by Sara Paretsky
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Product Description
V.I.'s battleaxe Aunt Rosa is under investigation by the FBI and SEC after counterfeit stock certificates were found at St. Albert's Priory, where she serves as treasurer. As malicious as her aunt is, V.I. knows she's not dishonest, so V.I. vows to protect her from taking the fall. But V.I. starts questioning the strength of her family ties when a menacing voice on the phone threatens to throw acid into her eyes if she doesn't butt out. The stakes are high as she begins to sniff out a connection between Chicago's most powerful institutions: the Church and the Mob.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Decent, but not as good as Deadlocked., 2007-09-17
Sara Paretsky, Killing Orders (Signet, 1985)
Paretsky's third V. I. Warshawski novel begins with the plucky private eye responding to a plea for help from a relative she can't stand. When things start off this badly, you know they're not going to end well. So does Vic. But still, familial obligation pressures her to take the case of her awful Aunt Rosa, the treasurer at a local monastery, who (along with a number of others who work there) is under suspicion when a number of stock certificates in the office safe are found to be forgeries. Vic starts detecting, but Rosa does a one-eighty the next day and wants her to back off; soon after, her life is threatened by a mysterious caller if she doesn't get off the case. Put these two things together, and you can be sure Warshawski will see things through to the bitter, ugly end. With the help of Roger Ferrant, whom we first met in Deadlocked, and the everpresent Lotty, crime is standing on shaky ground in Chicago and its environs!
Well, not quite. Warshawski is one of hard-boiled-dom's more human detectives, and so far in the series, that hasn't shown through nearly as much as it does in this entry. Vic makes some bad choices, and her indecision leads others close to her to make bad choices for her. Of course, you have to throw in the everpresent roadblocks (Bobby Mallory being the most visible of them), and you've got all the ingredients for a very tasty, if foul, stew. There's a lot going on in this novel, and it sometimes seems as if Paretsky may have overextended herself; another reviewer comments that she doesn't think Paretsky "had quite fashioned her own mold for the genre yet" when this novel was written, and that's as fine a way of putting what's wrong with this novel-- especially coming right on the heels of the wonderful Deadlocked-- as any. There's no specific thing to put one's finger on, it's just a general feeling of "this isn't quite as good as it could be." Still, the core of the book is a good, solid mystery, and in the course of solving it, we get to learn more about some of the core characters in the series, so in the end, it does what it seems to have set out to do. ***
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Early VI, 2007-08-01
One of the first in Paretsky's V.I Warshawski series, Killing Orders involves stock fraud among the friars in a Chicago Dominican convent. When VI's less than beloved aunt, who works at the friary, is implicated, she calls in her niece to help her retain her good reputation. It's surprising how interesting a mystery about financial fraud can be in the hands of Sara Paretsky. VI (Victoria) is no pushover, and when the case grows personally intimidating, she digs in and resolves to break it no matter what or who she has to take on. Even if her new love interest is involved.....
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Gets into the character, 2002-03-22
KILLING ORDERS is one of Paretsky's earlier V. I. Warshawski novels. In this case her aunt Rosa is accused by her church in committing stock fraud. She reluctantly asks her niece for her help in clearing her name.I have read most of Warshawski's novels and this one is one of my favorites mainly because I got to learn more about her character as well as her relationship with her friend, Lotty. I regret having read them in disorder but I recommend this novel for anyone interested in learning how V. I. got started. Although this is the third novel in the series it tells a lot.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Weird but good, 2000-09-16
Very good, in fact. I don't think Paretsky had quite fashioned her own mold for the genre yet, so there are a few cliché elements in the book, but everything else is a highly original treat. Lots of great little twists throughout--not just plot twists, but different ways of looking at things. With V.I. Warshawski, Paretsky has created a heroine who is intelligent, engaging, and not afraid to shake things up. I haven't read much early V.I. yet, but I intend to, so I can get to know this woman from the beginning.
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Fun Heroine, 1998-12-29
This is the first book I've read by her and enjoyed it. I was stumped until the end, so that's good.
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