This is the eighth book in the V.I. Warshawski series. The year is 1992 and V.I. is making her usual effort to do good community organizing and to scratch out a living working at her one person private investigation agency. She has so many rough edges that it is hard to get close to her. Hardscrabble would seem to describe her pretty well. But she is much more than that as you will see.Early in the book V.I. finds herself in a situation that is not uncommon for her: she is at a party where she has been invited because she knows someone but she is out of place both with her clothing and her liberal views. This time it is a dinner party where she knows some of the people from her days in law school. Events at the dinner lead to her taking a maternal, protective role with a fourteen year old girl, the daughter of the host and hostess. This is the other side of the tough, independent woman persona that she normally has. It is good to see V.I. in this nurturing and caring role that often appears when she is faced with people who are made powerless by age or poverty. It is good to recall this side of her when she is otherwise focused on her worldly role that her work sometimes demands. She can be fearless and overbearing and then sensitive and thoughtful. Looking at it with another lens, she has both strong feminine and strong masculine aspects.If Warshawski gets a pro bono job at the beginning of the book, it is likely that job will be her main focus for the rest of the book. She especially likes it when the pro bono client asks her to stop investigating because the problem has gone away. Then she definitely has to continue on the case, making no money but getting deeper into the mystery. One good way to get V.I. to do something is to tell her not to do it! Yes, it does seem like something of a pattern in the series. Then the dead body appears and V.I. is battling the police to solve the murder. V.I. has a rule about cooperating with the Chicago police – but is not unwilling to ask an officer she is sleeping with for inside information.Warshawski’s penchant for making enemies, something that seemed out of control in the last book, continues in Tunnel Vision. She alienates one person after another including people who are close to her. For me it makes it a less enjoyable read when so many negative feelings are generated. Some: OK; continuously: No. … people were annoyed with me. That was a fact of my business life: people were always more or less peeved with me for the questions I asked. V.I. breaks into an office as a part of her investigation. As usual.Her home is broken into and tossed. As usual. V.I. is knocked unconscious by the intruders and winds up in the ER. As usual.But she is back on the job the very next day. As usual.V.I. can’t keep a boyfriend for more than one book. As usual. V.I. earns no money as a private investigator in the entire book. Not unusual.But she ends up with a wad of cash at the end of the book as a result of her pro bono work. Not unusual.The 1992 flooding of the tunnels under the Loop in downtown Chicago is a historic fact and plays a significant role in this book. The Chicago Cubs are dear to the heart of Ms. Warshawski and always make a brief appearance or two, usually in a losing role. In 1992 the Cubs finished fourth in the Eastern Division of the National Baseball League, eighteen games out of first place. In 1992 Barack Obama began teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.The fifteenth V.I. Warshawski was published in 2012 so I am about halfway through the series as it currently stands. One of my goals in reading this series in order is to follow the career of a female protagonist who is a feminist. Another goal is to watch a character develop over the years in an ongoing series. Tunnel Vision happens over twenty years ago. V.I. turns forty at the end of this book which means she will be sixty when she reaches the fifteenth book. At this point in my reading the series seems a little repetitious to me as I have suggested in all the “as usual” events I listed already. Maybe that would not be surprising if you believe that people do not change their core personality that much over the years. But I think V.I. must be approaching her midlife crisis. But given V.I.’s recent exploits, I am not sure what a crisis would look like for her.There were still adrenalin moments and events in this book. And I am definitely curious about what comes next for V.I. so I am going to follow up by reading the next book in the series immediately. I am interested in seeing if that changes my experience of the book. But this book and the previous one did not rank as high for me as earlier books in the series. Tunnel Vision gets three stars from me. Have I just worn out from V.I. Warshawski?
I've read a few of Sara Paretsky's books in the past and greatly enjoyed them. However, V.I. Warshawski really went over the line (police and moral) in this one. I like my private eye books to at least follow the line of the law, not to the letter but at least in that direction. You know, to at least appear realistic and legal. There is no way in hell, a real police situation would have been handled like this. The cops would have been all over her for her interference; here they basically ignored her and her tactics. Even her cop boyfriend, only said something about her being arrested if it wasn't for him. I really didn't like Vic's methods in this one: interfering with a police investigation, impersonating a cop (more than once) and her verbal abuse of suspects. However, Vic was very good at handling 14-year-old Emily Messenger. Emily was a victim of parental abuse and sexual assault. I'd like to think that this was the deciding factor in Vic's behavior but unfortunately, her tactics started way before these events.This is definitely not my favorite Paretsky title.
What do You think about Tunnel Vision (1995)?
Really distracting narrator took a lot away from the story. Must've been in a hurry to get somewhere because she tried to get the words out as fast as possible without worrying about silly things like punctuation and dynamics. Other first person audiobooks make it seem like the protagonist is sitting next to you telling this great story over coffee. This one seemed like a kid in detention who needed to read 100,000 words before getting out. The story itself didn't take off until about the third disc of this 11 disc set. Far too long. As it turns out, the backstory from these early chapters was necessary later on, and added complexity to the plot. Warshawski is interesting, and various personal conflicts are explored, but overall the book had too many ordinary interpersonal issues between ordinary people. Compelling enough plot in later chapters saved it for me. Couldn't help thinking the white collar crime plot got wrapped up a little too easily. I'll give her another try, maybe a more recent title.
—Jordan McPeek
I think it finally dawned on me what the problem is with this series...Parestsky is trying so hard to not be a "cozy mystery" writer, but rather more of a Ridley Pearson type of author, that she over complicates the story. I think if she dialed it down a notch, they would be more enjoyable to read, because this book was a chore to get through. I mean, let's be honest, these books are no where near the level of the some of the more mastermind type of mystery/thriller novels, but are mired down so much with tedium, that the story trips over itself.I guess that is why had I stopped reading the series. Maybe in a couple years I will forget again, and pick up the next couple books to be reminded of the fact that they really kind of bore me.
—Jeffrey
Nothing new about this book or about Paretsky any more either. She’s earned a place in American letters with her creation of crusty and contentious detective V. I. Warshawski, who made Paretsky one of the first and best of the modern generation of female crime writers. I took up Tunnel Vision because I needed a break. The book did the job. Not Paretsky’s best, and I’ve read nothing of hers in a long time. However, it was nice being in Warshawski’s company again, aggravating and impossible though she is. Paretsky constructs some conversations between her detective and one of the story’s prime suspects that could never have happened, but they’re entertaining and move the plot well. It’s diverting and clever, is Tunnel Vision, though not the place to look for the best of American mystery writing, nor even the best of Paretsky.
—Carl Brush
