Fallout (V. I. Warshawski Series #18)

by Sara Paretsky

Overview

LEE CHILD says she's "a genius."

P.D. JAMES called her "the most remarkable" of today's suspense writers.

STIEG LARSSON loved her work so much, he named her in his novels.

And now SARA PARETSKY returns with the most extraordinary novel of her legendary career: FALLOUT.

Before there was Lisbeth Salander, before there was Stephanie Plum, there was V.I. WARSHAWSKI. To her parents, she's Victoria Iphigenia. To her friends, she's Vic. But to clients seeking her talents as a detective, she's V.I. And her new case will lead her from her native Chicago... and into Kansas, on the trail of a vanished film student and a faded Hollywood star.

Accompanied by her dog, V.I. tracks her quarry through a university town, across fields where missile silos once flourished — and into a past riven by long-simmering racial tensions, a past that holds the key to the crimes of the present. But as the mysteries stack up, so does the body count. And in this, her toughest case, not even V.I. is safe.

Exciting and provocative, fiercely intelligent and witty, FALLOUT is reading at its most enjoyable and powerful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062435835
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/18/2017
Series:	V. I. Warshawski Series , #18
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	121,819
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Hailed by the Washington Post as “the definition of perfection in the genre,” Sara Paretsky is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago.

Hometown:

Chicago, Illinois

Date of Birth:

June 8, 1947

Place of Birth:

Ames, Iowa

Education:

B.A., Political Science, University of Kansas; Ph.D. and M.B.A., University of Chicago

Website:

http://saraparetsky.com/

Editorial Reviews

02/27/2017
In MWA Grand Master Paretsky’s intriguing, if flawed, 19th V.I. Warshawski novel (after 2015’s Brushback), the Chicago PI looks into the disappearance of August Veriden, a quiet young man with dreams of working behind the camera. She learns that August became enamored of Emerald Ferring, a black actress well known in her community but little known to white people. With some cajoling, Warshawski persuades Emerald’s close friends to let her follow August and Emerald’s path to the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where Emerald was once a student and August was planning to film a documentary about her. On arrival in Lawrence, the detective is welcomed with less-than-open arms. Unfortunately, Paretsky loses the Emerald thread midway as Warshawski becomes entangled in small-town politics, particularly those involving the mentally ill daughter of an eminent scientist and the town’s history as a spot for anti-nuke protests in the 1980s. Sharply drawn characters partly compensate for a plot that’s fascinating when it stays on track but too often meanders. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

“Sara Paretsky is a legend, and Fallout is her finest novel to date- -- an extraordinary read from an extraordinary author. If you haven’t read her yet, now is the time.” — Harlan Coben

“V.I. Warshawski is one of my all-time favorite investigators. Doesn’t get any better than this!” — Lisa Gardner

“Even out of her Chicago comfort zone in pursuit of a faded missing actress and a young filmmaker in Fallout, legendary V.I. Warshawski is as dogged and ferocious as ever. So is Sara Paretsky, who is at the top of her crime novel game.” — C.J. Box

“Simply superb! As a fan of V.I. Warshawski from the very beginning, I can say without a doubt that Fallout finds both author and protagonist at the top of their games.” — Jeffery Deaver

“An astonishing tour de force -- thrilling, moving, illuminating -- from an author of matchless intelligence, craft, and power. This is why Sara Paretsky reigns as one of the all-time greats.” — Karin Slaughter

“Fallout is the best yet in one of our genre’s crucial, solid-gold, best-ever series. Paretsky is a genius, and she’s never afraid to dig a little deeper.” — Lee Child

“A road trip with V.I. Warshawski? Sign me up! What a thrill to join her on a missing-persons hunt that quickly turns dark and dangerous. Sara Paretsky’s legendary P.I. is at the top of her game. Everyone will want to go along for this ride.” — Tess Gerritsen

“Fallout is exactly what it promises: proof that so much of the pain in our present is from mistakes in our past. This book has a soul. Come see a master at work.” — Brad Meltzer

“Writing advance praise for Sara Paretsky is like writing a job recommendation for Bill Gates. Paretsky is the gold standard for novels dealing with crime and its consequences.” — Charlaine Harris

“For me, the most remarkable of the moderns is Sara Paretsky. ...No other crime writer has so powerfully and effectively combined a well-crafted detective story with the novel of social realism.” — P.D. James

“A distinct pleasure.” — New York Times Book Review

“Wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her. ” — Los Angeles Times

“The best on the beat. ” — Chicago Tribune

“Undoubtedly one of the best-written characters in mystery fiction. ” — Baltimore Sun

From the Publisher

V.I. Warshawski is one of my all-time favorite investigators. Doesn’t get any better than this!

Lisa Gardner

Simply superb! As a fan of V.I. Warshawski from the very beginning, I can say without a doubt that Fallout finds both author and protagonist at the top of their games.

Jeffery Deaver

An astonishing tour de force — thrilling, moving, illuminating — from an author of matchless intelligence, craft, and power. This is why Sara Paretsky reigns as one of the all-time greats.

Karin Slaughter

For me, the most remarkable of the moderns is Sara Paretsky. ...No other crime writer has so powerfully and effectively combined a well-crafted detective story with the novel of social realism.

P. D. James

Even out of her Chicago comfort zone in pursuit of a faded missing actress and a young filmmaker in Fallout, legendary V.I. Warshawski is as dogged and ferocious as ever. So is Sara Paretsky, who is at the top of her crime novel game.

C.J. Box

Writing advance praise for Sara Paretsky is like writing a job recommendation for Bill Gates. Paretsky is the gold standard for novels dealing with crime and its consequences.

Charlaine Harris

A road trip with V.I. Warshawski? Sign me up! What a thrill to join her on a missing-persons hunt that quickly turns dark and dangerous. Sara Paretsky’s legendary P.I. is at the top of her game. Everyone will want to go along for this ride.

Tess Gerritsen

Sara Paretsky is a legend, and Fallout is her finest novel to date- — an extraordinary read from an extraordinary author. If you haven’t read her yet, now is the time.

Harlan Coben

Fallout is exactly what it promises: proof that so much of the pain in our present is from mistakes in our past. This book has a soul. Come see a master at work.

Brad Meltzer

Fallout is the best yet in one of our genre’s crucial, solid-gold, best-ever series. Paretsky is a genius, and she’s never afraid to dig a little deeper.

Lee Child

Undoubtedly one of the best-written characters in mystery fiction.

Baltimore Sun

A distinct pleasure.

New York Times Book Review

Wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her.

|Los Angeles Times

The best on the beat.

Chicago Tribune

Wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her.

Los Angeles Times

The best on the beat.

Chicago Tribune

11/15/2016
Famed investigator V.I. Warshawski is back, and—surprise!—for the first time ever she's not in Chicago. Accompanied by her dog, she's in Kansas, crossing prairies dotted with Cold War-era missile silos as she hunts for a young film student and a waning film star. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

Narrator Susan Ericksen deftly portrays private investigator V.I. Warshawski, who takes on a case that leads from Chicago to the Midwest and racial tensions of the past. A young film student and a faded black movie star have gone missing while while making a documentary of her Hollywood years. Ericksen’s conversational style, skillful emotional range, and diverse accents enhance the production. When the mystery takes Warshawski to Kansas, Ericksen creates believable-sounding former anti-nuclear activists. And when a woman who tries to help Warshawski is obstructed by her venomous parents, Ericksen captures all the tension in their relationship. Ericksen is particularly adept at portraying spirited black folks of all ages. Subtle humor and glimpses of Warshawski's troubled love life add levity to a tragic story. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

MAY 2017 - AudioFile

2017-03-07
Think V.I. Warshawski butts too many heads in Chicago? Wait till you see what happens when she and her dog, Peppy, leave the big city for the wide-open spaces of Kansas.Angela Creedy, a hockey teammate of Bernadine Fouchard, whom Warshawki rescued last time out (Brush Back, 2015), is worried because her cousin, film student August Veriden, is accused of ransacking the Six-Points Gym, where he works as a personal trainer, and is nowhere to be found by police officers who want to ask him all about drugs. Reluctantly agreeing to look for him, Warshawski follows his trail to Lawrence, Kansas, in the company of Emmy-winning actress Emerald Ferring, who evidently believed in August so completely that she persuaded him to help her look into a hidden chapter in her past. Preliminary inquiries in Kansas link the 1983 death of Emerald's mother, Lucinda, to an anti-nuclear protest she'd taken a vociferous role in only six weeks before. Crazy, homeless Sonia Kiel replies to one of Warshawski's circulars seeking information about the missing pair by phoning to say that she'd seen them dancing on her true love's grave. But by the time Warshawski shows up to meet her, she's lying unconscious in a nearby stairwell along with student Naomi Wissenhurst. The attempt to follow up her information is thwarted by the insistence of Sonia's parents, retired KU professor Nathan Kiel and his wife, Shirley, that Sonia's ravings can't be trusted and that the true love from all those years ago, grad student Matt Chastain, isn't buried nearby and probably isn't even dead. Even after Warshawski's determined that the 1983 demonstration continues to have calamitous aftershocks more than 30 years later, she's still helpless to stop a continuing series of deaths not so much mysterious as uncanny. A steadily deepening historical nightmare that ends up implicating pretty much everyone in sight in a multilayered coverup. Whodunit purists may be frustrated at the absence of a single villain to blame, but Paretsky's legion of fans will rejoice in her heroically scaled 20th novel.

Kirkus Reviews