Indemnity Only and Deadlock

Indemnity Only (1982) and Deadlock (1984) Sara Paretsky

I used to own the V.I. Warshawski series, but in a fit of pique–and shelf space squeeze–I sold them all. I recently decided that I wanted to give them another chance, which means that I needed to reread them, which means I had to find all the books again. Luckily, I’ve found most of them used.

The first book, Indemnity Only, is set in 1979, and in some ways it’s dated. V.I. Warshawski is constantly asserting her right as a woman to have any job she wants. Yes, in some places today this is still a problem, but it is no longer overt problem that it was at the time the book was written. In many ways the issues that women face are far more insidious, in that they are far more subtle.

This leads to one of my problems with the book–something that Marion Zimmer Bradley brought up when she was editing Sword & Sorceress. Yes, woman may face challenges and sexist, but I can only read so many stories where overcoming those challenges is the focus of the story. Yes, sexism is a problem, but the story should be more than that. Not that this story focuses solely upon V.I.’s gender as a problem in her work, but it comes up. Frequently.

The other issue is more a matter of taste–when I’m reading a mystery, I don’t want to read about the constant battles of sexism. They’re out there, I know about them, and I just don’t want to read about them.

However, to be fair, although the issue of gender comes up frequently in these books, it isn’t the complete focus of the story, this is a mystery at heart, and it’s a good mystery. In searching for a lost woman, V.I. ends up searching for whoever killed the woman’s boyfriend. Good mystery, fast paced, quick read. So not bad.

Deadlock is the second V.I. Warshawski book. V.I.’s cousin has died in an accident, however she beings to wonder if the accident is actually murder.

There is far less emphasis up the idea of a woman doing a man’s work, and her biggest problem in this area now seems to come from a police officer who knew her as a child, however there was a bit of “why aren’t you at married and raising kids,” which I could also do without.

As with Indemnity Only, Sara Paretsky is pretty hostile to the wealthy. Not that I have any particular love for the too rich, but reading these books I begin to wonder whether everyone in Chicago with money is completely lacking in morals and virtue. For most of the people in this book are unpleasant in one way or another.

However, the mystery was still pretty good, and the story moved quickly. These are not my favorite mysteries, but they’re not horrible either, so I’ll keep reading. At least for now.

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