Paretsky's Warshawski Mystery has a "Breakdown" Along the Way

 Breakdown - Sara Paretsky

Some people have a knack for being in the right place at the right time: I’m thinking PowerBall winners, venture capitalists, or the guy who Youtubed the video of a kid biting his brother’s finger. At the other extreme, there’s V. I. Warshawski, whose knack is clearly for being in the wrong place at the right time. Case in point is the night her cousin Petra called her looking for one of the teens in her book club. The girl and her friends had sneaked into a cemetery to dance in the moonlight, hoping to summon the heroine’s alter ego from a runaway bestseller series of teen VampRoms. Vic found the girls, of course – she’s a good detective – but she also found a body... and not one of the cemetery’s clients.

Two of the dancers turned out to be Chicago “royalty,” one the daughter of a Senatorial candidate and another the granddaughter of said candidate’s money man. Politics being politics, the fecal matter hit the proverbial ventilation device as Chicago’s most powerful TV talking head distorted the event, along the way calling the candidate a “monkey,” claiming that the money man had betrayed his family in a WW2 concentration camp, and avowing that Warshawski’s mother was a wetback. Apparently, the truth set too high a bar for Wade Lawlor, so he ducked under it.

Warshawski’s interest in the case ramped up when the case veered into her ex-husband’s law office and her best friend from law school turned up near death after having had words with the dead man. It’s complicated…

The case led Vic to a hospital for the criminally insane, a bewildered Chevy dealer, and the studios of a Chicago-based media conglomerate that bears a suspicious resemblance to the Murdoch empire. V.I. Warshawski always gets her man, though, and Breakdown seemed unlikely to be any different. But then, there were still the questions of who? and why?

Cristened Victoria Iphegenia Warshawski, Vic to her friends and V. I. to everyone else, Chicago’s toughest broad has bulled and battered her way through the Second City’s gritty streets for almost thirty years. She’s got the spider veins, the scars, and the gray streaks to prove it, too. From day one, Warshawski – once a public defender – has been in the little guy’s corner. Breakdown is no exception, though in this case it’s hard to figure out who the “little guy” is, at least until the final reel.

Sara Paretsky’s fifteenth Warshawski novel follows much the same format as all the rest: her bullheaded protagonist refuses to give up on her case in the face of unrelenting pressure from powerful people who’d be hurt by a solution. Over the years Vic’s been imprisoned, shot, blown up, received more stitches than her cousin Boom-Boom the Black Hawks forward, and been on the dark end of more concussions than a pro quarterback. Nothing interrupts Warshawski when she’s on the trail (rather reminds me of a Labrador Retriever after a rawhide chew…). For those who champion the underdog, V. I. Warshawski is a true hero.

For those whose bumper stickers allege media bias, however, Breakdown is anathema: the broadly-drawn Wade Lawlor too closely resembles certain sacrosanct talking heads on their favorite cable network. Clearly, Paretsky is a threat to truth, justice, and the American way (a terrorist, maybe?). You have to wonder if someone could really get away with the purple prose and yellow journalism she describes – and there are some who suspect that she didn’t miss the mark by much.

Though her caricature of… ummm…. Let’s say “Hurry StinkyCheese” was more amusing than infuriating to this reader, I nonetheless found myself somewhat disappointed by Paretsky’s take.  Not, as those who thump the tub of political partisanship claim because of lack of objectivity; but because of structure. I’m as fond as the next guy of building tension as the heroine closes in on the villain; and Paretsky does her usual top-notch job of building tension. I’m also willing to let occasional coincidences pass in the name of moving the plot forward; but on the other hand, I’m not terribly fond of ridiculously unlikely coincidences – and there are most unlikely coincidences in Breakdown.

Like Robert K. Tanenbaum’s Karp family series, Breakdown stretches credulity beyond the breaking point for the complexity of the plot and necessity of frequent visits by the Coincidence Fairy. Worse, the identity of the villain and the nature of his/her crime are patently obvious at about a quarter of the way through the book.

Fans of Warshawski, and I freely admit I’m one, won’t want to pass this one up. Even though Vic hasn’t lost a step as she pushes fifty, Paretsky seems to have gotten distracted this time. The villain is suitably despicable and the victim blameless, and the action comes fast and furious with the occasional amusing aside. In short, a nice read if you remain mindless about it – but for those who like to play along with the protagonist at the detecting game, Breakdown comes up short. Not a lot short, but short nonetheless.

Summary:

Plus: characters, sense of place, and Warshawski as champion of the little guy

Minus: over-reliance on coincidence, transparent villain

The Bottom Line: This Warshawski novel finds V. I. chasing the killer of a fellow P. I.

copyright © 2012-2021 scmrak