Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Review- Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky


Genre: Mystery
ISBN 0-399-15279-2
rating 4/5

In this the 12th installment of the Private eye V.I. Warshawski series, V.I. (Vic ) volunteers to fill in for her old high school basketball coach on Chicago's South Side. Vic starts her volunteer stint looking for a team sponsor at a large department store By-Smart, whose founder, Buffalo Bill Bysen, is a fellow alum. Of all Bysen's cutthroat, cost-cutting family, only idealist 19-year-old Billy shows any interest in helping the team. When he disappears, his frustrated father hires Vic to find him. The mother of a high school basketball player also hires Vic to investigate sabotage at the flag factory where she works—an investigation cut short when the factory blows up before Vic's eyes killing the owner. Vic risks life and limb as she winds her way chasing down clues from a fundamentalist church, where the pastor goes to extremes for his flock, to the city dump, where villains try to bury their secrets.

This book is well written, has a good plot and I like the author's writing style. In this book Paretsky uses the mystery genre venue to explore the struggles of the working poor and the schemes of the rich and infamous. The book is fast paced. This book will appeal to V.I. fans and those interested in classism and racism.


9 comments:

Joy said...

Woo Hoo! Welcome to the blogging world, Lillian! :) Great review; I look forward to more.

Josh Lanyon said...

Nice review, Lillian. Great site. Welcome to the world of reviewing.

Josh

Nicola Griffith said...

Very cool. I get a good idea of both the novel and how you feel about it, which I really like in a review.

Kerrie said...

Welcome Lillian. Having a book blog was my new Year's Resolution too. Mine is going to have a daily entry if I can manage it.

Vicki Delany said...

Welcome to the world of blogging. Would you like to trade links? I blog with several other mystery writers at Type M For Murder. http://typem4murder.blogspot.com

Have a look at us, you might see something you'd enjoy reading.

robint said...

Lilian, I thought that you did a nice job with the review and I enjoyed the book when I read it over a year ago.

Lourdes said...

Great start, Lillian. I've also been blogging my reviews for a while. It's a good way share your favorite books with other people.

Patty G. Henderson said...

Greetings, Lillian. Excellent review. It has everything a review should without the extra verbage. Bravo.

Anonymous said...

Happy you joined us at the Suspense & Thrillers group at Shelfari.com! :)

Love your review!