Indemnity Only

By: Sara Paretsky

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this gripping adventure - the first V.I. Warshawski mystery - America’s top private eye is tossed into a dangerous adventure when a seemingly straightforward assignment becomes complicated and deadly.

Hired by a man who calls himself John Thayer, V.I.’s assignment is to find Thayer’s son Peter’s missing girlfriend. But when V.I. finds young Peter’s dead body instead, her client disappears. Her efforts to track down her client and learn his true identity take her deep into a labyrinth of fraud and violence.

By the time V.I. figures out the answers she is in a race to find the missing young woman - before the murderers do.

©1991 Sara Paretsky (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Back to the Beginning

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 love narrator Susan Erickson - Great Series

What did you love best about Indemnity Only?

I took a shot at this writer ONLY because of the narrator. I have found that Susan Erickson has a great way of building a story especially if the story line is exceptional. I Loved this book and am now on #6 with plans to download ALL of them. Great story line.

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

LOVE HER and this compares very well with RD Robb The Eve Dallas Series which I am an avid fan of.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES

3 ½ stars. Slightly above average.

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

Early Paretsky

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

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

Would you recommend Indemnity Only to your friends? Why or why not?

yes

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, not as good as others but good

Was Indemnity Only worth the listening time?

yes

Edge of my seat

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.

Like watching an 80s Detective Show

The story is good, and of course Susan Erickson's performance is amazing as usual. One has to remember that this book was written in the 1980s, and it really feels like watching an old 80s detective show.

With that in mind, since I actually remember the 1980s firsthand, it is interesting to notice how attitudes and technology have changed. It's funny to think that it wasn't that long ago, when people's lives could be put in danger if you actually left home so that you missed a call. Of course there is also the rampant misogyny at odds with changing attitudes and values, that were indicative of the era.

I plan to listen to more of the serious, and it will be interesting to see how the characters progress if the series keeps up with the contemporary timeframe of when each book was written.

Love V.I. Warshawski

What did you love best about Indemnity Only?

I have read all the Sara Paretsky V.I. Warshawski books. I am going through the series again a combination of reading and audiobooks. I love the lead, she is a rich character and could be my friend. This series is a little hard to listen to as to the richness of the story. Don't multi-task. Just listen and enjoy. I found myself going back in the narration because I was lightly listening and got lost (this is where listening/reading via Whispersync helped.)

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Susan Ericksen is one of my favorite narrators. It's pretty much guaranteed that I will enjoy the book if she is narrating.

Not a Fan of VI

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

Loved the movie.

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.

Very Enjoyable!

Would you listen to Indemnity Only again? Why?

Thought it was a

Have you listened to any of Susan Ericksen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Any additional comments?

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

UGH! The narrator!

I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of this rubbish. The narrator 's voice of Mr. Thayer was horrific.