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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: Among the first, and perhaps the most compelling, female private investigators of contemporary fiction, Sara Paretsky's incomparable character V. I. Warshawski at last returns to the page in her first full-length appearance since 1994's Tunnel Vision. Hard Time is the work of a master--a riveting novel of suspense that is indisputably Paretsky's best V.I. Warshawski novel yet. Multimedia conglomerate Global Entertainment has purchased the Chicago Herald-Star, forcing the paper's staff to scramble to stay employed. Reporter Murray Ryerson, V.I.'s longtime friend and sometime rival, manages to reinvent himself as the host of a television show on Global's network. On her way home from a party celebrating Murray's debut, V.I. almost runs over a woman lying in the street. Stopping to help, V.I. soon learns that her Good Samaritan act will drop her squarely in a boiling intrigue. In a case that forces her to go head-to-head with one of the world's largest providers of private security and prison services, a case that exposes dark hidden truths behind the razzle-dazzle of the entertainment industry, V.I. will be ahead of the game if she gets out alive..… (more)
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Throughout she grows even more cynical as she battles against a sea of corruption, causing it seems only minor ripples . This is one of her best as she finds herself arrested and jailed on a trumped up charge and uses the opportunity to investigate the death of a prisoner.
The novel itself is very well written and the characters are believable and well drawn. The prison chapters are vivid, realistic and heart wrenching.
Being new to the series I
Hard time as in "giving someone a hard time"--well, we know that's usually part of a V.I. Warshawski book. Hard time as in "doing hard time"--that's covered in this book as well.
Somehow, the Messenger children have ended up with former police officer Mary Louise Neely (despite the fact that their father is still around). Though I recall the previous book, I don't remember how that happened or why--and it's not really explained here. But we get a similar family dynamic as the last book with the Baladine family. Not very original.
V. I. is somewhat more conscious of putting her friends in danger due to her own actions, though she still seems to make unwise choices. At one point, her instincts are screaming "it's a trap" but she goes anyway--with predictable results.