Indemnity Only

V.I. Warshawski #1

by Sara Paretsky

Meeting an anonymous client on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. Especially when the client lies and tells V.I. Warshawski he's the prominent banker John Thayer, looking for his son's missing girlfriend. But V.I. soon discovers the real John Thayer's son - and he's dead.

As V.I. begins to question her mysterious client's motives, she sinks deeper into Chicago's darker side: a world of gangsters, insurance fraud and contract killings. And while she must concentrate on saving the life of someone she has never met, it becomes clear that she is in danger of losing her own.

Newly available 25 years after a stunning debut. Indemnity Only introduces one of the world's best-loved private investigators.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Thriller, Detective, Audiobook

291 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

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 England Before the Civil War, and finally earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Married to a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, she has lived in Chicago since 1968.

The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.

Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.

Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

UN LAVORO ADATTO A UNA DONNA


V.I. Warshawski sullo schermo è Kathleen Turner.

V.I. Warshawski nasce qui. Ed è il 1982. A questa sua prima apparizione seguiranno almeno altre venti.
Ha un nome polacco, ma la mamma è di origine italiana, morta da anni, aveva la tipica pelle olivastra di noi italiani (?!). Ha lasciato otto bicchieri rossi eleganti che si è portata dietro dall’Italia agli Stati Uniti: è quella la sua eredità per la figlia, che considera quegli oggetti quasi più preziosi della sua stessa pelle.
Quella, e l’altra eredità italiana è legata al nome di battesimo (!!??), Victoria Iphigenia.


Il film in originale semplicemente V.I. Warshawski, in italiano “Detective coi tacchi a spillo”, è del 1991 diretto da Jeff Kanew.

Non è certo la prima donna detective – nel suo caso investigatrice privata, ha il suo ufficio che manda avanti da sola – io ricordo bene An Unsuitable Job For a Woman di P.D. James (e anche il buon film del 1982 di Christopher Petit), ma ce ne sono altre, a cominciare da Miss Marple, la signora in giallo ecc.
Paretsky lavora molto sul personaggio femminile, che, per esempio, ha una sua vita sessuale, che non incide sul lavoro, non le modifica il comportamento, e non è neppure sesso di rapina. V.I. Warshawski è una donna che è facile immaginare molto simile alla sua creatrice e alle sue amiche. Molto lontana dai cliché del noir classico, dove, se la donna non rinunciava alla vita sessuale assumeva in automatico il ruolo della predatrice, della villain, e dove se invece apparteneva alla squadra dei buoni aveva abdicato alla sua sessualità. Paretsky fa passi avanti consistenti nella direzione della parità tra i sessi: neanche per un attimo viene da pensare che V.I. Warshawski sia pagata meno di un collega uomo, né che il suo essere donna limiti o pregiudichi in qualche modo la sua professione, né che si fidi più dell’intuizione che del ragionamento.
Se qualcuno lo mette in dubbio, V.I. Warshawski è rapida a rispondere:
Sono una donna, signor Thayer, e so badare a me stessa. Se non sapessi farlo, non farei questo mestiere.
Certo, c’è da augurarsi che nelle avventure a seguire, V.I. Warshawski non incontri più clienti uomini che dubitino della sua efficacia in quanto donna.
Ma di sicuro continuerà a incontrare uomini pronti a innamorarsi di lei per via della sua indipendenza, per, col passar del tempo, finire a considerarla una sfida da vincere, qualcosa da domare.



Fino a qui sull’originalità e peculiarità del personaggio creato dalla Paretsky.
Per quanto concerne la trama in generale, e alcuni aspetti specifici dei personaggi “di puntata”, penso che i quaranta e rotti anni passati in qualche modo incidano. Una certa aria di ingenuità?
È che siamo tutti diventati lettori più esperti e cavillosi, in quanto spettatori nutriti a serie noir (molto bella quella recente su AppleTV, Sugar, con un mastodontico Colin Farrell), polizieschi, gialli. Siamo ormai per metà detective e investigatori, conosciamo il lavoro della scientifica, siamo più attenti a certi dettagli.
Comunque, per me Paretsky e V.I. Warshawski promosse entrambe.


Nel 1992 a Kathleen Turner è stata diagnosticata un’artrite reumatoide, da qui iniziarono problemi di alcolismo, e di trasformazione fisica. Oggi è più brava che mai, con una voce pazzesca, quasi irriconoscibile.

[carol.]

Bought for kindle in 2020 out of nostalgia, fear I'll run out of books, and because VI Warshawski was one of the only tough, independent female detectives I could find back in the 1990s. No kidding; usually female mysteries had 'cozy' all over them and included at least one cat.

I enjoy Paretsky's writing style, which is hard-boiled, with a great blend of setting (1980s Chicago), steady action, dialogue, and character (mixed Polish-Italian cop-family heritage). However, sometimes V.I. struggles so damn much with family loyalty to people that are all dead and gone that I'm a bit amazed. In this one, the first part of her case is sort of 'solved,' but she quickly gets off track when a peripheral character (the mother of someone found dead) blames Vic's dead parents and dead cousin Boom-Boom for all her woes and supposedly has evidence proving it. This infuriates Vic into making bad choices, which is probably a plot crutch.

Vic's emotions are involved to such a degree that she makes some questionable romantic choices as well and really fails to vet what she is being told by others. Surprisingly, instead of using the 'verify everything' technique, it's more 'verify only if I don't like them'. I remember this being a major lynchpin later, which is annoying. Also annoying are the interactions with her dad's best buddy on the force and who keeps trying to talk her out of doing what she perceives as her job.

In short: good for its time, really, but I'm not totally sure I also want to re-read it. It's so very 80s, sexism, Chicago, scrabbling hard times, and everything else.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mini-Review

What can you say about VI Warshawski? She's hilarious... and someone you'd want to know in real life. She's got a nice chip on her shoulder, but it becomes endearing. And she takes risks. This was a great debut novel for the series and I loved when it became the focus for a movie. I stopped reading this series about 8 to 10 years ago when I was all caught up... but I think I have a few to get back to. Tough crime novel. Good characters. A definite good read!

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the novel that introduced Chicago private investigator V. I. Warshawski back in 1982. At that time, the book was something of a revelation. Female P.I.s were few and far between, especially hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners types. There were, of course, plenty of Miss Marples and the like, solving mostly gentile puzzle mysteries, sometimes with the assistance of their cats. But hardly any women P.I.s were out there kicking ass and taking names.

Then, in 1982, readers were introduced to both Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone and Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski, and the world of crime fiction was never the same again. Thirty-four years later, though, this book does not seem nearly as special as it once did. Thanks largely to the efforts of Paretsky and Grafton, there are any number of hard-boiled female investigators out there, and so reading a book like this is no longer nearly as eye-opening and exciting as it was back then.

As the story opens, a mysterious client insists on a late night meeting with V.I., assuming that she is a male. Once he discovers that she's a "girl," he's not so sure that he wants to entrust her with something serious. But V.I. is tired after a long day and isn't about to take any sexist crap from the guy. She convinces him that she can get the job done and he finally identifies himself as the wealthy officer of a large bank in downtown Chicago. He's concerned that his son, Peter, has fallen in love with the "wrong" girl and is living in a hovel with a bunch of unwashed hippies or other such riff-raff. The girl is now missing; the son blames his father for scaring her away and insists that he will never come home again until he is reunited with his lost love.

The man hires V. I. to find the missing young woman so that peace can be restored between him and his son. However, V. I. no sooner begins her investigation than she discovers the body of Peter, the young lover, shot to death in the kitchen of his apartment. Inevitably all hell breaks loose. V. I. is determined to find the killer because she discovered the body. The cops, naturally, want her the hell off the case, but she tells them to shove it and goes about her business--much more in the fashion of Phillip Marlowe than Jessica Fletcher. There are a lot of nasty customers involved in this case; V.I. is in serious physical danger, and virtually no one takes her seriously because of her gender. The odds, to say the least, are long.

Truth to tell, the story itself has some serious holes in it, and the resolution depends on more than a couple of amazing coincidences that stretch credulity to the limit. In a day and age when tough female detectives are virtually a dime a dozen, the reader starts to notice such things, but when this book initially appeared, the character of V. I. Warshawski was such a revelation that one didn't notice them. This book would launch a long series of novels featuring Warshawski; both she and her creator were true trailblazers in the world of crime fiction, and the fact that the world has caught up with V. I. is a tribute to both of them. Three stars for the story itself; five stars for being instrumental in breaking the glass ceiling in crime fiction.

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many years ago I dipped into a Sara Paretsky book. I don't even remember which one it was but I did not finish it because I disliked the main character so much. Well I decided to have another try and this time I started with the first in the series. This particular book is quite old now and it has a lot of charm just because of its style and its setting. No mobile phones or laptops assist this private detective in her work. And I found I did not dislike her so much anymore, in fact she is a rather smart and certainly tough lady. The story was good, lots of action, some suspense, a satisfying ending. So three stars from me and a promise to read book 2 fairly soon.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly, even though I've read many of the V.I. Warshawski novels, I'd yet to read the first one until; now.

I have certain expectations of one of Vic Warshawski's exploits: well-written; tightly plotted; intricately bound up with Chicago culturally, politically. and topographically; gritty, and, of course, depressing as all get-out.

That Vic is always always under the hammer isn’t surprising; most detectives are. That she faces tall odds is also expected. However, she's the only detective I’ve read of so far whom everyone outside of her ‘inner circle’ (put in quotes because even these folks only get so close) seems to have some problem, from slight discomfort to outright loathing. Very few people like Warshawski on first sight, and those that do soon change their tune. Part of it has to do with the massive ‘me against the world’ complex Vic carries around with her, crystalized in visions of her deceased mother’s recalled ferocity. This means that Warshawski usually winds up at odds with everyone, from the people she’s against to her clients, and sometimes even to those in her inner circle. She’s a lone crusader, battling against the world, willing to fight the good fight right up until the moment she falls. Which, by the way, is going to happen, sooner or later. Warshawski never out-and-out says this, but there’s a certain fatalistic air to the novels that makes me feel that way.

Why read them, then? Because it’s damned good writing! God knows I wouldn’t want to be Warshawski — I’d probably be tempted to eat a bullet at some point, only the remembered stare of my mother’s fierce eyes would guilt me out of doing it, setting me up for more misery — but Paretsky’s words make it worth the slog.

Which is why Indemnity Only came as a surprise. Things are gritty in it, yes, but Vic hasn’t yet reached that level of fatalism that darkens the later books. There’s more, much more chauvinism against her, especially from homicide detective Bobby Mallory (not one of my favorite characters in any of the books, but he reaches new —or old, I suppose— heights of m.c. oinkhood here) but the foreword keeps you aware that this is to be expected: this was the early eighties, and the things we accept that women can do in the post ‘naughts without (much) of a blink was still new and raw then. And hell, one of Warshawski’s clients actually doesn’t turn on her!

So, if you’re a fan and like me, haven’t read this book, by all means pick it up and celebrate V.I. Warshawski’s thirtieth anniversary in style. And if you’re new to our lady of scrap-iron, this is a great place to start making her acquaintance. Just remember, things do get better, and, of course, worse.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

At a recent book signing hosted by the delightful mystery book store Murder by the Book, I mentioned to the clerk that I thought Sue Grafton’s twice-divorced, no make-up-wearing, junk food-loving sleuth Kinsey Millhone had influenced my becoming a feminist. In response, he recommended that I read Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski novels, saying that if Grafton was “there” on the spectrum of feminist writers then Paretsky was way over “here.”

I’m not sure by what scale he was measuring because I didn’t find Paretsky’s Indemnity Only to be particularly more feminist than any of Grafton’s novels. In fact, I saw mostly similarities between Kinsey and V.I., known to her friends as Vic, and between Grafton and Paretsky’s approaches to these characters. Kinsey and Vic are outspoken, willful, and self-sufficient women. They are single with at least one divorce under their belt and a rather detached attitude toward dating and men. They exercise regularly, hold their own in a scrape, and can fire a weapon if need be. Both Grafton and Paretsky attempt to treat these women in an ungendered way: they do not limit what their characters can and may do because of their sex, but they do not masculinize them. However, the authors seemingly felt compelled to make them somewhat androgynous, as evidenced by the choice of their characters’ names.

As for their differences, these two fictional P.I.s come from disparate backgrounds. Kinsey has more of a delinquent past, having dropped out of college and then the police force before becoming a private investigator, while Vic graduated from college with a law degree and even practiced as a public defender for a spell before she acquired her P.I. license. These women differ significantly in their concern for their appearance. Kinsey wears essentially the same combo of jeans, turtleneck, and running shoes most of the time and cuts her hair with nail scissors. Vic obviously cares about what she looks like, even though she doesn’t lament much over the extensive facial bruising she acquires in Indemnity Only. She puts together outfits and mentions at one point in the novel that she thought her clothing would get her some attention. While Vic doesn’t seem particularly high maintenance, I must say I missed Kinsey’s nonchalant approach to her looks, and I was a little shocked when Vic mentally criticizes another woman’s flabby upper arms.

I must say that with this novel as an introduction I’m completely apathetic toward the world of V.I. Warshawski and Sara Paretsky’s writing. I didn’t find Vic very likable, which may be purposeful to an extent on Paretsky’s part. Vic certainly feels no need to ingratiate herself to everyone she meets, and I can appreciate that trait as a feminist since it goes against women’s social conditioning. But as the reader, I need to like her to remain involved in the story. I think I was supposed to admire Vic’s determination or something, but instead I found her disagreeable and entitled. I also didn’t understand why Vic dated Ralph. I think Paretsky intended for that relationship to demonstrate Vic’s casual attitude toward sex, which is all well and good, but why would Vic even have casual sex with a man who so obviously thought that a lady couldn’t be a private investigator for realsies? As for Paretsky’s writing style, I disliked that she doled out the solving of the mystery in large chunks, with much of it revealed by the villain monologue-ing at the end of the novel. The crime itself and the people involved weren’t particularly interesting either. I also grew weary of her hamfisted attempts to demonstrate that every man Vic encounters doesn’t think that she can do her job because she is a woman, which is sexist OK?, and this tendency also caused many of the male characters’ voices to sound very similar.

Shouting sexism the loudest does not make Paretsky the most feminist, and it certainly doesn’t make her the superior writer.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

V. I. Warshawski is a Chicago private investigator, and 'Indemnity Only' is the first in Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski series. I can't quite put my finger on it, but she is strikingly masculine, the most male-like of the women P.I.s I enjoy reading about. She is also the most alone, no living mother or father or siblings. She started out being a lawyer, but switched careers after helping a friend with a problem that required detective work.

Vic (don't call her Vickie!) has a late night visitor, who hires her to find a girl. But everything about the case she is given is a lie - her client's name, the missing girl's name, and the fact of a murder having been committed a few days before is concealed from her. Warshawski has been in business long enough to know how to get to the bottom of it all and save a life or two while solving the mystery. It doesn't hurt having had a cop father who, although dead, has given her police contacts, but she relies on herself 99.9% of the time.

When this case turns up a connection to hardcore underworld criminals, she buys a gun and relearns how to shoot. She also meets a fellow easy on the eyes who could be not only an inside source, but a chance for romance. He could also be a bad guy. He definitely needs an education in feminism, unable to believe Warshawski, or any woman, could possibly be a real detective (book was written in 1982).

It's a little dated, and the writing is a little flat; however, it's good enough. The way her client brought Warshawski into the case was not believable on any level, but I got past that.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paretsky's first in a long series. V.I. Warshawski is a smart, tough, female private eye in Chicago. A client hands her $500 and a story about a missing girl. When V.I. begins to check, she finds the body of a young man, killed for no apparent reason.
The book is laced with feminism as V.I. does what used to be a man's job, questioning people, fighting, even using a gun when necessary. V.I. uncovers a big conspiracy in her digging and deftly resolves the case. The plot is confusing at points, as often seems to be the case with P.I. mysteries, as the author needs the P.I. to learn things and sometimes make unlikely inferences to keep advancing. Copyright 1982, the book holds up well.

[Emmkay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this 1982 crime novel held up well, while also now being something of a period piece. Paretsky adapted the tropes of hard boiled detective fiction to a woman gumshoe, the Italian-Polish V.I. Warshawski, who prefers to just use her first initials (or occasionally, Vic) to avoid being patronized by men. She’s a cop’s daughter and former public defender turned private investigator, and in this first outing she’s hired to find a missing young woman but quickly finds herself embroiled in murder, corrupt unions, and insurance fraud.

I liked the strong sense of place. I don’t know Chicago, but it seemed clear the author did. I also enjoyed how Warshawski copes with gendered expectations at every turn. How this tension was expressed reflected the particular moment that the novel was written in - someone could refer to the protagonist as a ‘little lady,’ and she explains to a date why she couldn’t be happy as a housewife as her ex-husband would have preferred, but she also attends a radical women’s group meeting to talk to witnesses, has a woman doctor friend involved in abortion care, and beds a good-looking male witness she describes casually as a ‘friend.’ 3.5.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have decided that I am going to try listening to this entire series in the audible format from the beginning to the end. I listened to the 30th anniversary edition of this first in the series with a forward written by the author, which takes us back to the beginning of this long series that I began reading in the print version after looking for a crime series with a woman as the main character. It is interesting to see how many hallmarks of the series began in the first book. No downstairs neighbor or dogs but much else that you will find familiar from this long and respected series.
______________
I have just finished listening to this book in the audible version almost exactly 10 years after I read it for the first time in the printed version. I actually don’t remember the story at all from having read it before. But I did continue to read this entire series and to buy all of the printed books as used books. I am not sure if I read the series exactly in order but it is possible that I did. And I did finally reach the end of the series although it is possible that the series went on even after I had read the “last” book. One of the things that I am aware of as I reread some of these books years later is that one of the attractions that kept me involved was that there is a bit of progressive politics and lifestyles present that I would have found attractive. I know I have a couple more of these books lined up in the audible version so I am doing a bit of a flashback. For the past year I have been selling many of my printed books on eBay including many of the books from this series. Adding another 10 years onto the age of this book and the series has not really done any damage to the story. Or to the heroine!
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This is the first book in the long running V.I. Warshawski , private investigator, series. It was published in 1982, thirty years ago!
Sara Paretsky is up to the fifteenth book in the series in 2012.

Her office in the South Loop of Chicago is on the fourth floor of a building where the elevator is often out of order and with fuses that blow when you turn on the AC. Yes, a woman private investigator. She charges $125 per day plus expenses. A salesman is trying to sell her a very early version of an IBM computer. It’s the summer of 1979. Ms. Warshawski, as her name suggests, has Polish heritage. Her father was a policeman. She is now in her thirties, sees herself as pretty good looking and in very good physical condition. She tried marriage unsuccessfully once about eight years ago. She is a Cubs fan. She prefers white wine to beer. You can usually count on her to clean her plate. She hates to pay to park her car. Is an ice cream lover, especially topped with a little liqueur. So many things to know about a new character! She will be an interesting person to find out about book by book and Paretsky will undoubtedly keep pumping out the tidbits about her character.

Last year I asked a family friend to suggest a mystery book series with a strong woman protagonist. This was the series she recommended. Early in the book it is obvious the V.I. is strong, physically strong! She single handedly succeeds in disabling two gangsters who show up to take her to see the boss. And she ends up delivering a well placed kick to the crotch (no terribly crude language in this book!) of the boss as well. You might think she would wind up with this being her last act, but this is fiction so she is tossed out on the street somewhat worse for wear having been warned to butt out. She takes a taxi home.

I already have several more books from the series and am looking forward to seeing how life develops for V.I. in the ensuing years. Will she be a sixty something P.I. in the 2012 Breakdown ? That would be interesting. I do not have much experience reading series since the Hardy Boys some decades ago, so this character development over the years is a new experience for me. I don’t remember the Hardy Boys growing up and going off to college.

Indemnity Only is a good start to a series. You get to know V.I. Warshawski and look forward to running into her again in the future. The book introduces us to a smart, brave and independent woman, a woman who knows how to take care of herself. The book wears its age well easily earning four stars.

[Obsidian · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I have been reading a ton of mystery/crime series this year as you all can see. I have gotten invested in the Harry Bosch series and am a long-time fan of the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. I don't know yet if I am going to add in VI Warshawski as a long time reader or not. I think that parts of the book were good, but other parts that deal with VI's personality started getting on my nerves. Like a lot. I do wonder though if this was a male character if she would have irked me so much which definitely made me think.

In the first book we have VI as an established PI, but not really getting into life and death situations. Until this book which has VI investigating when a college girl goes missing and her boyfriend is found murdered. What I love about this book and the Sue Grafton books is both timelines take place during the early 1980s. There is no internet, Google, or Facebook. There are mentions of computers, but VI loves her mother's old Olvetti typewriter. We also hear about the women's right movement and man oh man the sad parallels to the early 80s to now was just whiplash inducing after a while. You would think we came further, we have not.

VI is a loner except for her best friend and mother figure, Doctor Lotty Herschel. Lotty is the Greek chorus in VI's face telling her to be careful and to slow down. Though VI wants to prove herself as strong and tough as any man out there, she keeps having run ins with a bunch of people who mean to do her harm which starts to put a damper on her and her potential love interest.

I liked the writing, but thought at times that Paretsky got a bit repetitive. It seems like every five seconds VI was relaxing in a bath tub and drinking some Black Label whiskey. After a while I wondered how the heck she was still standing since when I drink whiskey I start thinking naps are a good idea.

This first book was kind of all over the place a bit I thought. We have Paretsky laying out VI's background and her contacts. The case was actually pretty cool and I loved the solution to it and what the bad guys were getting up to.

This takes place in Chicago (you know the place that apparently is on fire right now--eyeroll) and Paretsky does a great job of making Chicago of the 80s come alive.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A steady debut novel in which we meet V.I. Warshawski, a female P.I., who sets out to handle her first case dealing with rich people and (you guessed it) . . . treachery!

The clue trails are solid, the characters are well developed and the pacing is a tad slow at times.

That said, this novel was written in the 80s when pacing wasn't as big as it is now.

OVERALL GRADE: B

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this whole series, but it was before I was on Goodreads, but I give them all four -five stars !!!

[Cookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty early on in this book, my husband remarked that Kathleen Turner played the role of V.I. Warshawski in a movie of the same name. Even if I wasn't a fan of a couple of her film roles, anyone who's ever heard her voice will likely find it hard to forget. Needless to say, the voice in my head did its damndest to replicate that distinctive husky allure with all of V.I.'s dialogue. I think that's why I liked the book a little more than maybe I should have.

V.I., let's call her Vic, her friends do, is a once-upon-a-time district attorney who became less than enchanted with the system. Putting her intelligence, wit and background to good use, she goes into private detecting - mostly insurance fraud and cheating spouses. That is, until a certain Union leader knocks at her door with a missing daughter. Vic gets into more than she bargained for (or is paid for) when her first interview turns out to be a dead man.

I'm no stranger to mysteries and detective stories and they tend to run along the same vein- a tough, smart, loner who gets in over their head with a doozy of a murder usually is what gives the story a pulse. In my experience, it's the side characters that give it heart. That's certainly the case here with Indemnity Only. From Vic's naive fling, to the resilient and steady clinic doctor and best pal, to all friend and foe in between, Paretsky sketches characters that are interesting and realistic. I say, if you can write a fourteen year old girl and not resort to annoying teenage stereotypes, you're doing pretty good. Then again, this book is from 1982. Maybe teenagers had more substance then. I kid, I kid.

Speaking of 1982. Though the story is old, I wasn't terribly hung up on how dated it was - though about everything technologically changed in the world around us, people somehow stay the same and the motivations of greed and guilt are still, unfortunately, ever present. Nothing really suffers on the front, though I can see how some references might fly over some heads. I'm not going to say how many flew over mine, but I will proudly state that I was tickled to see Kolchak mentioned.

I see now that this series is in the double digits. I'm not running out finding the next book or anything, but I wouldn't pass it up if I came across it.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally within the (small, exclusive) pantheon of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone and Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone. Can a pantheon be small and exclusive? Sure it can. I just said so.

Chicago, big unions, big banks along-side small inner city clinics and a public defender turn PI. And V.I. Warshawski drives a Monza... that's a Chevy that they don't make anymore for good reason. It's what my father bought used for my oldest sister with the plan that all five of his daughters would drive it in their turn. And it almost made it.

[Scott A. Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for a first book. Very good mystery. Warshawski is going to be very fun to watch grow as a character. Being from Chicago, it was great knowing where everything was. I grew up on the North Shore before moving to the City 28 some years ago. I hope the whole series takes place here.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always wanted to start this series. The 1991 movie with Kathleen Turner as Vic was great to this 13yo girl who didn’t have a lot of strong female role models. There were women detectives? The books, of course, are even better!

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose to read this book after seeing Sara Paretsky's tweet reacting to the death of Sue Grafton. Since Paretsky's V.I. and Grafton's Kinsey are both female detectives whose series began in 1982, I thought maybe Paretsky's books would be good read-alikes for Grafton's. It turns out, though, that while Indemnity Only is very readable and V.I. is a likable character, I just didn't connect to this story in the way I have always connected to the Kinsey Millhone books. I think this is partly because of the in-your-face feminism of this book, and the multiple casual references to abortion that were entirely unrelated to the plot. These are not topics I typically seek out in fiction and after reading so many cozy mysteries last year, the mentions of controversial and political topics were more jarring than I would have expected. I wonder how heavily these themes figure into other books of the series.

The case itself - which involves unions in Chicago, insurance fraud, a dead college student, his missing girlfriend, and the family life of a fourteen-year-old girl - is complex and compelling enough that I didn't want to put the book down for too long. While this wasn't a "who dun it" style mystery, there was still plenty of suspense involving how certain people were implicated in the various crimes committed and how V.I. would bring them to justice without getting herself killed. I liked the fast pace of the writing, the details about Chicago (a city I have yet to visit), and V.I.'s strength and confidence in the face of the dangerous men who threaten her life and the lives of other people she cares about. I didn't feel like I got to know V.I. quite as well as Kinsey, and I'm not sure yet whether I will continue with the series, but I am glad to have satisfied my curiosity about this author and her famous main character.

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I slogged through most of this without much enjoyment at all, but it did manage to pull out an interesting ending. The vast majority of it, both plot and characters, just had no ring of truth.

[svenjalex · Rating 3 out of 5]

leute, ihr wollt doch immer, dass ich anspruchsvolle lektüre lese: ein 80ties krimi der feministischen, frühen detektivinnen era!
das genre verspricht, mir zu gefallen. ganz ganz starke figuren und auch ein wirklich schön verstrickter kriminalfall.
das buch ist zwar gut gealtert, trotzdem merkt man ihm das alter an. es ist zwischendrin wirklich schleppend langweilig und tarantino-esque und die übersetzung ist glaube ich schuld an einem sperrigen sprachstil, der mindestens einen stern abzug bedeutet. in originalsprache bestimmt empfehlenswert.

[Julia Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hadn't read this book since the 80s, and the story holds up well. VI Warshawski was such an important character for women, and she ushered in all sorts of other kick-ass women cops and investigators, but Paretsky was the groundbreaker.

It's weird to think of the 80s as history, but it was truly nostalgic to take a ride back to the era before the Internet. A fun, exciting novel, reminiscent of the hard-boiled mysteries, but also similar to some of the other 80s greats like Sue Grafton.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ stars. Typical PI mystery series told in first person. Slightly above average.

VI is a female private investigator. She is often short on money to pay her bills. A few times I thought I have no idea what I would do if I were the investigator. Then VI did something, and I was impressed. She is tough physically. For example, a bad guy has a gun, she jumps him, breaks his arm, rolls to the floor, and grabs the gun. The result is some good investigating ideas and some pretty good action scenes.

There were two sex scenes referred to, no details. They were written similar to “We entered the bedroom. Next morning we had coffee.”

PROBLEMS:
In real life thugs may swear in every sentence, but I’ve heard authors should cut down on that in writing fiction. The phrase “God damn it” was used a bit too much for me.

Two main characters were McGraw and Marshall. I kept getting them confused because the names were similar, both starting with the “ma” sound. This is minor, but it would have been better if one of them had a name starting with a different letter, like Adams or Baker. It might not have bothered me as much in the physical book. But it required effort on my part in the audiobook, frequently thinking “now which one was that?”

NARRATOR:
The dialogue has a lot of anger, yelling, shouting, and screaming. This should be ok when reading the physical book. But it was jarring as an audiobook when the narrator read those lines. Her voice was a little irritating to begin with, and then worse when she yelled. A different narrator with a softer voice might have been better.

THE SERIES:
This is the first book in the VI Warshawski series. So far there are 15 books in the series.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 1st person VI Warshawski. Narrator: Susan Ericksen. Unabridged audiobook length: 8 hrs and 43 mins. Swearing language: moderate including religious swear words. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 2 referred to, no details. Setting: 1979 Chicago, Illinois. Book copyright: 1982. Genre: PI mystery.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't understand why this had to suck so much. The first in her apparently very successful series of V.I. Warshawski stories, this freshman outing—pre-sophomoric; don't freshmen write too?—is good enough in terms of plot that I read it through. But the writing (style, characters, dialogue, etc.) is so freshman-like that I found myself longing for a cliché or two—not the comic-book kind you expect from immature writing but the imaginative and often ingenious kind you find in a Raymond Chandler novel. Didn't Sara Paretsky ever read Chandler? Her private eye, V.I., seems to be modeled as a female Philip Marlowe. I have to think that Paretsky just timed her arrival on the scene well, introducing a hardboiled female dick, so to speak, before anyone else had thought to do so.

[Gary Sedivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Female detective: nothing wrong with that. Tough, okay. Set in Chicago, which is
kind of intriguing since our son had lived there for a few years. It is kind of fun to visualize parts of the city as described in the book. Of course the story has Chicago mobsters and union thugs (sometimes one and the same). Pretty good pacing of the plot, and enough hints to be able to make a few guesses whodunit. May read at least one more in the series.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo libro è stato pubblicato nel 1982. È importante saperlo, perché V.I. Warshawski è la prima (o una delle prime) detective donna della letteratura americana. "I re della truffa" si colloca perfettamente nella tradizione hard boiled, eppure la protagonista è una "pupa". Vaglielo a dire, a V.I., che è una "pupa" e ti prenderà a calci sui denti.
Tra un delitto da risolvere, scagnozzi violenti, fanciulle da proteggere e uomini paternalistici da neutralizzare, V.I. è contemporaneamente innovativa e figlia del suo tempo, femminista e immersa in una letteratura satura di uomini protettivi e donne che stanno in cucina. Perché comunque sono gli anni '80 e si sente.
Ma lei è donna scritta da una donna, è piena di contraddizioni, sembra vera in un capitolo e perfetto cliché in quello dopo: ha affetti profondi e ricordi dolorosi, si preoccupa della linea e ingurgita whiskey uno dietro l'altro (ciao, Jessica Jones), si incazza improvvisamente per motivi a volte incomprensibili e poi svela le sue grandi paure ad un tizio appena conosciuto. Mi chiedo che effetto avrebbe fatto leggere di lei negli anni Ottanta.
"I re della truffa" ha tutto quel che serve ad un buon noir, compresa una risoluzione che in alcuni punti accelera un po' troppo, personaggi secondari che svelano retroscena o retropensieri un po' troppo facilmente e alcuni momenti dal sapore retrò.
L'ho letto in un giorno e mezzo. Vorrà pur dire qualcosa.

(Peccato per alcuni refusi e un erroraccio da penna blu che mi piacerebbe sapere se fosse così anche nel testo originale o se sia frutto della traduzione)

[Gintautas Ivanickas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vieną vakarą privačią detektyvę V. I. Warshawski aplanko paslaptingas klientas. Prisistato garsiu bankininku ir paprašo surasti jo sūnų. Užduotis nesudėtinga, Warshawski jau kitą rytą suranda vaikiną. Tiesa, nušautą. O čia dar paaiškėja, kad ją aplankęs klientas visai ne tas, kuo apsimetė. Jis ne vaikino, o jo draugės tėvas. Ir dabar prašo Warshawski surasti tą merginą. Tiesa, jau kitą dieną pareikalauja, kad detektyvė nutrauktų paieškas. Čia galima būtų dėti tašką, bet mįslių ir klausimų toje istorijoje daugiau, nei reikia, o Warshawski ne iš tų, kas lengvai palieka klausimus be atsakymų.
Pirmoji Saros Paretsky ciklo apie detektyvę Warshawski knyga. Turi tokio lengvo „hard boiled“ detektyvų kvapo. O ir pati Warshawski – tokia homeopatinė Philipo Marlowe versija. Kiaušais nelabai jam ir nusileidžianti.
Gal kiek mažiau buvo įdomi pati detektyvinės užuomazgos sritis – sveikatos draudimų machinacijos, bet įtampą išlaiko, staigių posūkių nestinga – tai ko dar norėt.
Savo nišai – visai kokie keturi iš penkių. Gal ne patys tvirčiausi, bet.

[Marleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't say it was love at first sight with V.I. Warshawski, as it was for me with Carlotta Carlyle, the P.I. created by the talented author Linda Barnes, but not totally disliking this first introduction, either. It's a matter of putting this character and era into context. Indeed, written in 1982 and reading it in 2019 for the first time, it feels a bit outdated, character-wise also.
I have to admit that the plot kept me reading, guessing all the while who had murdered young Peter Thayer, son of a well known banker, and what role his father played in his son's demise.
Another plus point is the city of Chicago; a city I have visited a few times (travelling overseas to visit with US friends). I always liked Chicago, it has something unique, architecturally, so that's a great backdrop.
I'm sure if I don't find anything better in the whodunit genre, I will revert back to this series, because I think it's worth it.

[SunnySue · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ju längre in i boken jag kom, desto större blev min avsky för Warshawski 🤮 och alla hennes nedlåtande kommentarer om de andra kvinnliga karaktärerna.

Jag lyssnade på den svenska ljudboken 🎧 Svensk titel - Egen vinning annans skada

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - English Ebook

I'm definitely hooked on V. I.!!!

One of my bookclub "sisters" happened to mention that she's now reading #20 in the series and I figured I'd test the waters to see if they are books I'd enjoy.

Wow , such fun reading and V. I. comes across as the type of woman we gals would all love to be like.

She's got gutts!!!