Fire Sale [Import] [Paperback]

Sara Paretsky (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; 1St Edition edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340839090
• ISBN-13: 978-0340839096
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Sara Paretsky is the award-winning creator of the V I Warshawski detective novels. When Sara introduced V I in Indemnity Only in 1982, she revolutionized the mystery novel. By creating a female investigator who uses her wits as well a her fists, Sara challenged a genre in which women were traditionally either vamps or victims.

V I is the quintessential urban woman. She grew up in the shadow of the old steel mills on Chicago's Southeast side and knows her way around every alley in town. She's a street fighter, a singer, a bit of a clothes horse, and a woman of great intensity and passion.

So how much like V I is her creator? They certainly come from very different places. Sara grew up in rural Kansas where she attended a two-room school. She continues to believe the high point of her life came at the age of twelve when she was picked to play third base for the Kaw Valley District 95 baseball team.

Bleeding Kansas, Sara's 14th novel, is set in the part of the Kaw River Valley where Sara grew up.

Sara first came to Chicago in 1966 to do community service work in the same neighborhood where Martin Luther King was organizing. It was a time of fierce passions in the city and in the country as people fought over racial justice, the rights and wrongs of the war in Vietnam, and women's rights. Sara has always felt that that summer changed her life forever, and when she finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, she came back to make Chicago her home. Some of the history of that summer is recounted in her essay collection, Writing in an Age of Silence.

Like V I, Sara likes to sing, in an amateur way, has a hopeless passion for the Cubs, loves Italian shoes'and is obsessed by the search for the perfect cappuccino, so much so that she even went to cappuccino school.

In other academic ventures, Sara received a PhD in American History and an MBA from the University of Chicago. In 1976, she married physics professor Courtenay Wright. The two live in the city of Chicago with their wonder dog Callie. Their lives are made brighter by their adored granddaughter, Maia.

Sara shares V I's passion for social justice. She founded Sisters in Crime in 1986 to support women readers and writers in the mystery world. To give back to the community, Paretsky established the Sara and Two C-Dogs Foundation, which primarily supports girls and women in the arts, letters, and sciences. She has endowed several scholarships at the University of Kansas, and has mentored students in Chicago's inner city schools. She serves on the advisory boards of Literature for All of Us, a literacy group for teen moms, and Thresholds, which serves Chicago's mentally-ill homeless.

Sara has received numerous awards, including the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime achievement from the British Crime Writers Association, the Gold Dagger for best novel for her book Blacklist, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from several different universities. Sara's books have been translated into almost thirty languages.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the Best in her Field., November 2, 2005

By 

N. Richardson "nano" (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire Sale (V.I. Warshawski Novels) (Hardcover)

Sara Paretsky, along with Marcia Muller, created a subgenre in the mystery field with her series of Warshawski novels. And from the beginning, she stood apart from the rest by looking at the important issues of our time, framing them in the lives of ordinary people, while using the conventions of the genre to hook readers into compelling plots, dialogue and...suspense and action.

Like P. Schumacher, I have often compared her to Dickens because of her ability to create fabulous characters (including some terrific villains) while making complex political issues accessible to people who otherwise are turned off to politics.

In taking on the Walmartization of America, she has plenty of material. And she explores the issue from a variety of angles, including from the point of view of people forced by circumstance to be trapped in chronic underemployment. At the same time, she shows how the predatory practices of BigBox America destroys communities, including small business.

Any she does this while weaving a darn good story.

However, I would suggest the reader avoid at all costs the Brilliance Audio edition as voiced by the worst narrator working in AudioBooks today. Sandra Burr, despite the "spotlight" reviewer's opinion is totally wrong from this or any book for adults. She has no understanding of the characters or the book's subject matter, and her characterizations truly hurt the book. She is distracting when she gives a 19 year old young man the voice of a 12 year old girl....and everytime she does dialogue, my immediate impulse was to to track to down Paretsky's agent and demand she renegotiate her contract with Brilliance.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paretsky is better than ever, July 4, 2005

By 

Mary McCarthy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fire Sale (V.I. Warshawski Novels) (Hardcover)

I don't know about you, but I've had some disappointments of late with some of my favorite mystery authors. Let's not name names. You know you agree with me: they're writing too many books and putting too little into them.

But not Sara Paretsky! I've been a fan for years, and the V.I. books just keep getting better. This one is well-written with a great plot line. It's a treat you owe yourself for the heat of this summer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Action, Low on Human Interest, October 17, 2006

By 

Lois Lain (San Francisco Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fire Sale (V.I. Warshawski Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

Paretsky is the master of the modern female private eye, and V.I. Warshawski set the tone for many of the female detectives who followed -- Kinsey Millhone, Sheriff Joanna Brady, etc. The latest in Paretsky's series offers readers a strong plot with vivid action scenes, and a nice mellowing of V.I.'s personality. The early books in the series were so tainted with her anger at life in general that I found them difficult to read. Now, V.I., seems to have sheared off some of her rough edges, leaving behind a lot of the "tough gal" persona that flavored the early works.

This book has many strengths, including memorable characters, much action, a strong setting, and seamless prose. However, I wonder if Paretsky is getting tired as V.I. is mellowing? The plot was a bit shaky (V.I. had a bit too much of a free pass into offices that no one would allow her to gain access to, and her reasons for becoming involved in the shady business of the South Side were tenuous at best). And many characters are thinly drawn caricatures (the Poor Little Rich Boy in love with the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, the minority mother who works hard to keep off welfare, the heartless businessmen who cry "family values" but who will do anything to stay ahead, etc.). And even many of the old standbys (Lottie, Mr. Contreras, Conrad) seemed a bit tired of their roles, just popping on stage and then off again with no emotion or involvement.

Overall, I rate this book highly because of its action and writing. But Paretsky may have to start relying on real human interaction for interest, instead of just sending V.I. on another trip to the emergency room.