Sara Paretsky Popular Books

Sara Paretsky Biography & Facts

Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski. Life and career Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the family to Kansas in 1951 after taking a job at the University of Kansas, where Paretsky eventually graduated. The family rented an old farm house. Her relationship with her parents was strained; her mother was an alcoholic and her father was a harsh disciplinarian.After obtaining a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Kansas, she did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She completed her AM (masters) degree at the University of Chicago in 1969 and completed a Ph.D. in history there in 1977; her dissertation was titled "The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War". She also earned an MBA in 1977 from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Her husband, Courtenay Wright, was a professor of physics at the University of Chicago; the two were together from 1970 until his death in 2018.Paretsky is an alumna of the Ragdale Foundation. She was to appear in an amateur light opera production in 2011.The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is the female private investigator V.I. Warshawski, and the author is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work. She is also considered the founding mother of Sisters in Crime, an organization that supports and promotes women in the mystery field. Bibliography Novels Indemnity Only (1982) ISBN 0385272138 Deadlock (1984) ISBN 0385279337 Killing Orders (1985) ISBN 068804820X Bitter Medicine (1987) ISBN 0688064485 Blood Shot (1988) (Published in the UK as Toxic Shock) ISBN 0440500354 Burn Marks (1990) ISBN 0385298927 Guardian Angel (1992) ISBN 0385299311 Tunnel Vision (1994) ISBN 038529932X Ghost Country (1998) ISBN 978-0-385-33336-8 (non-Warshawski novel) Hard Time (1999) ISBN 0-385-31363-2 Total Recall (2001) ISBN 0-385-31366-7 Blacklist (2003) ISBN 0-399-15085-4 Fire Sale (2005) ISBN 978-0-7394-5594-4 Bleeding Kansas (2008) ISBN 978-0-399-15405-8 (non-Warshawski novel) Hardball (2009) ISBN 978-1-101-13382-8 Body Work (2010) ISBN 978-0-399-15674-8 Breakdown (2012) ISBN 978-1-101-55407-4 Critical Mass (2013) ISBN 978-1-101-63650-3 Brush Back (2015) ISBN 978-0-399-16057-8 Fallout (2017) ISBN 978-1473624337 Shell Game (2018) ISBN 978-0062435866 Dead Land (2020) ISBN 978-0062435927 Overboard (2022) ISBN 978-006301088-8Short story collections Windy City Blues, Delacorte (1995) (1988) (Published in the UK as V.I. for Short) ISBN 0385315023 A Taste of Life and Other Stories, London, Penguin, (1995). ISBN 0146000404 Love & Other Crimes (2020). ISBN 978-0062915542eBooks Photo Finish (2000) ISBN 978-1-101-53751-0 V.I. x 2 (2002) includes short stories 'Photo Finish' & 'Publicity Stunts' V.I. x 3 (2011) includes both stories from V.I. x 2 and 'A Family Sunday in the Park' ISBN 9781257416448Non-fiction Case Studies in Alternative Education. Chicago Center for New Schools, 1975 . Writing in an Age of Silence (2007) ISBN 978-1-84467-122-9 Words, Works, and Ways of Knowing: The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.As editor Eye of a Woman (short stories). New York, Delacorte Press, 1990 ; as A Woman's Eye: New Stories by the Best Women Crime Writers, London, Virago, 1991 Women on the Case (1997) ISBN 978-0-440-22325-2; as Woman's Other Eye, London, Virago, 1996 Sisters on the Case (2007) ISBN 978-0-451-22239-8Awards and recognition 1986 Anthony award nomination for best novel, Killing Orders 1989 Anthony award nomination for best novel, Blood Shot 1992 Anthony award winner of best short story collection award, A Woman's Eye 2002 Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement by the Crime Writers' Association. 2004 Gold Dagger Award for Blacklist by the Crime Writers' Association. 2011 Anthony award Lifetime Achievement award winner 2011 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America 2019 Mystery Writers of America Winner of Sue Grafton Memoriam, Shell Game 2021 Mystery Writers of America Nomination for Sue Grafton Memoriam, Dead LandReferences External links Official website Roger Nichols of Modern Signed Books interviews Sara Paretsky Interview with Sara Paretsky, Speaking of Mysteries TV Series (2001) Sara Paretsky papers at The Newberry. Discover the Sara Paretsky popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sara Paretsky books.

Best Seller Sara Paretsky Books of 2024

  • The Fourth Durango synopsis, comments

    The Fourth Durango

    Ross Thomas

    The Fourth Durango is not your ordinary Durango. It's not in Spain, or Mexico, and it's not a ski town in the Colorado Rockies, although Durangos do exist in all of those places. ...

  • Eine Leiche zum Advent synopsis, comments

    Eine Leiche zum Advent

    Otto Penzler, Barbara Röhl, Axel Franken, Winfried Czech, Thomas Schichtel, Dietmar Schmidt, Rainer Schumacher, Daniela Jarzynka, Stefanie Heinen, Stefan Bauer & Dr. Helmut Pesch

    Das größte WeihnachtskrimiBuch aller Zeiten als hochwertiges Geschenk für alle Krimifans mit teils raren GeschichtenVerdächtige Weihnachtsmänner, skrupellose Nikoläuse, tödliche We...

  • Pay Dirt synopsis, comments

    Pay Dirt

    Sara Paretsky

    Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a mystery with roots dating back to the Civil War in this edgeofyourseat thriller from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky.V .I. Wa...

  • From Sea to Stormy Sea synopsis, comments

    From Sea to Stormy Sea

    Lawrence Block

    Seventeen stories by seventeen brilliant writers, inspired by seventeen paintings. That was the formula for Lawrence Block’s two groundbreaking anthologies, In Sunlight or in Shado...

  • Blindfold synopsis, comments

    Blindfold

    Lyndon Stacey

    'The blindfold was a major hindrance. So much depended on body language with animals Without it, it felt uncomfortably like a game of Russian roulette.'Gideon Blake, artist and ani...

  • In the Company of Sherlock Holmes synopsis, comments

    In the Company of Sherlock Holmes

    Leslie S. Klinger & Laurie R. King

     In the followup to the nationally bestselling A Study in Sherlock, a stunning new volume of original stories from awardwinning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. ...

  • Nur einmal werden wir noch wach synopsis, comments

    Nur einmal werden wir noch wach

    Otto Penzler, Barbara Röhl, Axel Franken, Winfried Czech, Thomas Schichtel, Dietmar Schmidt, Rainer Schumacher, Daniela Jarzynka, Stefanie Heinen, Stefan Bauer & Dr. Helmut Pesch

    Verdächtige Weihnachtsmänner, skrupellose Nikoläuse, tödliche Weihnachtsbraten und Leichen unter Mistelzweigen vergessen Sie den Einkaufsstress, achten Sie nicht auf das ungewohnt...

  • Intimate Enemies synopsis, comments

    Intimate Enemies

    Juliet Hastings

    There's something sexy about detectives and it's time crime novels admitted it. Crime & Passion novels are fastpaced murder mysteries in the British tradition but the detecti...

  • It Occurs to Me That I Am America synopsis, comments

    It Occurs to Me That I Am America

    Jonathan Santlofer

    A provocative, unprecedented anthology featuring original short stories on what it means to be an American from thirty bestselling and awardwinning authors with an introduction by ...

  • Sara Paretsky synopsis, comments

    Sara Paretsky

    Margaret Kinsman & Elizabeth Foxwell

    Sara Paretsky's groundbreaking mystery series about Chicago private investigator V.I. Warshawski debuted in 1982 and is still going strong. She is a cofounder of Sisters in Crime (...

  • Breakdown synopsis, comments

    Breakdown

    Sara Paretsky

    A strange crime gets V.I. Warshawski involved with some of Chicago’s most rich and powerful players in this thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky.When a gro...

  • Blacklist synopsis, comments

    Blacklist

    Sara Paretsky

    V. I. Warshawski explores secrets and betrayals that stretch across four generations in this New York Times bestselling novel from one of the most compelling writers in Americ...

  • Critical Mass synopsis, comments

    Critical Mass

    Sara Paretsky

    Chicago’s V. I. Warshawski “is at her stubborn, reckless, compassionate best in this complicated pageturner about selfish secrets passed down through generations” (Booklist).In 193...

  • Body Work synopsis, comments

    Body Work

    Sara Paretsky

    “V.I. Warshawski is backintelligent, tough, sarcastic and troubleprone as ever....Body Work isn’t just a satisfying whodunnit; it’s a rich, wellwritten whydunnit, striking some sur...

  • Brush Back synopsis, comments

    Brush Back

    Sara Paretsky

    Chicago’s V. I. Warshawski confronts crooked politicians and buried family secrets in this gritty mystery from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky. ...

  • Hardball synopsis, comments

    Hardball

    Sara Paretsky

    Chicago politicspast, present, and futuretake center stage in this complex and compelling V.I. Warshawki novel from New York Times bestselling author Sara Peretsky. Tracking d...

  • Fire Sale synopsis, comments

    Fire Sale

    Sara Paretsky

    THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Takes off with a bangliterally...V. I. remains a paragon among PIs, and Fire Sale is one of Paretsky’s best books yet.”St. Louis PostDispatch A c...

  • Bleeding Kansas synopsis, comments

    Bleeding Kansas

    Sara Paretsky

    From the New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski series comes “a gripping contemporary novel…of fear and conflict in heartland America” (Publishers Weekly).In Kans...