Dead Land (V.I. Warshawski, #20)

by Sara Paretsky

Sunday, June 28, 2020

One of my favourite series of all time and still going strong. Look elsewhere if you want a critical analysis of it! Maybe in another series I might complain about some of the recurring plot points in these books (like stop trying to kill yourself sometimes VI?) but as it stands I’m happy that Vic is still out there fighting corporate crime and standing up for the little guys.

Whilst reading I had a discussion about how old she’s supposed to be now, I know her birthdate got retconned at some point, my view is that she’s ageing at about half of the real-world rate. I think she was 30ish in the early books of the 1980s. That was going on 40 years ago, and I don’t think she’s aged any more than 20 years though I’m not sure which side of fifty she’s on now, it could be less than that. I guess at some point I’m going to overtake her! And as for Mr Contreras… I suspect he’ll still be pulling his pipe-wrench out in his 100s.

It was fun to spot the cameo by Stu Shiffman too, authorised by Andi Shechter before her death last year. These bits always make me smile.