Ghost Country [Hardcover]

Sara Paretsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 1998

Sara Paretsky's genius made Chicago private eye  V.I. Warshawski a household name.  Now the New York Times bestselling author explores an unseen corner of the city she loves.  In Ghost Country she has written a parable for the millennium, a powerful, haunting novel of magic and miracles, of four troubled people who meet beneath Chicago's shadowy streets--and of the woman whose mysterious appearance changes all of their lives forever.

They come from different worlds and meet at a time of crisis for all of them.  Luisa, a drunken diva fallen on hard times, discovers on Chicago's streets a drama greater than any she has experienced onstage.  Madeleine, a homeless woman, sees the Virgin Mary's blood seeping through a concrete wall beneath a luxury hotel.  Mara, a rebellious adolescent cast out by her wealthy grandfather, becomes the catalyst for a war between the haves and have-nots as she searches among society's castoffs for the mother she never knew.  

As the three women fight for their right to live and worship beneath the hotel, they find an ally in Hector Tammuz, an idealistic young psychiatrist risking his career to treat the homeless regardless of the cost.  Tensions in the city are escalating when a mysterious woman appears during a violent storm.  Erotic to some, repellent to others, she never speaks; the street people call her Starr.  And as she slowly transforms their lives, miracles begin to happen in a city completely unprepared for the outcome.  

In this extraordinary novel, Sara Paretsky gives voice to the dispossessed, to men and women struggling to bury the ghosts of the past, fighting for their lives in a world hungry for miracles, terrified of change.  A magical, unforgettable story of myth and madness, hope and revelation, Ghost Country is Sara Paretsky's most eloquent and ambitious work yet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sara Paretsky boldly strays from her widely popular V.I. Warshawski mystery series--note to fans: caveat emptor--and trades the gritty Chicago detective in for a pair of debutante sisters, Mara and Harriet Stonds. The poor little rich girls (grand pa-pa Stonds was a famous neurosurgeon) are blessed with every material comfort, but are sadly lacking in a sound karma-credit plan. Treated like a second-class citizen by her grandfather, Mara forever plays the underdog to "golden" Harriet, an irritatingly perfect girl, reminiscent of "Nellie" from Little House on the Prairie. In a bizarre chain of events, the sisters see the errors of their ways when they become entangled in a complex caper involving a washed-up, drunken opera singer, a posse of homeless women, a soothsayer, a kindly psychotherapist and a selection of twisted clergymen. Abstract and slightly surreal at times, Ghost Country might seem arduous to the tried and true Paretsky fan: it's a far cry from her no-nonsense, cut-and-dried thrillers. However, this atypical character study might prove to be a refreshing pit stop for those with a lot of mystery mileage under their belts; it's a colorful detour from the predictable puzzlers. --Rebekah Warren

From Library Journal

V.I. Warshawski's creator hops from mystery to mainstream in a novel centered on a Chicago wall, said to weep the Virgin Mary's blood, that draws disparate troubled souls.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 2nd edition (May 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385299338
• ISBN-13: 978-0385299336
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,355 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Country, January 31, 2003

By 

K. Freeman (Apple Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost Country (Paperback)

This is a very well-written urban fantasy. (It's not remotely horror, by the way).

It's not a mystery. It's about a Goddess returning into urban American life, and the chaos that ensues.

As a reader familiar with SFF, I found this story original, well-written, well-characterized and engaging. It draws the reader in and offers both intellectual and emotional interest.

Paretsky fans who are able to step beyond the familiar mystery milieu, and who aren't afraid of a little sensuality, have a treat to read here--and I don't hesitate to recommend the book to anyone.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sara Paretsky takes a new direction., January 23, 2000

By 

Sharon H. Nelson (Toledo, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Country (Paperback)

I picked up GHOST COUNTRY at the library when I was in a mood for a quick, non-threatening read. That is not what I found. Instead of V.I Warshawski's take charge and sort out the problem and tie up all the loose ends fun read, GHOST COUNTRY was a book that would cause me to think and question. It was a time I didn't want to think about the problems and my role in their cause and cure. But, I know Gail Russel and her work at Sarah's Circle and was intrigued, so when the time was right I went back to find out what Ms. Paretsky had to say. I rembered TUNNEL VISION and her concern with the homeless. But GHOST COUNTRY is about much more than a look at people without housing, it is a look at individuals and how they come to be homeless how the parts of society, which I am part of, interact with the homless.

The book plot is a compilcated mix of personalities, events and social institutions and their effects on each other.

I will recommed it to my book group because Ms. Paratsky has written a book that requires the reader to think and question. The questions are not easy and the answers even harder. But my book group is an interesting mix of intelligent thinking women who stretch each other to move out of our comfortable thinking ruts.

I hope that Ms. Paratsky continues to write about V.I., but that GHOST COUNTRY is followed by books that will stay in my mind and cause me to question what I believe and how I react toward others and the part I play in all I do.

It is not a "pleasant" story. She is not Clyde Edgerton in WALKING ACROSS EGYPT, asking what is the role of the Church, what do young people need to be sucessful adults, what gives adults a state of grace. Instead Ms. Paretsky colors her story with some disturbing images, but she is not without hope and redemption.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sara Cops Out!, November 3, 2000

By 

"judithb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghost Country (Paperback)

When you think of Sara Paretsky, you can't help but think of V.I. Warshawski in the very same thought. Most people who picked up this book probably assumed it was a new adventure for V.I.; after all, that's what Sara Paretsky writes. Well, I'm sure Sara Paretsky is a multi-dimensional person herself, and as such is allowed to write what she likes - if we're disappointed that V.I. is not a character in this book, that's our problem, not hers. There really was no room for V.I. in this story, anyway. But that didn't stop me having a problem.

Still set in Chicago, Paretsky weaves an urban fable around the most unlikely heroines; the homeless, "mad" and dispossessed. We all know about homeless people, but do we have any idea how they get that way? How can an unquenchable craving for alcohol bring a world famous operatic diva onto the streets with her hardly noticing? It seems incredible to me, but I have never experienced that thirst. Why do the withheld histories of her mother and grandmother cause a young woman to construct alternative lives for them and go looking for them? I don't know - I'm sure we don't have such secrets in my family. How can someone see rusty water leaking from a crack in a wall, and see the blood of the Virgin Mary? I don't know - I don't have that sort of faith.

Then there are those who help. What is help? Is the shelter provided by Hagar House really help, with all the miles of strings attached in the name of some sort of self-serving Christianity. Does the hospital really provide help, with the dispensation of drugs and 15 minute psychiatric sessions?

The supposedly normal people are also a mass of confliction. The golden girl, freezing her emotions down deep while striving relentlessly for the approval of a domineering grandfather. The domineering grandfather, treated as a god by the hospital and by a manipulative housekeeper. The idealistic, young psychiatrist, still naïve enough to put concern for patients ahead of concern for the hospital. The hellfire and brimstone preaching lay brother, with his abused, repressed and cowered daughter, and bully of a son. The large hotel, owners of the wall worshipped by the homeless women and the lengths they are prepared to go to get rid of them.

But then the story takes a fantasy turn, and unfortunately gets lost. A mysteriously erotic, unintelligible woman named Starr enters, and manages to heal everyone's afflictions and punish the manipulators. With her Medusa-like hairstyle, is she a reincarnated Sumarian goddess, or a female Christ? Well, what she is, is a cop-out. I was appalled to find this story that had provoked my thoughts and held me spell-bound for many pages, suddenly turned into a silly little fantasy. The introduction of this character was completely unnecessary - a writer of Paretsky's proven skill resorting to such artifice to resolve a skilfully constructed set-up is extremely disappointing.

Still, I found quite a bit of food for thought in this book. How precariously many of us totter on the precipice, how tiny the nudge to send us spinning out of control. What then?