it off as rehabilitation. After all, how much demand is there on the street for people who can make three tier bunkbeds out of scrap iron. The ending was worth wading through the first half of the book, and I would recommend this book to readers that like mystery and crime stories. All I can say is - stick with it. The ending is worth it. Perhaps if I had read this author before I would have understood some of the beginning characters more. Give it a try.

Rating:
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?