Sara Paretsky, Total Recall

I'm reading "Total Recall" by Sara Paretsky. Subtitled, "A V.I. Warshawski Novel"

Disclaimer: The below is merely my opinion. I just listened to the book.

Also this has nothing to do with the 1990 science fiction movie of the same name, the Phillip K Dick short story the movie was based on, Arnold Schwartzenegger or Sharon Stone.

Categories: detective, mystery

There was a 1991 VI Warshawski movie where Kathleen Turner played the title role. If you account for the 1980's fashions with the padded shoulders and the frizzy hair, I can see it if you add in some Lara Croft, Tomb Raider DNA.

This story is really a parable of the aftermath of man's inhumanity to man. The mystery is there but he real story is the aftermath of the Holocaust and American Slavery. Even 60 years or 150 year later, people's lives and the way we trust and are trusted are changed by the cruelty of the past.

But the mystery is good too. I never read a VI Warshawski novel before this. I like the way the story moves and, not so much twists as, swerves gently. I like the characters but find them irritating, silly, childish, giving or kind by turns.

It's two stories woven together. The one is the mystery of who the fellow is who shows up on TV claiming to have repressed memories from his childhood years as a Jewish refugee from Austria. The other is an insurance claim by an black woman that is refused saying the policy was already paid some years back. Vic investigates under the shadow of picketers demanding a law saying  that the state of Illinois refuses to do business with companies that are complicit with Nazi government officials and slave owners. Of course, the two groups of picketers don't agree with each other either.

I loved the scene where she is following a suspect. He sees her and ducks into a shop. When he comes out, he takes off and she follows. But she breaks a heel, falls, tears her good clothes and loses him.

It has: holocaust survivors, psychiatrists, crooked politicians, greedy nazi lovers, a little girl with a stuffed dog, traffic jams, road rage, an unstable stalker, corporate arrogance, dogs

What did I like: characters cared about each other, the respectful attitude toward hard topics, the way the mystery revealed itself in a likable way, Vic seemed to know when to lie without being cruel

What didn't I like: Everybody she deals with can't reasonably get mad at her, the boyfriend is a little too nice.

Rating: 3 of 5, I liked it