I am very embarrassed to be reviewing Sara Paretsky’s Body Work (2010) almost a year and a half after the publisher sent me the copy I won from the Rap Sheet blog.
On the other hand, I’m thrilled to be working my way through a stack of books that I’ve been meaning to read and that have been making me feel bad for a while now. And it doesn’t hurt that I liked the book!
In the 14th book in this series, female private investigator V.I. Warshawski tackles what appears to be an open-and-shut case, the murder of a woman Vic herself tried to save when she was shot outside a nightclub where Vic’s cousin Petra works. It seems obvious to everyone, including the police, that Iraq war veteran Chad Vishneski shot the woman in a moment of PTSD-induced rage. Yet his parents refuse to believe he’s capable of it and hire V.I. to find out what actually happened.
The mystery actually turns out to be quite complicated. The club owner and the performance artist who drew both Chad and the murder victim to Club Gouge are somehow involved with Ukrainian thugs and a Halliburton-ish contractor who works in Iraq, and the Body Artist once had an affair with the sister of the murder victim, who may or may not have crossed paths with Chad in Iraq. V.I. has a hard time sorting out what’s relevant and who’s connected, so she just keeps knocking on doors and asking questions until she begins to figure it all out.
It’s also a violent story, with V.I. getting injured on three separate occasions — once surviving probably only because a couple of Chad’s veteran friends turn up — much to the chagrin of her elderly neighbor, Mr. Contreras, and her young cousin, Petra, who is appalled that Vic seems not the least affected by the chaos around her. In fact, Vic is deeply upset by the events, as well as the frequent references other people make about her age and appearance; at the end of the book she despairs about all the misery she’s seen and wonders if she’s helped or only made matters worse. But it ends on a surprisingly sentimental note that makes me wonder if Vic’s going to be making some changes in her life.
For those who aren’t as far behind on their reading as I am, here’s the first chapter of Breakdown, V.I.’s latest adventure.
I read the first books in the series years ago and enjoyed them very much, but at some point they changed (I can hardly remember how – radical feminism, perhaps???) so I haven´t read one for years. I have heard they are less preachy these days so perhaps I should try picking them up again.
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Glad you like it after all that time
I am awaiting Breakdown from the library…was wary of buying it due to heavily political content which harks back to the books she wrote during the Bush years from what I’ve heard. While I generally agree with the politics I don’t really want it so overtly in my crrime fiction – I like thinking for myself 
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Dorte, I had quit reading them for a while, too, but picked up with the one before Body Work (my review: http://www.howmysterious.com/2010/05/05/v-i-warshawski-plays-hardball/) and liked it more than I expected.
But, like you Bernadette, the next one makes me wary and I’m kind of waiting to see what other people think… so which one of you is going to “breakdown” and review it? Teehee.
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