Indemnity Only

I love the character of VI Warshawski: tough, brave, capable, and utterly loyal to her friends. VI (as she is known) is the archetypal ‘tart noir’–a female investigator in the mold of the hardboiled noir detectives but with empathy, vulnerability, and great style. VI can pack a punch, handle a gun, and is tenacious to the point of stubbornness, often at great personal risk, yet we also see her moments of self-doubt, her humanity, and her compassion towards others.

I couldn’t put this book down.

Everybody has different reasons for loving VI Warshawski. Here are mine: I love her because she sings opera and does her own fighting. A woman who’s as comfortable singing Coloratura runs as she is socking some creep in the jaw, and it is definitely worth knowing.

I love this series because it’s one of the first in which a woman detective behaves just like a man: solving the crime AND fighting her way out of trouble. And I love that she’s still a very feminine woman in the middle of all that, taking pleasure in dressing up and enjoying herself. 

This first book in the V.I. Warshawski series sizzles with heat, tension, danger, and even humor. In Indemnity Only readers meet V.I., the quintessential P.I. and she’s cool. She races through the mean streets of Chicago on a sometimes wild goose chase as she searches for a missing young woman. V.I. never gives up as she works to save her quarry’s life. Sara Paretsky is a wonderful writer and one of my true heroines in this genre.