Not as much fun as I'd have hoped. V.I. simply is too competent. And a bit lucky on some occasions.

But, as a preparation for my upcoming trip to Chicago it's quite fun. ( )

El jugador de los halcones Negros de Chicago, Boom Boom Warshawski, fue una leyenda del hockey. Más de mil personas asisten a su funeral, consternados al enterarse de que ha resbalado en un muelle y se ha ahogado. La policía se apresura a declarar que ha sido un accidente. Y no les gusta la idea de que V.I. Warshawski, meta su nariz femenina en un caso tan evidente. Pero entre atentados contra su propia vida y tragos de scotch, la intrépida e ingeniosa detective, se abre camino a través de un mundo de silos de cereal y cargueros de mil toneladas. Se introducirá en una senda que le hará descubrir si se está tomando las cosas de un modo demasiado personal o si su adorado Boom Boom fue en realidad asesinado...

I was bored to tears with the details of ships & shipping but there is something plucky about Paretsky's heroine that is intelligent & tenacious. ( )

Working my way through the VI Warshawski books, from the beginning. She's acerbic, yeah, but it only really seems to come out when someone challenges the idea of a woman private detective, or challenges her abilities. These aren't as 'day-in-the-life' as Grafton's Kinsey Milhone - Vic has a much sharper edge and can't be bothered with everyday life. What's nice about these, like Grafton, is that the cases seem more realistic in the world of crime. Not high-wire crime only found in books and movies, but the gritty underbelly of violence and bad choices. ( )

Once again am shocked by how much I really enjoyed book #2 in the V.I. Warshawski book. We have V.I. who is one stone's away from being killed every five seconds it feels like when she starts to investigate whether her cousin Boom Boom (don't ask) slipped or committed suicide at some docks where he was working. I loved the ins and outs that Paretsky gets into with the shipping industry. Also V.I.'s work on her last case dealing with the insurance industry comes in handy in this book. We get two potential love interests in this one. But one thing I do appreciate in these books is that the men that come across V.I's path are not really important. She wants someone to look at her and accept her as she is, but she is 100 percent not in the mood to do the same (which did crack me up).

V.I. I find interesting and definitely a contradiction. I find myself comparing V.I. a lot to Kinsey Millhone and though Kinsey and I have a lot of characteristics in common, I would probably get a long more with V.I. though her sarcasm would make me want to brain her. A lot of the book is deductions and snooping that V.I. does. She is able to put things together and I can honestly say that I loved that I was not able to guess where the story was going and who the guilty parties were. I totally guessed wrong which is par for the course for me when it comes to mystery novels.

We get reappearances in this one, we once again get Doctor Lotty Herschel, V.I's father's old friend Bobby, and her contact at one of the papers, Murray. We also have V.I. still in her same terrible apartment and still perplexed why one would make the bed, clean the dishes, and wash clothes. Seriously at times I had to go downstairs and tidy up my house since I was getting second hand issues over the messiness I was reading about in this book.

The writing was good, but honestly I wish that the character of Bobby would be flattened by something. It's two books in and I am tired of reading about how Bobby hates what V.I. does as her job and wishes she was married with 6 kids. Also I am starting to realize that most of the cops in this series are inept as hell. I liked how Sue Grafton portrays Kinsey's interaction with the police better.

Once again Chicago sounds like a pain in the butt to deal with in any type of weather.

The ending was a surprise and I loved how even though V.I. figured out what was going on, justice unfortunately was delayed. ( )