Publishers Weekly
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.)
From the Publisher
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
Lisa Gardner
V.I. Warshawski is one of my all-time favorite investigators. Doesn’t get any better than this!
Jeffery Deaver
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.
Karin Slaughter
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.
P. D. James
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.
C.J. Box
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.
Charlaine Harris
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.
Tess Gerritsen
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.
Harlan Coben
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.
Brad Meltzer
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.
Lee Child
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.
Baltimore Sun
Undoubtedly one of the best-written characters in mystery fiction.
New York Times Book Review
A distinct pleasure.
|Los Angeles Times
Wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her.
Chicago Tribune
The best on the beat.
Los Angeles Times
Wonderful company and a rich discovery awaiting those who have yet to meet her.
Chicago Tribune
The best on the beat.
Library Journal
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.
MAY 2017 - AudioFile
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
Kirkus Reviews
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.
