Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Wow, this is already the 20th book in the series, who could imagine that one PI can do so much, and still be so entertaining! I haven't read much of the series before, but I still feel that the investigator is an old family friend by now. Recommended for anyone who loves a good thrilling read.

Hard hitting. Right into the nitty gritty. Fast paced book to read. Fantastic storyline to capture your interest. Very well written

I've traditionally been a massive Sara Perestky but this was was a can't finish. I just feel Vics voice has become preachy and stale.

As always, Sara Paratsky has written a magnificent story. It is complex and complicated, it needs attention paying the whole way through otherwise there is the possibility of losing the plot but it is worth the effort.

I have read every single one of this series and waited impatiently for each subsequent book to be published. I have never been disappointed after the wait.

Vic is getting older, she acknowledges she is no longer able to do all she could in her youth and that recovery from exertion takes longer when you are older. But her heart is still as large as ever, she still cares passionately about people and places and she still is totally unable to suffer fools gladly.

Despite my loving this book I would say if you haven’t already read any of the series don’t start with this one. Go back and treat yourself to some of the earlier adventures. Get a feel for the characters and then treat yourself to this wonderful book. Knowing the background,understanding how Vic got to this place in her life will make for a much deeper and rewarding reading experience.

I've been a fan of Sara Paretsky since the early 1980s - V.I. Warshawski series is the only one which I have read every book at the time of other publications. It is the series which has defined my own interest and standards of crime writing. While I've aged - and VI.I. says that she is feeling old and the references to shows now are about flats rather than her Magli pumps - she shows no signs of slowing down as she travels from Chicago to Kansas and back again piecing together the story of a mass shooting, a traumatised singer, murders in Chicago and the Pinochet regime. The usual cast of characters support V.I. and the story - even Conrad gets a name check - although the impetuosity of VI's god-daughter makes her come across on the page in a two-dimensional way which makes her stand-out from the other characters and from the standards which I have always perceived to be Paretsky's style of writing.

It's a good book and one which readily takes it place in the VI series. I hope that V.I. isn't yet ready to retire - she clearly has more cleaning up of Chicago's mess to clear up.

It's quite a long time since I read a Sara Paretsky's novel and now I have to add a lot of books to my TBR as I fell in love again with this story.
It's a gripping and entertaining story with a complex plot and a lot references to local and international politics.
Ms Paretsky is an excellent storyteller and I read this story till late in the night because I wanted to know what would happen.
The mystery is solid and kept me guessing, the characters are intriguing and well thought especially Vi.
I loved everything in this story, especially the empathy of the author toward the victims.
It was an excellent read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

You can always rely on Sarah Paretsky. She doesn’t shy away from the tough calls and her hard-boiled investigator, V.I. Warshawski, usually ends up looking the wrong way down the barrel of someone’s gun. That’s especially true of those cases which involve City corruption, money and Corporation greed which is where Paretsky excels.
Her protagonist, Vic Warshawski has been put through hell time and time again, This time will be no different, but it’s good to see that she at least has now settled into a decent relationship with a partner who makes her happy. Vic believes in being on the side of right, and her sense of family loyalty is everything to her, so when her god-daughter Bernie Fouchard asks her along to watch her training students in hockey anfd afterwards to go to a community meeting where there may be trouble, Vic is happy to oblige. Bernie’s young man, Leo, is in charge of computer presentations for SLICK, a community group trying to push through a landfill and beach development on Lake Michigan, which the Park Superintendent, Gifford Taggett is trying to push through.
Then Leo is murdered in the park. A man called Coop is at the meeting with his huge dog, Bear and it’s clear he is no fan of the development proposals. Coop is also the protector of the Lydia Zamir, the singer. Once she was famous, now she is living on the streets and in the park, mentally ill and seriously grieving the loss of her one true love, Hector Palardo. Palardo was murdered in a mass shooting in Kansas, four years previously and Lydia has never got over it.
Vic is wary and surprised when her reporter friend, Murray Ryerson’s bosses are prepared to pay her top dollar to find Lydia, even to the extent of fabricating a film series offer for her.
Vic is also surprised to find that a major law firm for whom her neighbour works, who defended Hector’s killer, is also very keen to find Lydia. Then Coop disappears, leaving Bear to Vic’s tender care and suddenly Vic finds that her life, and the lives of everyone she cares about are in serious danger.
Paretsky’s novel takes on a thrilling ride to the farmlands of Kansas before revealing that the genesis of the action lies in Pinochet’s barbarous Chile and that the politics of the Chicago actions have their roots deep inside the torturous regime. Paretsky has chosen to weave quite a complex web of lies, treachery and deceit and it is one that needs some concentration to follow to its conclusion.
In many ways it is deeply gratifying to find that Paretsky is still set on making Vic the champion of the underdog and of exposing the societal and political issues that beset Chicago and further afield. I just wish Vic didn’t have to get quite so beaten up in the process!
Verdict: Paretsky is true to form in this latest outing for VI Warshawski. All the old favourites make an appearance and V.I.’s moral compass points, as ever, true north. Dead Land is vintage Paretsky ;long may she reign.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Dead Land,
This is my first book from Sara Paretsky and definitely not my last.
I quickly got into the story but near the start there was a section describing i felt was too in-depth about the music from Lydia, BUT as the story unfolded it soon became clear this was needed to be told as it gives a superb insight to the character.
Once the action/investigation takes off there is no holding back, the who, what, where, why and run aspects keep coming thick and fast.
Mucho excitement, Very well written, fast paced, and you won’t want to put it down.
Now on too my next Sara Paretsky book.

I have read (almost) all of Sara Paretsky’s VI Warshawski novels and fell in love with them from the first one I read. There are so many facets to Vic and she is always getting herself embroiled in complicated issues which can typically address anything political, sexist, racist and corrupt in society.

This story is no different and I felt it was one of the best novels by this author with VI taking on a whole series of dangerous challenges, almost getting herself killed on more than one occasion.

The story is tense and looks back at South America and Chile’s history of terror under Pinochet, where numerous people disappeared, noting that the regime was supported by the USA.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Sara Paretsky for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Another excellent read from this author. Highly recommended.

Dead Land is is a good, enjoyable read as we’d expect from Sara Paretsky, but I don’t think it’s one of the very best of the V.I. Warshawski series.

This time, Vic becomes involved with a homeless street musician who turns out to be a once-successful singer-songwriter and political activist. A twisty plot ensues, involving political corruption in Chicago, some very painful history in Chile, the right-wing economics of the Chicago School and a number of other things – plus a welcome cast of familiar characters, of course.

Paretsky, as always, writes and structures her plot very well and I enjoyed reading the book, but I do have some reservations. The large cast of characters makes it quite hard to follow sometimes and it’s too long – both reflected in the number of times Vic has to summarise events to someone for our benefit. Some of the politics, even though I agree with what she’s saying, is very clunky and heavy handed, the ending is rather too pat after all the convoluted developments...and so on. None of this really spoils the book, but I think Sara Paretsky can do better and a firmer editorial hand might have helped the book.

Reservations notwithstanding, Paretsky remains a class act and this is still a good enjoyable read. Recommended.

(My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. If you want a thriller with twists and turns and great characters you will really enjoy this book. I loved it.

It’s been a break of a few years since I followed a V.I. investigation but it was great to catch up with her again. Although the storyline is far-fetched at times, this is an intelligently written crime novel, very exciting at times, and the characters’ links with Chile’s Pinochet regime are really interesting. Sara Paretsky clearly did her research in this respect. At the end, the author acknowledges the impact the death of her husband has had on her. I’m so glad she found the strength to continue writing and I’ll look forward to No 21 in the series.

Really well written and complex thriller. It's been many years since I've read anything bu this author and I'd forgotten how good she is. Very engaging main character and well rounded other characters. Paretsky is a great writer.

There were times when I was in the middle of this book that I found myself thinking about Sara Paretsky’s excellent collection of essays Writing in an Age of Silence. If you don’t know the collection, then I strongly advise getting hold of a copy. In these essays Paretsky speaks about her own childhood and teenage years growing up in Kansas, the repression that both her family and community subjected her to and the political upheaval at the end of the 1960s which enabled her to break free from the restrictions that had bound her. As part of her current investigation, Paretsky’s character, Private Investigator VI Warshawski, spends several days in the state and many of the attitudes that she encounters there seem to me to be very reminiscent of the society in which she grew up. VI is in Kansas trying to locate Lydia Zamir, survivor of a mass shooting in which her boyfriend, Hector Parludo, was killed. Lydia herself is still affected by the killing both physically and mentally and at the start of the novel is living the life of a homeless person in a patch of ground on Chicago’s South Side, that is, so it seems to many, ripe for development. Well known before the massacre for her protest songs, Lydia attracts the attention of too many people for the liking of those in power, who clearly want to push their plans for the area through with as little public scrutiny as possible.  However, in order to get to Lydia they have to get past her staunch defender, Coop, not to mention his dog Bear. When two people who appear to know too much about the intentions of the developers are found dead and when one of them is the boyfriend of VI’s goddaughter, Bernie, Warshawski inevitably finds herself involved, while Coop is set up as a convenient suspect.

As is so frequently the case in Paretsky‘s novels, the author is primarily concerned with civic corruption and the lengths to which both politicians, lawyers and those with significant wealth are prepared to go to feather their own nests. This theme has been central to many of her more recent books and while each one stands on its own as a well written and well researched piece of writing, I have to say I’m beginning to wish she would ring the changes. Dead Land takes us further afield than some of her other novels have done, inasmuch as we find ourselves exploring not only the wide open farm lands of Kansas but also the aftermath of the corruption in Pinochet’s Chile, but because it follows the same pattern as so many of her more recent books I’m afraid I found it rather predictable. It’s unusual for me not to be more enthusiastic about one of Paretsky’s books, but I’m afraid that after some of the first class crime fiction I’ve read recently, this one didn’t come up to the mark. Read the essays instead.

With thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for a review copy.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of Dead Land, the twentieth novel to feature Chicago PI V. I. Warshawski.

Vic, as she’s known to her friends, stumbles across a homeless woman playing a toy piano. Her goddaughter, Bernie, thinks the woman is famous singer-songwriter Lydia Zemin who disappeared after a personal tragedy. When Bernie tries to help Lydia Vic gets pulled into a dangerous conspiracy.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Land which is an absorbing read with a complicated plot. There is so much going on that it’s easy to fall into Vic’s first person narrative, go with the flow, get absorbed and lose your critical objectivity. Looking back at the end of the read it seems impossible to believe that so many strands could link together or even be active at the same time and, yet, during the read it all makes perfect sense as it comes together. It’s a feat of clever plotting and writing. I don’t want to issue spoilers but the plot ranges far and wide from Chicago to Kansas to Chile and from the present to as far back as the Pinochet regime. I’m not big on political novels so, fortunately, the latter references are few and far between. In-between this roaming about there are murders, danger, assaults and plenty of mystery. It’s all very clever and absorbing but you do need to concentrate with such a broad canvas.

It would not be a V. I. Warshawski novel without social commentary and corruption Chicago style. To be honest I admire Ms Paretsky’s strength in maintaining her outrage as she grows older because I know mine has waned considerably over the passing years - it just seems like too much effort. I liked the effect of Vic going undercover as a homeless person and the variety of responses she got. I’m not so sure about the graft and corruption angles as it seemed to me that too many people who were supposedly involved had nothing really to gain from it, except pleasing their boss.

Dead Land is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

I have read all of Sara Paretsky’s V.I books featuring hard boiled female detective VI Warshawski and was a big fan right from the beginning.
Paretsky was writing her books well before female private eye’s became the norm so was a real pioneer in this field of crime fiction.
All her novels are well written and researched with the backdrop of the city of Chicago where the crimes take place and VI investigates.
This is the 20th book in the series and although I enjoyed it I did find it difficult to keep up with all the characters and get to grips with the complicated plot. There was a lot of information about Chicago urban park development and very detailed descriptions of Chile where some of the story originated. Parts of this were difficult to comprehend, particularly the detail about the Chicago parks. I’m still not quite sure I understood exactly what was going on and what the criminal in this part of the book was trying to achieve. The Chile part of the story was easier to understand.
VI comes across Lydia, a homeless woman who is living in a park and sings accompanied by a toy piano.
Her songs are beautiful and it subsequently transpires that she is a famous folk singer who has witnessed an horrific event, losing a loved one, which has sent her over the edge. She cannot cope and now lives on the streets.
As VI investigates she comes across nefarious goings on within the Chicago Parks system discovering that a law firm and media outlet are also somehow involved.
VI gets shot at and attacked by her enemies which is part of the course for her in any investigation and tries valiantly to unravel this extremely complicated story.
Mr Contreras, VI’s elderly neighbour who should to all intents and purposes now be 120 years old appears, as do Murray, her reporter friend and Bernie, her goddaughter. As ever Mitch and Peppy her wonderful dogs are also central to the story as well as Bear who is owned by another character in the book.
This is an enjoyable but over complicated read although it does show that Ms Paretsky has still got it, even after 20 books. Long live VI Warshawski!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this is convoluted - and with even Vic feeling knocked down one time too many, it can feel like a dispiriting book at times. Paretsky is one of the few writers who can pull together a plot involving city corruption, music and Chilean death squads, but she just about manages it. VI, as ever, is a compassionate and dogged heroine but her tiredness is palpable here. Not a good place to start if you're new to this long-running series.

A very complex tale which meandered along very slowly. Two mysteries interlinked and a dogged private investigator. Characters were good just too longwinded.

I have followed this series for years and the books keep on giving - insights into local politics , corruption , homelessness , mental health and VI attempts to navigate it all to right the wrongs in front of her .

This is a very complicated almost convoluted story with VI addressing her middle years and what she might
have missed along the way - whilst showing her loyalty to all her friends and trying to stay alive long enough to solve the conundrum in front of her . Her depths of strength and tenacity , her sense of integrity , wear her down to such an extent that she appears almost depressed - but as always she fights through to the truth , but at what cost ?

I think overall that this is the best book in a long line of excellent stories in this series - but it took a lot out of me , I so longed for VI to abandon the case at times , she almost dies several times , but just when I think she can take no more she finds another gear and manages to drag herself back from the brink .
VI could not manage to do this without her circle of friends and even at some stages her enemies - she is still under threat of eviction if her lawyer neighbour gets her way .!

This book is outstanding and if this is your genre it should not be missed and I await the next in the series

I was given an arc of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in return for an open and honest review.