Shell Game by Sara Paretsky, Guest Review

What do ´schadenfreude´ and gratitude have in common? Not much you would assume, but dig deep into Sara Paretsky´s 19^th V.I. Warshawski novel ´Shell Game´ and you might understand my little dilemma with regard to these words.

What is more comforting on a cold winter day when you are cozied up on the sofa with a drink (insert your choice here), book in hand – especially if that book has an intrepid hard nosed P.I. who is constantly fighting not just villains but cold, hunger, exhaustion, carrying off bruising the size of the Great Lakes and human (bite) as well as frost bite. You might think that the vicarious enjoyment taken from her constant discomfort is schadenfreude, but to be fair, on closer examination it is more akin to gratitude – gratitude that you are not that crazy and a lot a lot more risk averse.

So, if you vicariously want to take on international insurance and stock fraud, art looting from Syria, asshole real estate developers as well as Russian mobsters, insult American immigration agents, take on crooked lawyers and protect the rights of women and refugees you are undoubtedly in the right place. And if you think you are exhausted just reading that list of action from this book imagine the exhaustion and pain that V.I. faces at every turn of the page. You can´t help but feel deeply satisfied at your own good fortune as you are chomping on a marshmallow from your hot chocolate and wiping splotches from the book cover.  

V.I. and her friends, Mr. Contreras, her 90-year-old neighbour and Anzio vet, as well as Dr. Lottie Herschel get themselves into a whole lot of bother with relatives – even if they are only related to Vic via her ex-husband… who (by the way) does not come out of this smelling of roses.

Sara Paretsky gives her best to right the wrongs she sees in her country and culture, leaving you, as the reader, exhilarated, as poor Vic is pulped by thugs, frozen in rivers, shot at, beaten and sleep deprived. 

At least she bags some male company (not even V.I. can subsist on her dogs and company of two friends forever) but will that last? With V.I. that is very doubtful, although a return of the articulate archaeologist and Oriental Institute director Peter Sansen would be a welcome addition to further novels. For all her pain and troubles, V.I. deserves to be able to move to a better place in her personal life.

Shell Game by Sara Paretsky

Hodder & Stoughton, Hardback 18.99

Publication date: 16^th October 2018

reviewed by Sylvia Campbell