Brush Back

V. I. Warshawski Series, Book 17

By: Sara Paretsky

Narrated by: Karen Peakes

Chicago's V. I. Warshawski confronts crooked politicians and buried family secrets in the gritty new novel from New York Times - bestselling author Sara Paretsky.

No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she'd be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that's precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo's plea for help.

For six stormy weeks back in high school, V. I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister, Annie, to death. Stella Guzzo was an angry, uncooperative prisoner and did a full twenty-five years for her daughter's murder.

Newly released from prison, Stella is looking for exoneration, so Frank asks V. I. for help. V. I. doesn't want to get involved. Stella hated the Warshawskis, in particular V. I.'s adored mother, Gabriella.

But life has been hard on Frank and on V. I.'s other childhood friends, still stuck on the hardscrabble streets around the dead steel mills, and V. I. agrees to ask a few questions. Those questions lead her straight into the vipers' nest of Illinois politics she's wanted to avoid. When V. I. takes a beating at a youth meeting in her old hood, her main question becomes whether she will live long enough to find answers.

©2015 Sara Paretsky (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Recorded by arrangement with G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, a Penguin Random House Company.

Sara Paretsky is a genius.

I've been reading Sara's books for decades. She is a gifted and intelligent writer. I love the characters, who are familiar as family by now. The plots are complex and challenging. As a born-and-raised Chicagoan, the sense of place is stunning.

Great story; wrong French accents, again

Sigh. The French accents which the actor adopts are the wrong ones. Although more accurate than the accent acted in the audio performance of the second V.I. Warshawski novel (“Deadlock”, aka, the book in which a French Canadian character is fairly prominent), the accents used to speak the French Canadian characters in “Brush Back” are, again, incorrect.

The characters are Quebecois. The accents performed are not; they sound MUCH closer to France-French accents. I find this error to be very weird, since it’s incredibly easy to access Quebecois audio and video footage (radio and tv programs, movies, and recordings of live events), and thus learn what actual Quebecois accents sound like.

As well, oddly, the French accents in this audio performance of “Brush Back” are all different from each other. At the very least, one of the parents and their live-at-home child should share an accent. (All 3 of the Quebecois characters who speak in “Brush Back” are native to Quebec.)

Other than the accent fails, this audio performance of “Brush Back” is enjoyable, and the story is, as per usual for Sara Paretsky, timely and excellent :-)

Wonderful book!!

Just use to "V I" voice being Jean Smart or Susan Ericson but it is a good story well worth the wait - can't wait for the next book!!!

Another good one

I really enjoyed this latest by this author. Plot was deliciously convoluted., and the narrator was excellent.

I'm listening to/re-listening to all of her books

This narrator is awful. The voices don't resonate there's very little distinction between them. I hope that the next book I listen to is a different narrator.

V. I. the perfect Private eye

This book is number 17 in the V.I. Warshawski series. One of the things I like about Paretsky’s writing is she includes information about Chicago both past and present. In this story Vic reluctantly returns to the South Chicago neighborhood she grew up in. Vic’s high school friend Frank Garro asked Vic to look into his mother Stella’s long ago conviction for beating his sister Annie to death. She has served the time but continues to say she was framed.

We learn more about Vic’s cousin Boom Boom, a star player with the Blackhawks years ago. Boom Boom’s god-daughter hockey player Bernadine Fouchard is visiting Vic while checking out colleges. Paretsky points out how important sports are in South Chicago’s poor side enabling the excellent players a chance for a college education.

The story is rich and aromatic, entertaining with lots of baseball references. I noted the punning chapter titles. Paretsky has included information about Wrigley Field; I now know about the history of the field. The book is well written and as usual Paretsky plots dig deeper and deeper into the past and present until all is revealed. Karen Peakes narrated the book. I wish this series had the same narrator all the time instead of changing with each book.

loved it!!

Excellent narration. I absolutely love Sara Paretsky and the V.I. Warshawski series. Such a rich and well turned story. Anxiously awaiting the next one on 4/28.

Not a good narrator

The narrator sounds hoarse and if that's not the problem, her voice comes across as much older than V.I. And it does detract from the presentation.

wrong voice

while the story was good, as always, the voice was wrong. In previous books V.I.' s voice was Kathleen Turner, a very strong voice. That would have been better.

Sara Paretsky at her best.

This was a great listen. I would highly recommend this book. The change in narrators took a little adjustment, but the story draws you in and the change becomes negligible. I am looking forward to listening to the next book in the series.