Indemnity Only

Typical PI mystery series told in first person.

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 Susan Ericksen:
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.

Genre: PI mystery

I enjoyed this but Sara's books have gotten better over time
I

yes

Yes, not as good as others but good

yes

I really enjoyed this. It had me on the edge of my seat all the way through. Loved Ericksen's performance as always. She's one of my favorite narrators. This is the first of Paretsky's books I've gotten to and it won't be the last. I just wish audible had them all.

Thought it was a

No

Although the story was simple and direct it was exactly what I was looking for. Relaxing and to the point. No brain surgery required!

Had never realized the movie was based on these books. I loved listening to this. Some of the characters were in this one and I see some are in the next book. Almost wish Kathleen Turner was reading them after being introduced to her in the movie. This book is great. Has her sassy attitude and her interactions with everyone she meets can almost make you start cracking up and people look at you funny. Overall a very good story.

Good plot and story line.

The heroine. Most of the other characters were either not likable or corny

No

No

It was a bit too long, but the climax was worth waiting for.

Many of us have been reading/listening to Ms. Paretsky' novels for years. It was great to be able to go back and hear it all from the beginning for the first time. Great book and great listen. Thanks.

I've read most all of Sara Patetsky's books and have always liked them. This was the first one I've tried as an audiobook and probably my last. I didn't care at all for the reader. The males voices were just louder than the female voices and so always seemed like they were shouting.

I decided I'm not a fan of VI - it's something about the character, I just don't believer her.