Total Recall (V. I. Warshawski Series) [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Sara Paretsky (Author), Sandra Burr (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2004 | Series: V. I. Warshawski Series (Book 10)

In Total Recall, Sara Paretsky brings together several disparate plots in one gripping story. This powerfully suspenseful novel confronts the machinations of a vast and corrupt industry that trades on the victims of Nazi terrorism; the strange and dubious phenomenon of "recovered memory;" and a personal story that brings V. I. Warshawski into the long-buried past of her dearest friend and mentor, Dr. Lotty Herschel. Lotty was a child of nine when she came to England in 1939 as a refugee from Austria. Having lost her entire family to the Nazi terror, she grew up and completed her medical training in London - and there fell in love with a fellow refugee. She ended the affair when she discovered she was pregnant and bore the child in secrecy, giving it up for adoption. Now, that long-held secret may be exposed. At a national conference in Chicago on Jews in Modern America, a man with recovered memories makes a dramatic appearance and claim - and his name brings consternation to Lotty. V.I. is retained to find out whether or not he is a surviving relative of Lotty's. It's a search that meshes stunningly with the pursuit of another case she is on - for what she uncovers, to her great peril, is brutal insurance fraud on an international scale. Total Recall is Paretsky's most spectacular achievement to date, and takes V.I. to new heights of gusto, guts, passion for justice - and risk.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski returns in an exceptionally well-plotted thriller that focuses attention on V.I.'s longtime friend Lotty Herschel. In a handful of chapters that punctuate the contemporary narrative, the Austrian-born physician tells her own story. More than just a device to draw the many threads of this complex novel together, Lotty's history illuminates the depth and complexity of a character that readers of Sara Paretsky's many books-- like V.I. herself--only thought they knew.

At a conference on the recovery of Holocaust assets, a man named Paul Radbuka surfaces, claiming to be part of the past that Lotty left buried in war-torn Europe half a century ago. The aging Lotty is emotionally shattered. She has never talked to V.I. about those years following her escape from Austria--her youth as an orphaned teenager in England and the brilliant medical career that ultimately brought her to America. But Radbuka's claims have such a dramatic effect on her that V.I. feels compelled to investigate him. Radbuka's early life in a concentration camp has recently come back to him, aided by the ministrations of a recovered-memory therapist. Now he's demanding that Lotty and her friend Max, another émigré, acknowledge his connection to them, something neither is prepared to do. Is Radbuka really who he claims to be? And if he's the impostor Lotty says he is, why is she so terrified of him?

V.I.'s efforts to pin down Radbuka's identity dovetail with another case, that of a client with a beef against an insurance company that's trying to keep the state legislature from passing a Holocaust Asset Recovery Act. It's a little too tidy for coincidence, but since it gives Paretsky a chance to show off her knowledge of Chicago politics, the reader is delighted to accept it. While it's Lotty's voice that brings the dead to life and the past into the present, it's V.I.'s dogged perseverance and abiding affection for her friend that drive this powerful, brilliantly executed novel to a conclusion. This is one of Paretsky's strongest outings in years. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Already having established herself as an inventor of the female private eye and a master of the mystery format, Paretsky skillfully expands the form to tackle several convergent themes in a moving novel of discovery and redemption. V.I. "Vic" Warshawski has a traditional mystery to solve: the life insurance policy of black factory worker Aaron Sommers had been faithfully maintained, paid for weekly even when other demands surely seemed of greater urgency. But when Aaron's widow needed to collect, the company denied the claim, saying the policy had been cashed a decade earlier. That leads Vic to Ajax Life Insurance Co. and Ralph Devereux, whom she encountered in her very first case, Indemnity Only (1982). Her investigation is subtly intertwined with another much more personal and wrenching inquiry into the appearance of a man calling himself Paul Radbuka, whose recovered memory as a child survivor of the Holocaust leads him to claim a kinship with Vic's friend Max Loewenthal. Radbuka's claim has an unexpected and drastic affect on Lotty Herschel, Vic's friend and mentor. The twin investigations allow the author to explore simultaneously the issues raised by the Illinois Holocaust Asset Recovery Act and the issue of reparations for the descendants of slaves. Dark, absorbing, probing Paretsky's novel explores the complex web of degrees of guilt and complicity surrounding the fate of Holocaust victims and survivors, with Lotty's story emerging with compelling, terrible clarity and inevitability. (Sept. 11)Forecast: With a six-figure marketing campaign and a subject of universal interest, this novel should bring in lots of new readers who will ensure a healthy run on bestseller lists.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD; MP3 Una edition (June 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593351585
• ISBN-13: 978-1593351588
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,813,552 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

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book intended for Regulars, June 29, 2002

By 

Ricardo Garcia Mainou (Queretaro, Mx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

This was my first aproach to V.I. Varshawski, not mentioning the movie years ago. Total Recall is a long book in a genre that usually rounds mysteries on 300pp (Elizabeth George an exception). Paretsky won't settle for that and sets it up for us to think we're deep into very differents plots: an insurance fraud and a disturbed outcrying holocaust derived patient harassing her friends (Paul Radbuka).

During the book I kept wondering what was wrong with V.I.'s way of treating people, everyone is, for a moment or two, against her, abusing her verbally, doubting her judgement, etc. even her friends and help (except maybe Mr. Contreras an odd character himself). It's like Paretsky likes to mount as much obstacles as possible for Vic to face.
The book has several interwoven chapters recovering the Lotty Herschel story that goes back to World War II, the Kindertransport, remorses and guilt. This chapters are great and probably the best in the book.
The thing I found a bit anoying comes from when Lotty feels, strangely treatened by Radbuka and behaves very irrationaly for hundreds of pages attacking and insulting V.I. Probably this isn't new for the V.I. frequent reader: Why does this woman stands that much abuse from a alleged friend? I assumed they were very close in other books, but Paretsky fails to convey that for the first time reader (something Sue Grafton always holds in mind). Vic says many times that she loves Lotty and so on but that didn't make it for me. Somehow Paretsky should have introduced the main characters as they show so their role, importance and oddities were understood.
If you never read a novel in this series you can find many open questions in the behavior of its characters. Its like if Paretsky is writing only for the regulars.

Not withstanding this little shortcomming, the book is engrossing. You are going to read it top to bottom (of course not in one sitting). And once you go beyond the first 100 pages a bit slow paced but I guess needed to set up the plot, and the first corpse is found, you are caught in the book. I won't spoil the book writing about a few contrived points in the resolution, but be assured I plan to read more of this series.

I couldn't say if its the best of them but it certainly is a good read.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Detective Story; Really Good Novel, October 17, 2001

By 

ReggieRoy (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book from start to finish, couldn't put it down, didn't want it to end. Why can't I give it 10 stars?

V.I. Warshawski has become a mature woman with a realistic lovelife and real friends. It was a pleasure to spend time with her (although I'm worried she's going to starve to death; she never seems to eat anything). The complex insurance and "recovered memory" scam she is "detecting" was interesting and I never doubted any of it. Plenty of blood, gore, action and surprises. As usual I enjoyed the Chicago scenery, especially the occasional notes on the Cubs.

The story of Lotty, finally revealed after all this time, makes perfect sense. I always wondered what her "problem" was, as no doubt did Paretsky. I think Paretsky handled it well, revealing it as if Lotty is telling her the story, which in the end it turns out, she is.

Why do so many people think less of a book because it's a "mystery?" This is as good a novel as many pieces of "literature" I've read, and way better than some of those lyrical and tedious first novels reviewers go nuts over.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasant Surprise, October 19, 2001

By 

Joseph A. Hines - See all my reviews

This review is from: Total Recall (A V.I. Warshawski Novel) (Hardcover)

I read some of the Amazon reviews before reading this book and I wasn't expecting much. Sara Paretsky's characters and plots are a little hard to decipher at times. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by TOTAL RECALL. The plotting was interesting and integrated and held my attention well. The characters were a mix of old familiar people like Max and Lotty and new ones such as Paul Radbuka. Paretsky handled the characters well even through she did a lot of skipping around between plots and subplots.

V.I. Warshawski is a "real pip" of a main character who always has a dozen things going on. In this novel she is verbally assaulted and professionally abused by friend and foe alike. Even Max's young granddaughter, Calia, gets down on "Aunt Victory". Nothing she does pleases anyone, but she keeps plugging along, tying threads together until things make sense.

Paretsky uses Chicago as her setting and really manages to paint a very believable picture of the town. TOTAL RECALL is a solid combination of place, people and plot that entertains the readers and can be recommended with confidence.