Toxic Shock (New Portway Large Print Books) [Import] [Hardcover]

Sara Paretsky (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C; Large Print Ed edition (February 5, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745172105
• ISBN-13: 978-0745172101
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,057,886 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

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another fascinating read from Paretsky, May 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Toxic Shock (A V. I. Warshawski Novel) (Paperback)

Having read almost everything else my local bookshop has to offer from this fantastic author, I began this novel with a great expectations, and I was not disappointed. This review gives a real glance at V.I.'s childhood and the backward South Side Chicago where she grew up.V.I. cannot say no to the brat she used to babysit as a teenager and is lead on an engaging search through chemical waste, mysterious doctors, anonymous phonecalls and heavenly brandy. The book creates the perfect balance between financial crime on a huge scale and personal crime on a smaller scale. At the end of the novel, the reader is left wondering which is more awful. The social realism in the novel is intense - Paretsky points out just how evil man can be. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good mystery, feels enraged at the state of the world, or believes that sexism has died out in the world - it hasn't.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Renamed book, but still good!, September 2, 2005

By 

Jennifer J. Martin "Jenny, book lover" (Montgomery, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toxic Shock (A V. I. Warshawski Novel) (Paperback)

As far as I can tell, this is the same book as "Blood Shot"!
(#5 in the series.) Great book, I really enjoyed it, but don't rush out to buy it, thinking it's new! I have all the V.I. books, and every once in a while I start at #1 and re-read them in order. (I read so much that I tend to forget some details while waiting for the author to write a new one!)

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Paretsky never fails, October 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Toxic Shock (Hardcover)

If you've read any of Sara Paretsky's work you'll know most of them feature Private Investigator V.I. Warshawski a woman with a law degree who has chosen rather a seedy existence. In Toxic Shock she gets herself into a great deal of trouble as usual. She is targeting industrial pollution and those with something to hide try to dispose of her. Warshawski lives in Chicago, and her assignment to discover the paternity of Caroline Dijak takes her to this city's seamier districts. The plot unwinds in a fast and most unexpected way. This is a crime novel I would recommend to any enthusiast.