First edition as new

Not much to say here besides the fact that I really enjoyed this one a lot. We get to see VI go into the prison system in order to find out how an escapee from a woman's prison was found on a road in Chicago. We get to see VI and other characters go through some changes in this one due to a new age of American politics as well.

VI in this one is accused of a hit and run after she barely misses hitting a woman's body in the road. Though VI has her run ins with the law at times, she still doesn't know why the police are looking hard at her for this one. When she turns up details on the dead woman which ties her into a high profile private security firm, it becomes pretty clear that VI may not be able to get herself out of trouble in this one.

VI is a bit slower in this one. She is definitely feeling her age. She also feels a bit flat since her long time rival and friend Murray is now being pushed to do more public friendly stories and the era of print media has seemingly died in Chicago. What I think made me like this one a lot more is that honestly VI is left friendless in this one and has to survey by her own wits. Her assistant pretty much quits and blames VI for how she behaves which is why she is always targeted. And VI has a power crazed Chicago cop on her heels who is not going to stop until he has her arrested.

The book shifts gears though with it's smart insight into the prison system and how easy it is to abuse women behind bars. Some of the descriptions were stomach inducing.

I do have to say though I loved this book, I found most of the circumstances involved to be highly implausible. I have finished a bunch of the books in this series recently, and I do have to say that after "Fire Sale" I started to just feel a shift in quality. I constantly compare VI to my other favorite female private eye, Kinsey Malone. And I think what gets me the most is that VI is antagonistic towards everyone and even the police. With what she gets up to I am surprised she hasn't been arrested for how many times she gets involved in a police matter. And I just don't like how she treats others around her. That said, I would be a happy person if the character of Mr. Contreras would be written off from this series along with the two dogs that VI ends up bringing everywhere in the latest books. ( )

Paretsky at her best. Same supporting characters, yes there's a villain, yes there's an innocent caught in the crossfire and set on a better path, but the arc is there and the tension builds nicely. We get to see the worst of prisons/jails for women and prisons for profit and private security gone overboard. And then of course there are the crazies and the sadists It's a quick but very satisfying read. Hopefully this is fiction. ( )

I read all of the Nancy Drew books when I was a kid and then didn't touch another mystery until 1986 when I saw Sara Paretsky on the Today Show. She convinced me to try one of her V.I. Warshawski books. I've never looked back. It's been 5 years since we've been able to know what V.I.'s been up to. Reading Hard Time is like getting to visit with a good friend you haven't seen in years. V.I. stumbles on a dead body in the road and the next thing she knows she's been questioned by a really nasty cop who's implying that she hit the victim and fled the scene. This is one of the best of the series, if not the best. The plot is capturing and the characters are my old friends (except for the bad guys, of course). ( )

I think I have decided that I prefer the written version of Paretsky to the audiobook version of Paretsky since I didn't seem to notice the plot as much so in the written book as I do when I listen to an audiobook. (I will probably still end up with some of these as audiobooks only because I do like to have something to listen to in the car.)

Hard time as in "giving someone a hard time"--well, we know that's usually part of a V.I. Warshawski book. Hard time as in "doing hard time"--that's covered in this book as well.

Somehow, the Messenger children have ended up with former police officer Mary Louise Neely (despite the fact that their father is still around). Though I recall the previous book, I don't remember how that happened or why--and it's not really explained here. But we get a similar family dynamic as the last book with the Baladine family. Not very original.

V. I. is somewhat more conscious of putting her friends in danger due to her own actions, though she still seems to make unwise choices. At one point, her instincts are screaming "it's a trap" but she goes anyway--with predictable results. ( )