Book Reviews of Fire Sale (V. I. Warshawski, Bk 12)

This is the 1st V.I. Warshawski novel I've read and even before I finished it, I ordered more. Great read!

This is a great book. Easy to read and is the same quality that you expect from Paretsky. The wise and forever funny Warshawski comes thru in this book as a real person who always has her feet in trouble. Hard to put this book down as I was wanting to read what the final outcome was.

The underlining humor is what makes this book a pleasure to read.

Anyone who loves VI Warshawski will agree that this is another great read by Sara Paretsky.

My first introduction to V.I. Warshawski novels and I found this one to be extremely engaging and well written. I will definitely read more of Sara Paretsky's novels.

This was my first time reading a V.I. Warshawski novel and I believe it will be my last. Did not like it at all

This book was a page turner it kept me up until 2AM.

In this 13th book of the popular series, Chicago P I, V.I. Warshawski, returns to her old South Side neighborhood, now in a sad state of decline, to help her former basketball coach with a girls' team at the local high school. But her efforts to interest local businessmen in supporting the team lead her into an increasingly complex tangle of exploited low-wage workers, a storefront preacher who may or may not be one of the good guys, and the life-or-death conflicts at the center of a large fabulously wealthy family who live in tony Barrington Hills, but run cut throat businesses in places like the South Side.

A great V.I. Warshawski novel. Fast-paced and easy to read. Very enjoyable.

A conscience can weigh a PI down more than the heaviest firearm - and get her into more trouble. It's that nagging conscience that makes V.I. Warshawshi agree to fill in as coach for the girls' basketball team at her South Cicago alma mater - which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-smart, the global retail empire where V.I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struglling squad. But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart...with the exception of Billy Bysen, the earnest teenage grandson of the chain's gruff, tightfisted founder. And when Billy disappears - along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart's management team - V.I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago's dirtiest places and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets.

"A moving and multilayered novel" The Cleveland Plain Dealer

VI does it again! Wonderful. Very good reading.

From Publishers Weekly: "Starred Review. Private eye V.I. Warshawski takes a break from tony Lakeview to fill in for her old high school basketball coach on Chicago's South Side in her 12th adventure. Vic starts her volunteer stint looking for a team sponsor at megadiscount store By-Smart, whose founder, Buffalo Bill Bysen, is a fellow alum. Of all Bysen's cutthroat, cost-cutting family, only idealist 19-year-old Billy shows any interest in helping the team. When he disappears, his frustrated father hires Vic to find him. The mother of a high school basketball player also hires Vic to investigate sabotage at the flag factory where she works—an investigation cut short when the factory blows up before Vic's eyes. Things go no better at school or at home, and clues pile on but they don't add up. Vic takes her lumps as she makes her way from a fundamentalist church, where the pastor goes to extremes for his flock, to the city dump, where villains try to bury their secrets. Paretsky has recently tackled the Holocaust (Total Recall) and globalization (Hard Time); here she explores the struggles of the working poor and the schemes of the rich and infamous. Packed with social themes and moral energy, held together by humor, compassion and sheer feistiness, this novel shows why Paretsky and her heroine are such enduring figures in American detective fiction." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --

Enjoyable read

A conscience can weigh a PI down more than the heaviest firearm..and get her into more trouble. It's that nagging conscience that makes V. I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls' basketball team at her South Chicago alma mater..which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V. I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad. But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart...with the exception of Billy Bysen, the earnest teenage grandson of the chain's gruff, tightfisted founder. And when Billy disappears...along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart's management team...V. I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago's dirtiest places and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets...

VI Warshawski fans won't be disappointed

Another compelling story by Sara Paretsky - I couldn't put it down!

A good book to read

If you like the VI Warshawski books, you'll enjoy this one.

Private eye V.I. Warshawski takes a break from tony Lakeview to fill in for her old high school basketball coach on Chicago's South Side in her 12th adventure. Vic starts her volunteer stint looking for a team sponsor at megadiscount store By-Smart, whose founder, Buffalo Bill Bysen, is a fellow alum. Of all Bysen's cutthroat, cost-cutting family, only idealist 19-year-old Billy shows any interest in helping the team. When he disappears, his frustrated father hires Vic to find him. The mother of a high school basketball player also hires Vic to investigate sabotage at the flag factory where she works—an investigation cut short when the factory blows up before Vic's eyes. Things go no better at school or at home, and clues pile on but they don't add up. Vic takes her lumps as she makes her way from a fundamentalist church, where the pastor goes to extremes for his flock, to the city dump, where villains try to bury their secrets.

Paretsky has recently tackled the Holocaust (Total Recall) and globalization (Hard Time); here she explores the struggles of the working poor and the schemes of the rich and infamous. Packed with social themes and moral energy, held together by humor, compassion and sheer feistiness, this novel shows why Paretsky and her heroine are such enduring figures in American detective fiction.

Wonderful book. If you like private investigator, V.I. Warshawski, you will like this book.

Intrepid Chicago P.I., V.I. Warshawski, is drawn back to her old neighborhood on the South Side as a replacement high school girls' basketball coach. She's soon embroiled in South Side troubles: lack of funds for high school sports, a large corporation paying a pitance to hard-working folks, a small struggling business destroyed by fire and the murder of its owner, and the disappearances of a young idealistic heir to the large corporation and one of the girls on her basketball team. She frets over her lover Morrell as a beautiful journalist friend of his moves into his spare room, and she tangles with her old lover Conrad who has become police commander in the South Side's 4th precinct. This is an exciting fast-paced read!

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