Breakdown
A V.I. Warshawski Novel
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4.2 • 169 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A strange crime gets V.I. Warshawski involved with some of Chicago’s most rich and powerful players in this thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky.
When a group of Chicago tweens holds a ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse—stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying. V.I. Warshawski arrives on the scene to escort the girls home–but protecting them places her at the tangled center of the investigation. And the girls include daughters of some of Chicago’s most powerful families: the grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is among the world’s wealthiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is running for the United States Senate.
For V.I., the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Durango—or to Salanter’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles to find an answer, she finds herself fighting enemies who are no less terrifying for being all too human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of MWA Grand Master Paretsky's riveting 15th novel featuring Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski (after 2010's Body Work), Warshawski goes in search of several 12- and 13-year-old girls, members of her cousin Petra's book club, who are out after curfew. Warshawski finds the girls in a cemetery, steps away from a recently deceased man, Miles Wuchnik, who she later learns was an unscrupulous PI. Media attention on two of the girls the daughter of Sophy Durango, a liberal U.S. Senate candidate, and the granddaughter of Chaim Salanter, a wealthy Jewish businessman linked to Durango's campaign intensifies an already mudslinging political race, particularly when it's revealed that the girls were trying to perform a "vampire" ritual from their favorite supernatural novel. Meanwhile, bigoted TV host Wade Lawlor attempts to derail Durango's campaign and slander Salanter with unfounded accusations about Salanter's treatment under the Nazis. Amid all the ugly politics, Warshawski once again proves a dogged champion for the truth at any cost.
Customer Reviews
Best Paretsky plot so far
There were several families who were involved in supposedly unrelated events. The plot thickens. The only reason I gave it a four was that the it was difficult to remember the relationships of the characters. When reading this book, it might be a good idea to jot down the characters as they appear.
Hang in there
This is a slow starter with weird disparate elements, but gradually picks up steam to become a wildly interesting, if hugely improbable, page turner.
Too unbelievable
Sorry, I like this series, but this is ridiculous. I sympathize with her politics, but the thinly veiled “ bad guys “ in this were beyond belief. And the whole vampire part of the story just silly and unnecessary. I kept reading, but kept wondering why I bothered. You could tell the villain from the very beginning; the baroque twists that got you to the end were just….baroque. Straining credibility is putting it mildly!