Dead Land

Dead Land is the 20th book in the V.I. Warshawski series written by Sara Paretsky. I began read these books nearly twenty years ago, enjoying the balance between mystery, thriller, suspense, and hard-core crime novel. Paretsky is never afraid to tackle difficult social topics, and the mysteries are thoroughly complex and entertaining. This one comes out in the next few weeks, but I was lucky enough to get a copy via NetGalley earlier this year. I’m glad I stuck with them as this is a really intricate and clever set of books.

Dead Land revolves around the mysterious disappearance and death of a few young adults who have a connection to Chile, Kansas prairies, and music. V.I., our resident private investigator, happens upon the missing girl when she takes cover as a homeless person after suffering through unimaginable horror and pain. Toss in V.I.’s niece getting in the middle of a political war, then a stranger who drops his dog off in the middle of all this drama, and our heroine doesn’t know what to do with herself.

There are at least eight different tentacles to this plot, and I won’t try to summarize them any further. They weave together nicely and push you to keep turning the pages. At times, it got a little tedious and vague, and as a result, it felt repetitive when we kept being lead to similar conclusions based upon each piece of evidence coming to light. Mr. Contreras and Lotty were missing from this book (except for a few small scenes) which made us feel as if V.I. was all on her own. I like seeing her being grounded every 100 pages or so… and for these reasons, I couldn’t push it up to a 5-star rating.

Otherwise, it was a fantastic mystery chock full of political statements, culture lessons, historical references, and interesting relationships. I can see a few of these characters popping up again in the future… which I hope happens, as the author takes a couple of years to deliver each book, and she’s in her retirement years, so… we might only get one or two more. This is worrisome, but I also cherish all the time I’ve spent with the books and plots, so I will continue to happily read and be saddened when they end.

DEAD LAND by Sara Paretsky is the twentieth book in the V.I. Warshawski private detective series and the ninth book that I have read by this author. This book is set in Chicago and in Kansas. V.I. Warshawski gets involved with a case through her goddaughter who tries to rescue a singer-songwriter, Lydia Zamir that is living on the Chicago streets. Lydia’s life changed when her partner was murdered during a mass shooting at an outdoor concert in Kansas. Along with this, there seems to be some political shenanigans going on with a park proposal. The more V.I. digs into the situation, the more complicated and involved they become.

The author has done a great job of developing competing and sympathetic characters that felt real and three-dimensional. Their motivations seemed believable and well-drawn. The stakes were high and the pace accelerated throughout the book. The prose was well-written, engrossing, and compelling. The plot was moving, powerful, thought-provoking and complex. There were several twists and turns and surprises as V.I. unravels the mysteries in this novel.

Overall, this was a complex, compelling, and suspenseful read. Themes include murder, attempted murder, mass shooting, international politics and history, political corruption, and much more. I am looking forward to reading more books in this series.

Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers – William Morrow and Sara Paretsky for a complimentary ARC of this novel via NetGalley and the opportunity to provide an honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way.

private-investigators, Chicago, mystery, crime-fiction

First, I find it absolutely amazing that V.I. remains totally relevant in spite of the passage of time since the first book came out in 1980! The writing and the story are just as impressive as well.
V.I. is as tough as the mean streets of the Chicago neighborhoods and knows how to turn the tables on anyone who challenges her. She started out as a lawyer but has done much more since opting out of that profession. She never shows fear in the face of murderous non-local gangs or unscrupulous redevelopers, and goes wherever she needs to find and protect a missing homeless artist. There is a lot of action at a fast pace, plot twists, red herrings, and exposure of bad politics. I loved it!
I won a soft cover copy in a LibraryThing Giveaway! Thanks!

terrible don’t waste your time. This writer is anti=American.

Always a good read with V.I. as lead.

I do not ever want her books to end and I do not want to need to find one I haven’t read. I just love them and do lose sleep as I just want to read a little bit more!

Sara Paretsky is at the top of her game. Dead Land has a complex yet believable plot, real-life characters, and non-stop action. A must read – five stars!

Paretsky is a world class writer of detective fiction. Every one of her books is absorbing and gritty in the best way. I love her Chicago.

Not the best Paretsky adventure but a page turner and worth the time to read it. Loaned it to someone and haven’t seen it since

I’m a big fan of Sara Paretsky and a big fan of her heroine, V.I. Warshawski. Dead Land, however, is not the best installment in the series. The author tells us that this is the first book she has written without the support of her now-deceased husband. Perhaps that partially explains why this book was somewhat disappointing. Now, Ms. Paretsky has set a very high bar for herself, and her somewhat disappointing book is still pretty good. It’s just not up to what you might expect from a V.I. Warshawski mystery.

The story brings back many of Paretsky’s usual cast of characters that circle around Vic, including Murray Ryerson, Mr. Contreras and his dogs, Lotty, Vic’s goddaughter, Bernie, and Vic’s current love interest, who conveniently flies away for an archeological dig so that Vic can run off to Kansas during the investigation. It’s a comfortable look-in on the peripheral characters, but they are just bit players and there’s no new ground broken for them.

The main story is a tangled web of corporate greed, a family feud in Chile, and a mass shooting four years earlier that killed Hector, who has a connection to the Chilean mine owning family, and who was the lover of Lydia, a fast-rising folk music singer, who was present for the mass shooting at a Kansas gorge. Lydia withdrew from society and music, and ended up living on the streets in Chicago, where Vic and Bernie stumble upon her and become caught up in her story, her subsequent disappearance, and how that might be related to the murder of the man Bernie was dating and who was involved in a Chicago urban planning group that may be involved in a shady deal that links back to the Chilean family and a big Chicago Law firm that may be linked back to the mass shooting. Did you get all that? Vic ignores her paying clients (there’s virtually no narrative about any other jobs she’s working on) and sets off to investigate the murder, then a second, and to find the missing Lydia.

The author seems to understand that the set-up for this story is very long and not particularly exciting or easy to follow. So, she starts the book in the middle, with a scene in which the mysterious “Coop,” who is another street-person and friend of Lydia, shows up at Vic’s apartment and drops off his big dog, named Bear, and has a confrontation with Vic. We spend the next hundred pages or so getting the back-story on what happened leading up to that opening scene. Then, the next hundred or so pages have V.I. flailing about trying to make heads or tails out of the situation. If you want to skip all that, you can start reading at chapter 42, where Ms. Paretsky has Vic give a helpful synopsis of the major plot points to a newly introduced character. From there, Vic traipses across Kansas, conveniently finding every important clue. She also gets shot at a couple of times (although it’s not clear by whom or why) as she digs into the four-year-old mass shooting case and (surprise!) finds something that everyone else either overlooked or covered up.

I won’t spoil the plot, which does finally come together in the end. But, have a pad and a pencil with you when reading so that you can write down the family tree and try to keep all the players straight as the story careens toward its conclusion. Keeping up with all the names, relationships, and motivations isn’t easy. And that’s really what makes this book different from most other V.I. Warshawski books. Normally, the author guides us through the story smoothly, giving the reader time to get to know the key characters and making their relationships, motivations, and actions clear. The plot flow is usually easy to follow, keeping you turning pages enthusiastically. This one felt more like an assignment that you had to finish and you’re worried that you’re not going to score well on the test.

In every detective mystery there are one or two moments when the protagonist catches a break and discovers some important bit of information through hard work, smart decisions, or sometimes just blind luck. In this plot, there are an unusually large number of those “lucky” breaks. So many that the author acknowledges them near the end. Within the context of the other issues with this book, that’s a tell that even Ms. Paretsky is not entirely happy with the finished product.

What partially saves the book is that Ms. Paretsky’s writing is rich, her descriptions are perfectly detailed (not too much, not too little), and her general prose makes the book easy and enjoyable to read. Although, there were also an unusual number of editing errors, poor sentence structures, and confusing prose in this book. I would have thought the editors at her publisher would have done a better job on such a high-end product. But, those were the exceptions, and in general any writer should aspire to the craftsmanship of the writing here (as in all her other books).

I’m still going to buy the next V.I. Warshawski novel when it comes out. I’ll hope that Ms. Paretsky gets over the loss of her husband and has a better focus for the next book.