Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky
Dec. 1st, 2007 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Meeting an anonymous client on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. Especially when the client lies and tells V. I. Warshawski he’s the prominent banker John Thayer, looking for his son’s missing girlfriend. But V. I. soon discovers the real John Thayer’s son – and he’s dead.
As V. I. begins to question her mysterious client’s motives, she sinks deeper into Chicago’s darker side: a world of gangsters, insurance fraud and contract killings. And whilst she must concentrate on saving the life of someone she has never met, it becomes clear that she is in danger of losing her own.
I thought that I would enjoy this more than I did, because I usually like books with strong female characters and V. I. Warshawski is certainly a tough broad. Told in a tight, first person voice we follow her from the moment she meets a client claiming to be John Thayer and begins trying to find his son’s missing girlfriend, finding death, corruption and insurance fraud along the way.
There are some nice touches – notably the fact that in Paretsky’s world it’s the men who make the stupid mistakes and the women who put them right and I will give Paretsky credit is in showing the less glamorous side of a PI’s life – we trudge along with Warshawski, doing the legwork that helps her to work out what’s going on. Paretsky also shows Warshawski failing to charm witnesses.
However this is also very much a book of its time, notably in the fact that Paretsky takes time out to discuss the aims of feminism and what women should be fighting for. I also felt that the villains were too easy to spot by virtue of the fact that Washawski simply suspects them. I’d have preferred more ambiguity as to whether she was right or wrong. Finally, there are places where the dialogue is clunky and full of exposition, which serves to slow up the action and also at times, V. I.’s attitude (notably with the Thayer family and her attempts to quip at or smart mouth people who are threatening her) is actually quite embarrassing to read, whereas Paretsky’s intention seems to be to have the reader cheering her on.
Saying all that, reading this you can see the nuggets that have helped make it a long-running series – V. I. is resourceful, strong but also compassionate. She’s clearly motivated by a thirst for justice and her dogged determination is admirable. Given that this book was first published in the early 80s, you can see why it was seen as being a totally fresh concept and V. I. is certainly a template that modern day crime writers draw from for their own female characters.
The Verdict:
It’s a little too stiff to be truly enjoyable and definitely a product of its time. However, you can see why Warshawski has become such a long-running character and I am intrigued enough to want to read more in this series.
Meeting an anonymous client on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. Especially when the client lies and tells V. I. Warshawski he’s the prominent banker John Thayer, looking for his son’s missing girlfriend. But V. I. soon discovers the real John Thayer’s son – and he’s dead.
As V. I. begins to question her mysterious client’s motives, she sinks deeper into Chicago’s darker side: a world of gangsters, insurance fraud and contract killings. And whilst she must concentrate on saving the life of someone she has never met, it becomes clear that she is in danger of losing her own.
I thought that I would enjoy this more than I did, because I usually like books with strong female characters and V. I. Warshawski is certainly a tough broad. Told in a tight, first person voice we follow her from the moment she meets a client claiming to be John Thayer and begins trying to find his son’s missing girlfriend, finding death, corruption and insurance fraud along the way.
There are some nice touches – notably the fact that in Paretsky’s world it’s the men who make the stupid mistakes and the women who put them right and I will give Paretsky credit is in showing the less glamorous side of a PI’s life – we trudge along with Warshawski, doing the legwork that helps her to work out what’s going on. Paretsky also shows Warshawski failing to charm witnesses.
However this is also very much a book of its time, notably in the fact that Paretsky takes time out to discuss the aims of feminism and what women should be fighting for. I also felt that the villains were too easy to spot by virtue of the fact that Washawski simply suspects them. I’d have preferred more ambiguity as to whether she was right or wrong. Finally, there are places where the dialogue is clunky and full of exposition, which serves to slow up the action and also at times, V. I.’s attitude (notably with the Thayer family and her attempts to quip at or smart mouth people who are threatening her) is actually quite embarrassing to read, whereas Paretsky’s intention seems to be to have the reader cheering her on.
Saying all that, reading this you can see the nuggets that have helped make it a long-running series – V. I. is resourceful, strong but also compassionate. She’s clearly motivated by a thirst for justice and her dogged determination is admirable. Given that this book was first published in the early 80s, you can see why it was seen as being a totally fresh concept and V. I. is certainly a template that modern day crime writers draw from for their own female characters.
The Verdict:
It’s a little too stiff to be truly enjoyable and definitely a product of its time. However, you can see why Warshawski has become such a long-running character and I am intrigued enough to want to read more in this series.
