Sunday, July 10, 2011

Body Work by Sara Paretsky

V.I. Warshawsky hasn't lost a step since the last one that I read. I guess I am going to have to go back and pick up what I've missed - add those to the list.

In this one, she gets involved quite without deliberate intention in a murder which turns out to be related to another murder and for which an Iraq vet with PTSD is framed. Along the way we draw in a defense contractor, a loan shark/drug kingpin, and a woman whose club act consists of having people paint on her. Oh, and did I forget the woman who plays heavy metal on authentic renaissance period instruments - and V.I.'s cousin Petra?

Lots of characters, lots of Warshawsky-scale action - it kept me turning pages. I have read other books by other writers with fewer characters and a more straight-forward plot which were much more difficult to follow. I am amazed and delighted by the way that Paretsky keeps all the balls in the air without causing me to lose sight of where they all are at any given point in time. Not to mention the way that her descriptions of Chicago in winter make me so very thankful that I no longer live anywhere near there.

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