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purplemind's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
2.75
If it weren't for my book club, I'm not sure I would ever have stumbled upon this book, or this series. Although I really enjoy detective/mystery novels, hardboiled is nowhere near my favourite subgenre. Even taking into account my bias towards different approaches to this type of story, though, I think it would be fair to say that it's really easy to tell this is Sara Paretsky's first book.
The main issues, I think, come down to pacing and the way exposition is handled. The first half of the book dragged on a lot for me, mostly because the most interesting characters for V.I. to interact with didn't make an appearance until then (Lotty being the best out of all of them), and because by that point - finally- most of the dullest parts of the plot exposition are out of the way, and the intrigue has room to breathe.
I think that it's clear how V.I.'s character influenced women-lead detective stories to come, and it would be unfair not to recognize it. With that said, I can't help but think that her potential as a character is kind of wasted in this story; a lot of details about her personality (like her sense of style or her parents' Italian and Polish ancestry) are just kind of... thrown out there, repeated ad nauseam until they feel more like items on a checklist to be ticked off every few pages instead of genuine parts of her.
And sometimes it's hard to tell where contradictions are earned character flaws and when they are just... poor writing: for example, at some point, she worries about being unhealthy because of her inability to run after she gets beaten up, and then swallows horse painkillers like it's nothing moments later. Her worry about weight gain is handled kind of weirdly in general; she's presented as a pretty hardened detective, and worrying about keeping in shape makes sense considering her line of work, but most of the time it's presented as a concern about remaining thin and little else, which clashed a lot with her whole motivation as a character, I think. If it had been explored more, instead of just kind of thrown out there, it could have worked better.
I've been told this series and V.I. herself get better with time. I honestly can see that: Sara Paretsky's writing style is very direct and simple in a good way, easy to read when it's done right, which isn't a quality to be discounted at all. With practice, I'm sure she wrote much better novels, and I'm definitely considering picking up more titles from this series, if nothing else to broaden my horizons when it comes to detective novels at least. 1980s Chicago isn't a setting I'm familiar with, and it was a stand out part of this story to me, very vivid in how it's described.
All in all, this was an okay book, just bordering on good. I'm not sure I'd necessarily recommend it but, as previously mentioned, it's an easy read, and once the action kicks in it makes for a moderately exciting one, as well.
If it weren't for my book club, I'm not sure I would ever have stumbled upon this book, or this series. Although I really enjoy detective/mystery novels, hardboiled is nowhere near my favourite subgenre. Even taking into account my bias towards different approaches to this type of story, though, I think it would be fair to say that it's really easy to tell this is Sara Paretsky's first book.
The main issues, I think, come down to pacing and the way exposition is handled. The first half of the book dragged on a lot for me, mostly because the most interesting characters for V.I. to interact with didn't make an appearance until then (Lotty being the best out of all of them), and because by that point - finally- most of the dullest parts of the plot exposition are out of the way, and the intrigue has room to breathe.
I think that it's clear how V.I.'s character influenced women-lead detective stories to come, and it would be unfair not to recognize it. With that said, I can't help but think that her potential as a character is kind of wasted in this story; a lot of details about her personality (like her sense of style or her parents' Italian and Polish ancestry) are just kind of... thrown out there, repeated ad nauseam until they feel more like items on a checklist to be ticked off every few pages instead of genuine parts of her.
And sometimes it's hard to tell where contradictions are earned character flaws and when they are just... poor writing:
I've been told this series and V.I. herself get better with time. I honestly can see that: Sara Paretsky's writing style is very direct and simple in a good way, easy to read when it's done right, which isn't a quality to be discounted at all. With practice, I'm sure she wrote much better novels, and I'm definitely considering picking up more titles from this series, if nothing else to broaden my horizons when it comes to detective novels at least. 1980s Chicago isn't a setting I'm familiar with, and it was a stand out part of this story to me, very vivid in how it's described.
All in all, this was an okay book, just bordering on good. I'm not sure I'd necessarily recommend it but, as previously mentioned, it's an easy read, and once the action kicks in it makes for a moderately exciting one, as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Sexism, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction and Body shaming
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Drug use
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