Best of the US private investigators (Guardian Angel - Sara Paretsky)

Member Name: sunmeilan

Product:	Guardian Angel - Sara Paretsky
Date:	14/02/06 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent plotline, strong characterisation

Disadvantages: Complicated, not a light read . Some violence.

Introduction
Over the years, I have become addicted to crime fiction featuring American private investigators, particularly the women, such as Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone and Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski. I think the main difference between the two of them is that Sue Grafton's 'A is for…' series is much more light-hearted than the Paretsky series, which is hard-hitting and tends to comment quite openly on the political climate and social inequality. Sue Grafton is great for relaxing; but reading Sara Paretsky really makes you feel like you've read a worthwhile book. I've now read a few in the series and look forward to reading more.

The author
Following a wide range of jobs, including dishwashing and working as a conference manager, Sara Paretsky now writes full time. She was brought up in Kansas, but now lives in Chicago. She has a degree in finance and a PhD in history. She won the CWA Silver Dagger Award for the V I Warshawski novel 'Toxic Shock'.

The plot
Victoria Warshawksi to her friends, Warshawski is a lawyer turned private investigator. Her downstairs neighbour and friend, Mr Contreras, asks her to investigate the disappearance of his long-time friend, Mitch Kruger. Despite Mitch being an alcoholic, Mr Contreras is concerned that Mitch has got himself into trouble, having been talking recently about getting a lot of money out of his old company, Diamond Head Motors. After a couple of days of searching, Mitch turns up dead in a canal. There is no reason to think that he has been murdered, but Warshawski is suspicious and goes to Diamond Head to ask questions. Her visit is met with suspicion and the Diamond Head bosses clearly cannot wait to get rid of her.

She begins to investigate and discovers that the company is owned by her ex-husband's uncle-in-law, one of the Felitti brothers. Further digging seems to prove that the company is doing something illegal with a company called Paragon Steel and a charity called Chicago Settlement and both Felitti brothers and her ex-husband are involved.

At the same time, one of Warshawski's neighbours, the bane of the neighbourhood because of her inability to take care of her property, Mrs Frizell, is taken ill and while in hospital, other neighbours Todd and Chrissie Pichea take over as guardian of the property and have Mrs Frizell's dogs put down. As Warshawski looks into why they are so eager to become guardians, she discovers that they are involved in a scam to persuade old people to invest in probably illegal bonds. As Tod Pichea works for Warshawski's ex-husband's law firm, could the two cases be related somehow? Through sheer pig-headedness, Warshawski will not give up until the cases are solved, although this means putting both her life and the life of her friends in danger.

The characters
Warshawski is tough, but very likeable. Her soft side is shown by her relationships with her friends, particularly Lottie Herschel, a doctor a few years older than her and Mr Contreras, her downstairs neighbour. She also has joint custody of a dog called Peppy. She is well-aware that she tends to put a barrier up between her and other people and fights against it, although this often causes her more problems than not. Excellently portrayed - it is hard to like some of these tough career-minded women in American fiction, but Paretsky does a great job with Warshawski to make readers sympathetic to her as a person and not just for her causes. Her relationship with Lottie in particular is very moving - Warshawski lost her mother at 15 and has come to look upon Lottie as a mother figure, but both are stubborn and often refuse to let their true feelings show.

Conclusion
Sara Paretsky is certainly not afraid to make her political and social views felt. Not being American, this did not affect my enjoyment of the book in the slightest, but I imagine some Americans who disagree with her views may be put off. On the other hand, it does make the plots a lot more realistic. My only real complaint is that the plots are so clever that it is sometimes hard to follow - I am not very au fait with financial crime and so found it difficult to understand what was going on, although obviously the good and the bad were made very clear. This is certainly not a book to be taken lightly. There is a fair amount of violence.

On the plus side, the characters are brilliant, and the plot is fast-moving and sucks you in. I was hooked the first time I read a Sara Paretsky novel and am delighted that she is still writing. I look forward to many more yet to come. Highly recommended.

Available on Amazon in the used and new section from 1p. Published by Dell Publishing Company. 432 pages. ISBN: 0440213991.

Summary: Fabulous characterisation, quite a complicated plot