My rating:

add to my books

Hardball (V.I. Warshawski #13)

by Sara Paretsky (Goodreads Author)

3.80 · rating details · 1,141 ratings · 263 reviews

Chicago politics-past, present, and future-take center stage in New York Times-bestselling author Sara Paretsky's brilliant new V. I. Warshawski novel.

Chicago's unique brand of ball is sixteen-inch slow pitch, played in leagues all over the city for more than a century. But in politics, in business, and in law enforcement, the game is hardball.

When V. I. Warshawski is ask...more

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published September 22nd 2009 by Putnam Adult

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,638)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jul 06, 2011

James Thane rated it

Shelves: suspense

Forty years after Lamont Gadsden disappeared in a humongous Chicago blizzard, his dying aunt hires V. I. Warshawski to discover what became of him. 1967 was a time of brutal racial unrest in Chicago, and Warshawski soon discovers that Gadsden's disappearance is somehow linked to the murder of a civil rights worker earlier that year. As she digs deeper into the mystery, Warshawski raises a lot of uncomfortable questions about what took place that year, raising suspicions even about members of her...more

like 9 likes

· see review

Nov 25, 2011

Kated rated it

I've read and enjoyed all Sara Paretsky's books over the years, so it's interesting to see how she has kept VI up to date with changes in technology and society since the 1980s. In some senses I think she's done that very well and in others I found myself faintly frustrated by how little VI has changed as a personality. She is still raging, angry, bull-headed, and in the middle of the book I found myself unexpectedly weary for a while of this very constant element in her personality. Like Mr Con...more

· see review

Sep 23, 2011

Laura rated it

So I've been working my way through the V.I. Warshawski series...very entertaining female p.i. set in Chicago. Reading a bunch of them at once exposes the formulaic elements (V.I. thumbs nose at establishment, ignores warnings from thugs and/or politicans, refuses to share knowledge with bumbling police detectives, gets the crap beat out of her or is severely injured in some egregious but heroic fashion, recovers and saves the day but is on the Chicago PD's shitlist because of it. Add a few ru...more

· see review

Jun 29, 2011

Brenda B Birdow rated it

While this is a fiction, parts of it is loosely based on/inked to events in Chicago during the turbulent years of the early Civil Rights Era of the mid-60's, when a young man mysteriously disappeared. P.I. Vickie Warshawski is asked by a dying Aunt to look back 40 years (to the mid-60's) to see if she can find what happened to her special nephew. As Warshawski delves into the mystery, she begins to uncover the ugliness of the times amidst much racial unrest and is alarmed to discover that her ...more

· see review

May 19, 2011

Josh rated it

Shelves: mystery

A strong outing from the master of Chicago detective fiction. Paretsky has always reminded me a little bit of Robert Parker in how the city her detective operate in is as important a character as any person in the book and it's especially true here. (Laura Lippman has done this in similar fashion with her Tess Monaghan novels; if you like Paretsky you should read Lippman) This time Paretsky has taken a tour through the dark history of Chicago and works her way through V.I. Warshawski's complicat...more

· see review

Dec 07, 2010

Kirsty Darbyshire rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: hardback

I'm don't remember that I thought the last couple of Warshawski books were that good but a quick look back through my website shows that I raved about them as much as ever. Much the same here. VI is possibly starting to age a bit more gracefully, not that that's what I want her to do particularly, I'd probably be disappointed if she managed to get through a book without hospitalisation. She didn't get there by thinking she was immortal this time - I think that counts as "aging" in her

...more

· see review

May 31, 2010

mark rated it

Shelves: crime, women-s-fiction

I am a little over halfway through this novel - the 13th V.I. Warshawski story author Sara Paretsky has written. She started writing them when she was 32 and the protagonist, a female private investigator in Chicago, was 30. Parestsky is now 60+ and her heroine is in her 50's. I like that. It adds authenticity. But, "Hardball"l has become tedious. Writing a book is not easy. Getting it published is not easy. Getting people to read it is not easy. And today, according to writer and stor...moreI am a little over halfway through this novel - the 13th V.I. Warshawski story author Sara Paretsky has written. She started writing them when she was 32 and the protagonist, a female private investigator in Chicago, was 30. Parestsky is now 60+ and her heroine is in her 50's. I like that. It adds authenticity. But, "Hardball"l has become tedious. Writing a book is not easy. Getting it published is not easy. Getting people to read it is not easy. And today, according to writer and story teller Garrison Keillor, there are 18 million authors in America with an average readership of 14; annual income of $1.75. What's a reader to do? (Who even reads my reviews, much less my own publications?) There is now software, bought by retailer's called "recommendation engines" that suggest to you what you might like, based upon what you have shown an interest in before. This is why I like Parestky, and also T. Jefferson Parker, who are taking chances with their serial novels. V.I. is getting old. Charles Hood, Parker's protagonist in his latest three novels is growing, too. Though Hood is 28 and Parker 60+. These are actually character studies, in psychological jargon, longitudinal studies of personality. I've become bored with V.I. but not Hood. Many reader/reviewers complain when the author deviates from the template, or the genre. They know what they like and that's what they want. That says more about them than the book, or blog, or whatever. I like having my mind challenged by what is possible as well as what and why something happened. That says something about me. Parker is now questioning "reality" in his crime novels. Paretsky could use some of that; but maybe that's not something she's capable of? They are both famous and well respected authors who, most likely, don't need the money. Another favorite of mine Is Richard North Patterson - he's still going strong writing about current affairs through the characters he creates. Yet there are patterns in all of these writer's works. The same themes emerge. Themes, no doubt, important to the authors, consciously or unconsciously. Writing is all about choices - what to put in, what to leave out. Life is all about choices, too. Most choices, by most most people, are made by unconsciously - I think. I'm not bothered that there are 18,000,000 authors. There are, after all, 7 billion people. Write it down, I say. PUBLISH IT! Every so often I will find that diamond, and that is so thrilling and exciting. Every so often someone will say something that just makes me think about something I never thought about before and i will say, "Damn, that's some good thinking, that's a damn good idea ... you, writer, just might be on to something. Thank you.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

May 09, 2010

Kelly Hager rated it

This is the latest VI Warshawski mystery, and it's fantastic. If you like mystery novels (especially if you like to read series and not standalones) and haven't read Sara Paretsky yet, you are in for a huge treat.

VI (usually called Vic by her friends and various unpleasant names by people who are emphatically not her friends) has been hired to find a missing person. Lamont Gadsden has been missing for 40 years; he disappeared around the time of a race riot in Chicago. She's also t...more

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 04, 2010

Judy rated it

At its most basic this is a book about prejudice. I'm either intrigued, amused, or horrified by my own prejudices and love unmasking those of others. In this book, V.I. Warshawski has to deal with the racial and economic prejudices of Chicago during the 1960s and those of current Chicago society as she is asked to find a missing person--a young black man who has not been seen for over 40 years. And to add spice to an already explosive situation, her young cousin, who has been trying to learn ...more

· see review

Dec 13, 2009

Kayeb rated it

Grit and determination... I could never be a PI!

Consistently good, I enjoy the character.........but, somehow the living circumstances are different than I recalled. I guess she has an upstairs apartment, but I may have missed or forgotten a part of the series.

When V. I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history, as well as hau...more

· see review

Dec 08, 2009

Diane rated it

V.I Warshawski endures injury hostility, virtual refugee status to solve a mystery, this one reaching back in the racially-charged 1960s Chicago. Sara Paretsky's V.I. is, as usual, an admirable feminist, as is Paretsky, by the way, and her knowledge of the bad guys of both the past and the present play a role in the initial mystery of the book. Paretsky uses faceless Homeland Security thugs to further the plot line, and more impressive to me is her citing of the School of the Americas as a train...more

· see review

Nov 16, 2009

Richard Lollar rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone who likes a good mystery, Chicago, Private Eyes.

Recommended to Richard by: I read all of Ms. Paretsky's work.

Sara Paretsky is back with another blockbuster, and Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski, Chicago's favorite PI is at the top of her game. With 15 prior novels, 12 of them about V.I., Sara has kind of been wandering in the wilderness lately. She nails it with this one. It is one of the best I've read.

We learn more about V.I.'s parents in this story: her mother, the Italian immigrant opera singer who gave up so much for her husband and daughter and her father, the upright Chicago cop.
...more

· see review

Oct 27, 2009

Tony rated it

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Paretsky, Sara. HARDBALL. (2009). ****. You begin to wonder where the title of this latest V. I. Warshawski novel came from when, about two-thirds of the way through the story, a hardball with holes in it suddenly appears as a clue. We readers know it’s a clue because why else would it appear in this story if it wasn’t. It’s a good thing we’re astute and paying attention! This is Paretsky’s sixteenth novel, and I wish I had a first edition of her first one. I only have signed firsts of t...more

· see review

Oct 26, 2009

Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-audio-books, 2009-mysteries

Hardball, by Sarah Paretsky, A. narrated by susan ericksen, produced by Brilliance audio, downloaded from audible.com.

This is the latest V. I. Warshawski mystery and we’ve waited a long time to visit her again. V. I. is involved in another Chicago scandal. She is asked to find someone who was caught up in the Chicago race riots in 1966 when Martin Luther King Jr. came to town-someone who hasn’t been seen since. Lamont Gadsden’s mother and aunt want him found but can’t pay much mo...moreHardball, by Sarah Paretsky, A. narrated by susan ericksen, produced by Brilliance audio, downloaded from audible.com.

This is the latest V. I. Warshawski mystery and we’ve waited a long time to visit her again. V. I. is involved in another Chicago scandal. She is asked to find someone who was caught up in the Chicago race riots in 1966 when Martin Luther King Jr. came to town-someone who hasn’t been seen since. Lamont Gadsden’s mother and aunt want him found but can’t pay much money for Warshawski to look for him. As she begins the process of trying to find out if Lamont is dead after these 40 years, a cousin she’s never met, the young and spirited Petra Warshawski, turns up in Chicago to intern for a summer on the campaign of a would-be senator. Soon Vic finds much trouble heading her way. She goes to interview a nun who participated in the march the last day Gadsden was seen, and who witnessed a murder. The nun believed that the Black man ultimately convicted of the murder could not have done it. But before she could explain why she believed this, bottle bombs were thrown through the nun’s window starting a fire. Warshawski got the nun out but she was too badly burned and died. Warshawski was burned as well. Then her cousin starts behaving very strangely and secretively. Vic’s office and her home are both broken into and trashed, and she suspects that Petra led them to her home because someone was threatening Petra. Everything comes to a frightening climax as Vic is forced to deal with the past history of the police and Black arrestees, and she greatly fears her father, now dead and idolized by her, might have been a part of the police brutality. This is a wonderful book with Vic as usual having to come to grips with her own feelings. And Vic does her usual rescue activities as well. My only complaint about this narrator was that Lottie, who came from Germany and whose parents were killed in the holocaust, should be portrayed with a German accent. Many of the Sarah Paretsky books were read by narrators through the Library for the Blind, and they were much more careful about using the proper accents.

(less)

· see review

Oct 25, 2009

Steven Peterson rated it

Once upon a time, I had to have each new V. I. Warshawski novel as it came out. However, after about four of them, I got tired of her perpetual bad humor and inability to get close to anyone. The atmosphere along such lines of the works just became too oppressive to me, so I bowed out of reading the next set. After having read a recent review of this book, I plunged back in. And am glad that I did.

In the early books, she was still young; here, she is about 50 or so, based on some of ...moreOnce upon a time, I had to have each new V. I. Warshawski novel as it came out. However, after about four of them, I got tired of her perpetual bad humor and inability to get close to anyone. The atmosphere along such lines of the works just became too oppressive to me, so I bowed out of reading the next set. After having read a recent review of this book, I plunged back in. And am glad that I did.

In the early books, she was still young; here, she is about 50 or so, based on some of her comments. As she has aged, the same poor humor and inability to get close to others remains. But, somehow, this has become poignant and adds pop to this novel. Her character, Vic to acquaintances, in a sense, has grown richer since the last time I read one of these works.

This novel has several seemingly unrelated threads that end up coming together in a powerful ending. Paretsky's novels in this series often contain politically oriented issues. No different this time. The key event is racial rioting in Chicago in the latter m1960s, including an attempt on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. at an event in Chicago. What went down then? Police arrested a young man for murder and tortured him to get an arrest.

Move forward 40 years. Plot line # 1. Vic's (V. I.=Victoria Iphigenia) cousin shows up. She is working for a charismatic candidate (Kennedy-esque)U. S. Senate seat. Plot line # 2. An old, dying woman wants to know what happened to her son 40 years earlier. The two plot lines, of course, seem completely different. However, Paretsky brings them powerfully together.

In the process, we continue to be touched by how important Vic’s parents, dead for years, remain to her. It is also part of the poignancy of her rather empty life that they retain such an emotional effect on her. Elements that are a part of this story: the coerced confession; her father Tony's role in this (and his subsequent dead end career as a police officer); ex-police officers becoming powerful figures in Chicago; a former gang leader imprisoned; the person charged with the murder now free; a nun working to make the lives of immigrants a bit better and her fate; and on and on. The story develops richly, with many components (as one can tell from the preceding partial listing) a Paretsky trademark. And, at the end, perhaps a wisp of hope that V. I. is learning something about herself and might be able to address her demons. Only a wisp, I emphasize.

At any rate, this book has reintroduced me to this tough Private Investigator, and I'll read at least the next novel to come out.
(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Oct 15, 2009

Ryan Mishap rated it

Shelves: mystery-crime

Pretty good Paretsky is miles ahead of most mystery writers, and this book is pretty good.

While not having the depth and detail of her best (Blacklist) this is a similar story of past crimes influencing current events. What does a civil rights worker killed at a 1966 march of Dr. King in Chicago have to do with a man who has been missing all those years? Can Vic survive her peppy young cousin, in Chicago to work on a senate campaign, and her efforts to snoop into Vic's life? What the...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 06, 2009

Chuck rated it

Paretsky is one of a handful of writers I'd have to rank as the best living authors of detective fiction. I don't know that it's still meaningful to refer to her work as 'hard boiled' any more, but both Paretsky and her detective, VI Warshawski have evolved.

I always hate it when someone says a novel is so good it 'transcends the genre' because I think good mystery fiction is a genre that doesn't need to be 'transcending.' But this novel is about a lot of things--one's family past...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jun 26, 2011

Vivisection rated it

Shelves: hard-boiled-female-pi, procedural-mysteries, unconventional-heroines, supporting-characters-i-love

Dear Vic,

I can call you that right? After all, we've been palling around since 1995 so I feel we're a little bit more than casual acquaintances. I am always amazed at your passion for justice, your dogged pursuit of the truth and your general bad-assery. This time, you have outdone yourself. I cried big, fat babyish tears as the horror of institutional racism surfaced and your heroes crumbled around you.

More importantly, though, I want to thank you for being a tireles...more

· see review

Sep 28, 2009

Harvee rated it

Two missing persons - one that lawyer and private investigator V. I. Warshawski is hired to find, the other someone that she must find. Those who want to learn more about the city of Chicago, past and present, will certainly get a lot from reading Hardball.

Synopsis: V. I. Warshawski, lawyer and private investigator, is hired to find a missing man, Lamont Gadsgen. In the meantime her cousin Petra disappears, possibly abducted while visiting Warshawksi's office with two unknown men. Th...more

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 17, 2010

Linda rated it

Shelves: mystery-crime

Veteran PI Victoria Warshawski loves Chicago, but she certainly is not blind to the social and political problems embedded deep into the fabric of her hometown. As Hardball opens, she is returning from a long overdue vacation to her now-deceased mother’s homeland, Italy. Having made contact with her mom’s family, VI feels closer than ever to her, but some of the joy has been tempered by her breakup with her boyfriend just before leaving for home. Now bummed out by her seeming inability to sustai...more

· see review

Feb 02, 2010

Doris rated it

This book explores some of the unpleasant truths about the way society treated people who were different, focusing on the black / white interracial strife of the 1960's and touching on the ongoing discrimination against anyone different.

I applaud the creation of Elbert, a displaced Vietnam vet who plays a central, yet not intrusive, role in the case, first appearing as a street hawker of newspapers. He is well written, not caricatured, and left me with that feeling that he could be a...more

· see review

Nov 16, 2009

Brenda rated it

Shelves: advance-reader-s-editions

This book was an "Advance Readers Copy." I picked it up because in the past I really enjoyed the writing of this author. The two positive spots in the book were good base story and great history facts. I did find the pace of the story moved along like a snail. This author used to write roller coaster twisting thrillers, but this story was more like riding in a row boat on a calm, hot day. The ending of the story had a little thrill.

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 23, 2010

Carol rated it

I have followed all of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski's detective novels. I love a good mystery and this series keeps getting better. The most recent book, Hard Ball, is set in current day Chicago. Obama is President and there are plenty of details to make the scene come alive. The author, Sara Paretsky was involved in the civil rights movement of the 60's, so when she used that for the story, she had plenty of personal experience for the story. The dectective V.I. Warshawski, has taken on a...more

· see review

Jul 29, 2010

Jennifer Hodges Young rated it

In this story V.I. has been hired to find a man that has been missing for many years in doing this job she learns that her father may not have been the person she always thought he was, come to find out he diasppeared in the late 1960's. During her investigations V.I. discovers her missing person is tied to a murder of a girl during a visit by Martin Luther King Jr.
V.I. is also visited by a cousin,Petra, just out of college and working on a local politicians campaign. Her interactions w...more

· see review

Apr 09, 2010

Paula Hebert rated it

I hadn't picked up one of sara paretsky's books for a long time, but this one was right in front of me, so..... she does a bang-up job of twisting plots in knots, so that by the end you've guessed that almost everyone is guilty. she also captures the midwest flavor of the chicago way of speech, and the rough edges of the people who live there. chicago may be big, but thank god it hasn't fallen prey to "sophistication". I've always found her protagonist, v. i. warshawski, very unlik...more

· see review

Sep 03, 2009

Leslie (That Chick That Reads) rated it

Missing People + Murder + Old Family Secrets = Intense Read! The novel started off a little slow for my tasting but once you got the background stuff out of the way, it got really interesting. I could not put this novel away! I usually don’t read genres like this but I honestly really loved this novel! It was like you were pieces the pieces together alongside V. I. Warshawski. The author keeps giving you little hints through out the entire novel and then they all tie nicely at the end. The chara...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 06, 2009

Jill rated it

This has got to be one of the slowest reading books that I've read in a long time. I love Vic, have for years. But this whole thing is just plodding along for me. I'm not even sure I'll finish it. I'm so bored trying to read it.

like 3 likes

· see review

Aug 08, 2010

Jennifer Estep rated it

Shelves: mystery

Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski is back for another adventure in Hardball by Sara Paretsky. When Vic is hired to find out what happened to a man who disappeared 40 years ago, she stirs up all kinds of buried secrets about corrupt cops, race riots, and more -- and there are several people determined to keep Vic quiet no matter what.

I think Vic is a great character -- smart, sassy, and tough -- and I think Paretsky has a lot of interesting things to say about feminism, rac...more

· see review

Sep 25, 2009

Cheryl-Lynn rated it

Shelves: first-reads

A first reads win!

Wow, what an intense, refreshing mystery. So many of the mysteries/suspense I read seem to be constant action and little development of plot. This one had both. Kind of reminded me of the movies "The Pelican Brief" or "The Fugitive" rather than the intense scene after intense scene in movies like "The Italian Job" or "Mission Impossible." For me, I much prefer plot development as well as action. I like to know how people s...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 10, 2011

Marie rated it

Shelves: fiction, mysteries

http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/201...

I wouldn't call myself a lover of detective novels, but I have a few favorite authors: Sujata Massey (who wrote the Rei Shimura series) and Sara Paretsky. I've been reading Paretsky since she wrote her first V.I. Warshawski novel, Indemnity Only, in the early 1980s, and I've read all of them until this one. She took a four-year break between #12 (Fire Sale) and #13 (Hardball), and during that time she wrote a nondetective novel, Bleeding Kans...morehttp://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/201...

I wouldn't call myself a lover of detective novels, but I have a few favorite authors: Sujata Massey (who wrote the Rei Shimura series) and Sara Paretsky. I've been reading Paretsky since she wrote her first V.I. Warshawski novel, Indemnity Only, in the early 1980s, and I've read all of them until this one. She took a four-year break between #12 (Fire Sale) and #13 (Hardball), and during that time she wrote a nondetective novel, Bleeding Kansas, which I also enjoyed. Somehow I missed the fact that she's written two more V.I. Warshawski novels in recent years, so I'm catching up now before her next one comes out in January.

Having never been to Chicago, I feel that I almost have a taste of the city by watching "ER" and reading Paretsky. It's clear that she loves her city, gritty and hardboiled as it can be.

In recent books, Paretsky's political stripes have been showing a bit more, which is fine with me because our stripes are similar. She began working as a community organizer in Chicago when Martin Luther King Jr. was there, and that's where she bases this story: in that violent era of racial conflict. She explores themes of subtle and outright racism and even torture through her characters.

V.I. is engaged to find a man who went missing 40 years ago. Soon the case gets much more complicated than she expected, around the time that her clueless young cousin, Petra, shows up. When Petra goes missing after V.I.'s office is ransacked, the search expands to the present day. Soon she begins to uncover deep-seated family secrets and corruption in the Chicago police force.

I found Petra to be far too ridiculous and insensitive, and her father (V.I.'s uncle) was particularly awful. Because I like happy endings, I want V.I. to be romantically involved with someone who is good for her...but how many detectives ever end up happily married or in a successful long-term relationship? It just doesn't work.

I enjoyed this story and the return of V.I. Warshawski, and I look forward to catching up with the series again. Most other detective/mystery authors I get tired of (e.g., Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell), but Paretsky always keeps me coming back. She's the great queen of female private investigators! (less)

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 54 55 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (27)

More editions...

Genres

Mystery

79 users

Mystery > Crime

7 users

Thriller > Mystery Thriller

5 users

Thriller

4 users

Politics

3 users

Literature > American

2 users

Suspense

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction. Paretsky was raised in Kansas, and graduated from the state university with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She ultimately completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago, entitled The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New E...more

More about Sara Paretsky...

Books by Sara Paretsky

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About Hardball

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Hardball
avg rating	preview: Hardball Goodreads rating: 3.80 (1141 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6316684-hardball?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312520790m/6316684.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6316684-hardball?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Hardball by Sara Paretsky[/url]

Hardball (V.I. Warshawski #13)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combine Other Editions (27)

Genres

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Sara Paretsky

Books by Sara Paretsky

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Hardball

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (27)