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Killing Orders (2005)

Killing Orders (2005)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.84 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0451214978 (ISBN13: 9780451214973)
Language
English
Publisher
signet

About book Killing Orders (2005)

I am reading several books at the same time. I often do that when I am reading a difficult book. Killing Orders is my R&R from reading The Girls Who Went Away, a book about the experiences of young unwed women who released their babies for adoption in the 1950s and 1960s. V.I. Warshawski with all her drama is relaxing by comparison!However, V.I.’s sparing with a Catholic brother at a Dominican Priory about abortion does suggest some potential for future heated exchanges about church politics as Warshawski looks into $3 million of forged securities in the priory safe because her elderly aunt who has been the treasurer is a suspect. The interchange about abortion reminds me how long it has been a hot topic; this book was published in 1985. V.I. is on the right side of the issue (choice) as far as I am concerned. She is, like me, a child of the 60s.Paretsky covers a lot of interesting things in her books. Dishing out little details about things that come up in the course of the mystery, like comfort foods that start with a P and how the stock market works and life in a priory. So along with being exciting, the writing is also filled with inviting tidbits. She keeps your mind nicely in gear.The book is old enough that cigarette smokers still had some of the bad habits that had to be outlawed before they thought they had to stop: smoking at the restaurant table and at funeral receptions, for example. Unlike some private investigators, V.I. doesn’t smoke but the purists will be glad to hear that she does drink Black Label whiskey. Evidently this is important in the mystery genre. Oh yes, and she uses picklocks regularly (and successfully) if that makes you feel better about her bonafides for that era.There is occasional humor in tense situations: I was about to open the stairwell door when I heard feet pounding on the other side. Turning back down the hall, I tried every door. Miraculously one opened under my hand. I stepped inside onto something squishy and was hit in the nose by someone with a stick. Fighting back, I found myself wrestling a large mop. Someone threatens you on the phone. Someone throws acid at you. You enter a stock broker’s office in the middle of the night with a flashlight and are almost caught by the police. Someone torches your apartment. Just your average day as a female private investigator. V.I. (Victoria, but don’t call her that!) could end her career any moment it seems but she has been doing this for eight years and has no intention of changing her MO. (view spoiler)[ I guess at the end of the book when she solves the case, the police do not pursue her for any of the handful of laws she has broken. I also guess that with a mystery/crime book saying she solves the case in the end is not really a spoiler. And since you know she has a dozen more books to come in the series, she manages to stay alive even though it sometimes feels like she has many more than the famous cat’s nine. (hide spoiler)]

Many years ago, I tried to read a Sarah Paretsky mystery (can't remember which one) and just couldn't get into it. However, I recently heard an interview with the author which once again piqued my interest in her mysteries, so I listened to the audio book of _Killing Orders_. Because it was published in 1985, some of the book is dated. Some of its datedness is quaint--as in the Omega car her protagonist drives and her use of pay phones. However, with the shift to the right in U.S. politics since 1985--and specifically with the extreme backlash against feminism and women in general--some of the out-of-dateness is positively refreshing--as in her protagonist's feminism, her acceptance of lesbianism, and her advocacy of reproductive choice. One of the first of a new generation of hard-boiled female detectives, V. I. Warshawsky--Paretsky's protagonist--finds herself in this book trying to uncover a money-laundering scheme that involves a variety of financial vehicles, the Catholic Church, and some disturbing discoveries about her own relatives even as her life is endangered by a hit men hired by the mob. I couldn't always follow the finances, but I loved the feisty and vivid characters. I will be reading more of her books!

Do You like book Killing Orders (2005)?

Something about this one just didn't work for me. Maybe it was the very tired conflict between Det. Mallory and V.I.; the heavy-handed rants about sexuality, politics and the Roman Catholic Church (if they'd served a plot or character purpose, that'd be one thing...just didn't seem to), or the obligatory conversation where Concerned Male tries to be protective of V. I., or care for her safety and she resists....Ugh, I don't know. But if by book 3 things are already tired and overused, something ain't right. I'll be back for more, just to see if Paretsky can move on with things, but not really looking forward to it.
—Hobart

Scooooorrrrre! And the crowd roars!Ok, ok. It's not a Great Book. But this is The One (previously Jet Li). Women need an extraordinary badass female detective and V.I. Warshawski is that guy. If James Bond can be young for 70 years and know how to do everything there is to do in the world, why can't we have a comparable female character? Plus, she actually is 'real' in that she has a well-rounded personality, except for her excessive need to do it herself even if she is bleeding out.Not quite a cartoon, but if she was, she'd be a dark noir graphic novel character who can cook curried eggs with peas and tomatoes. She has no illusions, but she knows who the bad guys are and she's determined not to be them, even if she strays into their territory on occasion. We know she is suppressing demons because of sideways clues, such as having passed the Bar in Illinois and having been a practicing defense lawyer previously, her mother having died of cancer when V. I. was 15, her father sickening slowly while on duty as a police officer, her complete disregard of her physical condition while on the job and her sarcastic quips in the face of authority (definitely what I love the most about her).Of course, she is smart, political and proactive in all the right ways. Every political and religious and feminist argument she has in these books I've had in real life. She studied finance, I studied finance. How can I not LOVE her? Of all the female P.I.s I obsessively enjoy, Warshawsky stands at the front of the crowd.Unexpectedly, Rosa Vignelli, V.I.'s aunt, calls her, fearful and desperate. VI knows something awful for her aunt must have happened because the mutual hatred between them goes back to when Rosa threw VI's mother, Gabriella, out into the streets of Chicago with nothing but the clothes on her back and no English. For some reason, VI's mother extracted a promise from VI to help Rosa if she ever needed it, so VI goes to her aunt's house to talk to her. Answering the door is her cousin, Albert, an accountant, who VI is not particularly fond of either. Rosa reluctantly exposes she is in difficulty, but within minutes she is too angry and full of hatred to discuss her problem and leaves the room, leaving it to Albert to hire VI. Vignelli works at St. Albert Priory as their Treasurer and she has been asked to go out on a temporary leave of absence because a locked safe she was in charge of has been discovered to have been robbed of securities, replaced with fakes. VI begins her investigation with the priests, only to be quickly fired by her aunt a few days later. However, VI has learned of a few things which definitely has aroused her suspicions, especially because of the possible involvement of thieving priests, forgers, the mob and her despised aunt. But when her best friend is murdered and telephoned threats against her life are made, it's not only personal, but a matter of VI's survival to solve the case.
—aPriL does feral sometimes

While I like Sara Paretsky's books, I thought that this one was just a little off the wall, and somewhat contrived. V.I. ends up losing a dear childhood friend, who happens to be a lesbian. She herself doesn't have ties to any man in particular, and can jump into bed with a man without any qualms. Her close relationship with Dr. Lotty, usually quite strong, becomes rather tenuous. She comes off rather strongly battling men heavier than she is. Lotty's Uncle Stefan is darling, and Roger is a fun playmate who can cope with things like a fire. The title refers to the fact that one setting is a friary where the dreaded Aunt Rosa has been accused of having something to do with falsified financial records. There are some entert.aining parts
—Marti

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