Blood Shot (V. I. Warshawski Series #5)

by Sara Paretsky

Overview

V.I. Warshawski isn't crazy about going back to  her old south Chicago neighborhood, but a promise  is something she always keeps. Caroline, a  childhood friend, has a dying mother and a problem —  after twenty-five years she wants V.I. to find the  father she never knew. But when V.I. starts  probing into the past, she not only finds out where all  the bodies are buried — she stumbles onto a very  new corpse. Now she's stirring up a deadly mix of  big business and chemical corruption that may  become a toxic shock to a snooper who knows too  much.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780440204206
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/15/1989
Series:	V. I. Warshawski Series , #5
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	376
Sales rank:	59,364
Product dimensions:	4.18(w) x 6.89(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	910L (what's this?)

About the Author

Sara Paretsky grew up in eastern Kansas, where she attended a small country school. The publishing bug bit Paretsky early—at age 11, her first published story appeared in the magazine The American Girl. It was about children surviving a Kansas tornado. She attended the University of Kansas for her undergraduate degree, but after spending a summer in Chicago doing community service work, she fell in love with the Windy City and decided after college to make the move permanent.

Paretsky eventually earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago but had a hard time finding a job as an academic, so she returned to school for an M.B.A., after which she started working full-time in marketing. (In order to complete her first three novels, she juggled family and job with writing at night.) An avid reader, Paretsky has always been a fan of detective fiction, but noticed a lack of intelligent, likable female protagonists in the genre. Thus, with the inspiring city of Chicago as the background, her signature character, V. I. Warshawski, was born.

Readers and critics have responded with appreciation for Paretsky's confident, modern, noir female detective. Unlike other noir heroines, V. I. refuses to be categorized by her sexuality. Despite the patriarchy she confronts on every case, she's a single woman in total control. Paretsky says of V. I., " I started aging V. I. because although she is a fictional character, she is grounded in historical events: she came of age during the Civil Rights movement and the anti-War movement. Her mother was a refugee from Fascist Italy. And her cases are all based on real events. Who she is depends on her being born in the Fifties. Now, of course, I have this dilemma of how to let her get older while still continuing to be an effective detective. I haven't quite figured that out yet."

Beyond her successful series, Paretsy has proven her range of talent with short stories (1995's Windy City Blues) and a handful of stand-alones (Ghost Country, Bleeding Kansas). She has also edited anthologies of mysteries and crime fiction by famous and less well-known female writers.

Generous with all she has learned throughout the years, Paretsky is a co-founder of Sisters in Crime, an organization dedicated since 1986 to bringing the female voice in detective fiction to the attention of booksellers and libraries. Sisters in Crime is a business resource for women on how to prepare a press kit, arrange a signing at a local bookstore, or search for an agent—as well as a treasure chest of new writers on the scene. Check out all they have to offer at www.sistersincrime.org.

Hometown:

Chicago, Illinois

Date of Birth:

June 8, 1947

Place of Birth:

Ames, Iowa

Education:

B.A., Political Science, University of Kansas; Ph.D. and M.B.A., University of Chicago

Website:

http://saraparetsky.com/

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The best boldest work to  date...A criminal investigation that is a genuine heroic  quest." —The New York Times Book  Review.

Editorial Reviews

"The best boldest work to  date...A criminal investigation that is a genuine heroic  quest." —The New York Times Book  Review.

From the Publisher

The fifth and finest in Paretsky's praised series returns heroine Victoria (V. I.) Warshawski, lawyer/private detective, to describe mysterious circumstances arising from a seemingly insignificant case. A visit to a childhood friend in South Chicago, Caroline Djiak, ends with Warshawski agreeing to look for the father Caroline never knew and whom neither her mother Louisa, although she's dying, or maternal grandparents will name. Almost at once, however, Caroline begs the detective to stop the search. She is badly frightened when a co-worker in a neighboring recycling plant is murdered, but Warshawski won't quit the investigation now that she suspects criminals have a bigger motive for killing than keeping the father's identify secret. The decision to fight on entangles V. I. with the powerful owner of a chemical company and his minionsa venal doctor who falsifies employee records, South Chicago's corrupt alderman, a gangster profiteer with a stranglehold on the city's trash collectionsand thugs hired to kill ``the snoop.'' It's a gripping, entertaining story, although sobering as a warning against thieving officials who pollute natural resources and rob the public. Mystery Guild dual main selection; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (September)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly