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geriatricgretch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Wow this book. I don't think I can really talk about it without spoilers, but this was one of the most powerful of Paretsky's novels for me so far. An engaging mystery about corruption in Illinois that still rings very very true today. Even though I had a strong (and correct) hunch about the big reveal, this book was still very suspenseful.
The crux of this novel is heartbreaking, because it hinges on keeping prison production for commercial entities secret, because that's illegal in Illinois. That is no longer the case, as far as I can tell, and to think now we'd just be like "okay" and not horrified that a company is exploiting prison labor is so sad. I knew immediately what the mystery was going to be, because I know about horrific things in prison (and rightly assumed these were not the public norms in the 1990s). VI's time in a women's prison/jail is horrific, and one of the best fiction arguments for prison abolition that I've seen. I think nonfiction works on this is vital, but I think fiction accounts do a lot of work to persuade those of us who have never had first-hand experience of humanizing and contextualizing these issues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse and Sexual assault
Much of this book takes place in a prison and Paretsky is very open about the abuses of power that take place there.