Windy City Blues

V.I. Warshawski Stories

By: Sara Paretsky

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

It's strictly Friends & Family as V.I. Warshawski, "the detective mystery fans have been waiting for" (Time), makes return appearances in a collection of stories that bring new meaning to "ties that bind." Decked out in her silk shirts and no-nonsense Attitude, V.I. is out to make a living - by the skin of her teeth.

In "Grace Notes," V.I. has barely finished her morning coffee when she sees an ad in the paper asking for information about her own mother, long dead. The paper leads V.I. to her newfound Italian cousin Vico, who's looking for music composed by their great-grandmother. What's the score? Clearly it's something to kill for...

"The Pietro Andromache" finds V.I.'s friend Dr. Lotty Herschel with motive and means to dispatch her professional rival and steal his priceless statue. Lotty didn't do it - but does she know who did? V.I. soon cuts to the art of the case - and it's not a pretty picture at all!

Summoned by an old high school friend to a race "At the Old Swimming Hole," V.I. ends up swimming with the sharks - the FBI and a ruthless gambling kingpin - in a pool of blood....

And it's only "Skin Deep" when a relaxing facial transformation transforms a client into a stiff. V.I.'s pal Sal needs help. Her beautician sister Evangeline is prime suspect - and V.I. has only eighteen hours to crack the case before it's headline news....

"Three-Dot Po" proves there's nothing like a dog. Especially a dog on the trail of her mistress's killer, with V.I. in tow....

In "Strung Out," love means nothing and V.I.'s quick to learn the score as her old friend's tennis-champion daughter is under suspicion for strangling her father with a racket string. And there's more, nine stories in all, in this masterful collection of short fiction starring V.I. Warshawski, "the most engaging woman in detective fiction since Dorothy Sayers's Harriet Vane" (Newsweek).

©1995 Sara Paretsky (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Interesting stories

First which is the longest is most engaging. But always enjoy the exploits of VI.

Annoying Narration

The storyline is fine. I really like Sara Paretsky, but the narration is unbearable. The narrator is clearly reading—not acting. Implausible overexpression. I see she has read many books for Audible, but I won’t listen to any of them. Couldn’t even make it through this one.

Nice change from the novels

I really like this narrator's performance of the Warshawski series. Sometimes the novels drag on with V. I.'s tendencies to get in trouble. These short stories were a nice change to that. All good stories.

good not great

It's a good book , I like 1 long story better, but that's personal, but still good!

Another great installment

Sara Paretsky has done it again with another great installment, this time with a short story collection. I always enjoy V. I. Warshawski’s adventures and antics. She really knows how to get into trouble and figure out how to make it out. Susan Erickson gives a wonderful performance bringing it all to life with style.

Enjoyed the short story format

They fit into my reading time right now, just enough to tell the story without a big time commitment. I wouldn't recommend if one is not familiar with the series

slow slow sleepy

tried and tried but couldn't bring myself to even finish the book. slow to start and slower to keep going. too much history of Chicago before I had any idea what the story was even about