Friday, September 3, 2010

Review: Body Work by Sara Paretsky



When P.I. "Vic" Warshawski went to a local Chicago club to catch a music group, another act certainly got her attention. The "Body Artist", a woman who lets audience members come up and paint on her nude body, is the talk of the town. After a  woman patron paints a flower design on the Body Artist, a vet in the audience goes into an angry tirade. Warshawski later sees the two arguing in an alley and not long after, the young woman is shot and ends up dying in Warshawski's arms. The young vet, Chad, is later arrested for her murder.

Chad's parents hire Warshawski to find the real murderer as they insist that although their son came back from Iraq very  angry and moody, he would never murder anyone. Warshawski comes to the conclusion that Chad was set up as the circumstantial evidence is too pat for her liking. Who could have had it in for the both of them?

Delving into the case is like opening one box only to find another box inside and another box inside that. Every lead Warshawski chases down leads her deeper into another layer. Since the murdered woman's sister had been killed in Iraq and Chad did 4 tours in Iraq, Warshawski is convinced the answers stem from there even though she finds out Chad had no connection with the murdered woman or her sister. To make matters worse, the murdered woman's family will not talk about their daughter who died in Iraq. Somehow Warshawski has to make all the connections fit and this leads her to some very unexpected places.

Although this is the 14th in the Vic Warshawski series, it reads like a stand-alone. I 've read Paretsky before but it's been a while and I don't remember her books being this complex with such a layered plot.  Excellently done with deep characterizations, lots of local color, realistic dialogue and numerous twists makes this one great read not to be missed. Since I had a hard time putting this one down, it gets a 4* rating from me.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Putnam through Good Reads.

8 comments:

  1. It's been a while since I've read any of Paretsky's books too, but they're always good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review, Kaye. Sounds like even at #14 in the series it was even better than you expected!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's been a long time since I've read a V.I. book. I used to love them. I may have to just skip over the ones I haven't read and pick this one up. Her books always had such a sense of Chicago in them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. it's been a long time since i read Paretsky too...I am not sure why I stopped reading them but maybe it is time to pick thge new one up. Now all I need is a shoehorn to working it into the schedule..

    ReplyDelete
  5. I guess after 14 books, the writing can grow more complex and layered. I never read anything in this series but I'm considering it now.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Another author I have seen everywhere but have not read (yet). Sounds like a good one!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I had no idea Paretsky had a new V.I. book out. This one sounds good. I agree that it's not necessary to read them in order. I've read them in all sorts of order and they work just fine. Thanks for letting me know about this new one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have yet to read this author. I believe you when you say this reads like a standalone even though it is #14!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.