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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:�The best of the Warshawski novels!��Los Angeles Times Book Review Underneath V. I. Warshawski�s wisecracking P.I. exterior lies a real pushover. When elderly neighbor Mr. Contreras asks her to look into a fellow union retiree�s sudden disappearance, she says �yes� from her heart, not her head. And when a crotchety eighty-year-old dog owner starts wrangling with a Yuppie-Come-Lately couple on their blue-collar street, again, it�s V.I. to the rescue. Only it all goes to hell in a handbasket when Mr. Yuppie turns out to be a lawyer in V.I.�s ex-husband�s law firm, and the missing retiree turns up floating facedown in a canal. And now V.I.�s strapping on her shoulder holster to snoop into Chicago�s labor unions and politicos, because being on the side of the angels won�t win her any halos� but it�s the perfect place for an encounter with violent death. Praise for Guardian Angel �A fast-paced, complicated mystery� the real joy of Guardian Angel is Paretsky�s smooth pen and continuing cast of characters.��New York Daily News �No one, male or female, writes better P.I. books than Paretsky, and Guardian Angel is the best to date!��The Denver Post �One monster of a plot.��Booklist �Some crime series grow stale over time, but there's no sign of fatigue here. This is partly because the recurring characters continue to develop and engage the reader, and partly because of the moral intelligence that informs the writing.��Spectator.… (more)
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I guess the crime itself was quite hard to keep track of, even though I was reading it more for Vic's life and person than her work.
It dragged at times, I did get a bit lost, and I
Just couldn't read too much at once.
Even now, i still couldn't tell you the story(!) But Vic is still my top pi...though her crown may slip to Kinsey Mialone.....
Mitch and Mr. Contreras worked together at Diamondhead. Mitch is now an alcoholic and claims that he's got something that will make Diamondhead's bosses pay him, despite the fact that he's well retired. Then, Mitch just disappears.
While checking into that, V. I. also runs afoul of her ex-husband, Dick, and his father-in-law as well as others in the father-in-law's family. Though I was surprised when Dick and Terry confronted V. I. near the end of the book with how Dick acted.
Mrs. Frizzell's dog, Bruce, is the father of Peppy's puppies, even though she won't admit it. When Mrs. Frizzell falls in her bathroom, V.I. and another neighbor, Marjorie Hellstrom try to take care of the dogs. Another neighborhood couple, Todd and Chrissy, go to court to get guardianship of Mrs. Frizzell and have all the dogs put down. This angers V. I. enough that she starts looking into Mrs. Frizzell's finances and finds that someone promised Mrs. Frizzell a 17% return on what turn out to be junk bonds.
The issue between Lottie and V. I. isn't resolved by the end of the book--so I wonder if they will go back to being the way they were or if this will be a new normal. Also, I wonder if Carol Alvarado's role in the series will diminish based on her decisions.
As seems normal for me with this author, I think things should be wrapped up and there's still more chapters to come. Sometimes I feel that the author needlessly complicates the plot.