This is book #4 of the V.I. Warshawski series and was published back in the days when Paretsky books were smaller and shorter. This one is 222 pages in the original hardback version published in 1987, an amazing twenty-five years ago. What were you reading in 1987? I will be interested to see how her “bigger” books compare to these early ones.Reading this series is a part of my search for women authors who have mystery or crime stories with strong and, am I asking too much, feminist protagonists. So far this series is still in the running for best of breed.In my book, one of the best things about V.I. is that she has the right politics. Americans have never been very understanding of poverty, but since Reagan was elected it’s become a crime almost as bad as child-molesting. But sometimes Paretsky can get carried away with her causes. For example, she evidently supports the pro-choice abortion position, a position common among feminists. {Dieter Monkfish, head of Ick-Piff – the Illinois Committee to Protect the Fetus} supporters included a number of college-age young men, all fervently committed to carrying their own pregnancies to term, and a variety of middle-aged women, whose faces seemed to say: My life was made miserable by maternity, and so should everyone else’s be. A pro-life demonstration at a low income health clinic that does first-trimester abortions is covered for nearly ten pages(5% of the book) including the ultimate invasion and trashing of the clinic. The incident does serve a purpose in the overall mystery but devoting that much space to it seems like Paretsky might be overdoing it even within the context of the book. On the other hand, in 1986, the year this book was being written, there were seven arsons and three bombings of abortion clinics in the U.S. so the issue was in full bloom and the tactic of pro-life violence was in the news. (Source: http://www.prochoice.org/about_aborti...)The vast majority of pro-life attacks on abortion clinics in the 1980s were directly against property when clinics were closed. More recently actions against abortion clinics have focused more on demonstrations to impede and discourage women coming to the clinics as well as legal actions. Bitter Medicine in using the medical clinic as a vehicle for advancing the story was topical for its day.In the mid 80s, Warshawski was cutting edge. She is one of those good guys who are a little bit bad. She is a serial lawbreaker: she can pick a lock, one way she gathers information is the time honored B&E and she is good in a hand to hand fight. She has stealth and cunning, important skills for a cat burglar or a private eye. While she doesn’t smoke, she does like some Black Label whiskey occasionally.Warshawski gets some extra credit for being a “child of the sixties” since I am one as well. Her progressive political and social views are winners. And for us animal lovers, the dog at the end was nice. I guess we will see Peppy in the next book in the series. I have #5 on my new book shelves awaiting its turn in the spotlight. A few other books are in line before it but it will get its turn.I give Bitter Medicine four stars. It doesn’t quite measure up to the high bar of the Millennium series to get five stars. But it does pack a lot into its 222 pages. It even has a car chase!
Another detective series in my reading pile. This one is a re-read for me. The alphabet murders are a new read. I loved these books the first time reading them, and since that time at least five new ones have been written. I am still in the catching up phase tho so this one was familiar. VI Warshowski a former lawyer and a present detective in Chicago carries a chip on her shoulder. It seems the world she lives in expects marriage and babies from her, and she feels like she has other talents to offer. In this book she finds herself in the middle of something, she's sure of that,but she can't really figure out what it is. She manages to gather a bunch of unconnected pieces of information, and eventually connects the dots. The twists and turns in this one are pretty good,but I think if you're paying attention you might figure out before VI. Still the story and the series regulars make it worth the read. Still lovin' the series and the next one goes on the reading pile.
I hate this book. I hate the cheap and meaningless cynicism that infuses every line. I hate the sneering self-righteous superiority of the protagonist. I hate the stupid plot points, such as staging a riot in order to steal a medical file which would have more effectively been stolen by a burglary, which the protagonist failed to understand is the reason for the riot though I did, and surely most readers must, instantly. I hate the one sided-politics that renders complex arguments simple and casts people on the wrong side as villains and those on the right side as virtuous. This is a cheap, sloganistic, mean spirited excuse for a book with preposterous plot. Cast your eyes anywhere else.
—Mike Jensen
Poor Consuelo. Sixteen, pregnant, completely ignoring that her husband hates her (shotgun wedding, Catholics), her diabetes and her family's disgust, she wants this baby. Her hopeful support in helping her gangbanger husband, Fabiano, get a job is almost delusional, but her perseverance draws private investigator V.I. Warshawski into helping her as an escort to a job interview. It is hot and sweaty weather, and after a long debilitating drive, all three are cranky and tired. While Fabiano, whose thick-headed criminality is not in question by anyone else except by his besotted teen wife, goes inside an industrial park building for his job interview, Consuela goes into early labor. Thankfully, Warshawski locates a nearby for-profit hospital, Friendship Five. Driving there quickly, she gets Consuela safely in doctor's hands. Except......wait for it....she dies. Plus Warshawski could tell that the high level of urgency which at first was intense, slid completely away when they learned their patient was an impoverished Latino girl. There is a state law that the hospital MUST care for the pregnancy - but it appears the hospital may have not wanted to do more than park her in a hallway until she could be transported to a public hospital. Warshawski gets mad and throws her weight around, but it's too late to save Consuelo. But does Warshawski have a case? There is no proof, despite the arrival of Consuela's regular doctor, an excellent in-training sweet man, who takes over from the Friendship's staff.But then! Suddenly, horrible things start happening to all of the people involved in Consuela's care previous to her death. Are they linked? And then an awful shocking murder, a riot and Warshawki's apartment is trashed. NOW, they, whoever they are, have V. I.'s complete attention. Along the way, she finds one of the detectives, Rawlings, to be similar in spirit to herself. Hmmmmm. But her head is being turned by a handsome doctor from Friendship, Burgoyne, and she ends up turning down her bed covers for him. Mistake?Only by reading almost to the end of the book will all be solved. There will be broken souls.
—aPriL does feral sometimes
(3.5 stars) This is an earlier V.I. Warshawski novel, somewhat dated (mid 80's, I think), but most of the content is still relative to today. The storyline wasn't bad, but I have mixed feelings about the main character of Vic. I appreciate that she's supposed to be a tough female lead character, but I'd like to be able to see a little more of her inner character. My favorite thing about this series is that it's set in Chicago, and I can relate to the place names, locations, etc. I esp. love the references to the Cubs, and in this case, it was nice to flash back to a few 80's references from back in the day (this is showing my age, I guess). I question, however, the choice of having Donada Peters as the reader for this audiobook. While a very competent reader, her British accent didn't quite fit with the Chicago setting, and I was somewhat offended by her pronunciation of Harry "Caray" (w/ the emphasis on the 2nd syllable) on at least two occasions. Still, I've decided I enjoy Paretsky's novels enough to probably read some more if they happen my way.
—Coleen
