Body Work: A V. I. Warshawski Novel

V. I. Warshawski, Book 14

By: Sara Paretsky

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

“Doctors take days off — why not P.I.s?” V.I. Warshawski demands. But when America’s hardest-working private eye goes clubbing, a stranger is shot and dies in her arms.

V.I. has been visiting Club Gouge, Chicago’s edgiest nightspot, where a woman known as the Body Artist turns her naked body into a canvas for the audience to paint on. The show attracts all kinds of people, from a menacing off-duty cop to Ukrainian mobsters and Iraq war vets - and V.I.’s impetuous cousin, Petra. A tormented young painter shows up, too, and the intricate designs she creates on the Body Artist drive one of the vets into a violent rage.

When the painter is shot, the cops figure it’s an easy collar: PTSD vet goes off the rails, stalks then kills young woman. But the vet’s family hires V.I. to clear his name, and the detective uncovers a chain of ugly truths that stretches all the way from Iraq to Chicago’s South Side.

Crack another case with V. I. Warshawski.©2010 Sara Paretsky (P)2010 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

“The thing about Sara Paretsky is, she’s tough—not because she observes the bone-breaker conventions of the private-eye genre but because she doesn’t flinch from examining old social injustices others might find too shameful (and too painful) to dig up.” ( The New York Times Book Review)

Disappointing

I love V.I. and admire Paretsky's writing. This novel, however, stretches the credibility beyond reason; Thugs transmitting secret bank account numbers through live video of an artist's naked behind, V.I. posing as the naked artist in an elaborate scheme that endangers the public and accomplishes little? Please! The reader, the same as her last novel, is mediocre. Lottie still doesn't haven't a German accent and everyone tends to shout. Finally, could someone please explain to me why after 25 years of dealing with Chicago Police Department V.I. doesn't have more credibility with them?

Sara, maybe you're running out of steam on V.I.. She's a glorious character and you've give her so many fabulous stories - maybe it's time for her retirement. I will miss her.