Body Work

In my review of Sara Paretsky's novel from last year, Hardball, I mentioned some of the drawbacks of reading a novel in a detective series. Mostly I harped on the character of V.I. Warshawski, but in this book, I found myself annoyed by supporting characters.

The mystery itself is complex and fascinating. It all starts with a performance artist who calls herself the Body Artist--a woman who goes on stage naked and allows people in the audience to paint on her. Another woman, who paints an image on her night after night, is murdered, and Warshawski is hired by the parents of the man who is arrested for her murder.

This is a good setup, but it leads to a wildly different place--the war in Iraq, with tie-ins to a corporation that may be making inadequately safe body armor. Paretsky handles this with deft strokes, and the characters unique to the book, such as the owner of the club and the Body Artist herself, are intriguing. But I found some of the recurring characters chores.

Faithful readers, I'm sure, consider these characters old friends, but I dreaded their appearance. A neighbor, Mr. Contreras, really only exists to fuss over his dogs and express his concern over Warshawski's safety. A cousing Petra, introduced in Hardball, is back and even more annoying here--her purpose seems to be nothing more than to get Warshawski's goat and act like a simpering ninny.

As for Warshawski, her character traits of being a high-handed crusader are again on display, but Paretsky calls her own character out. Still, too many character do her favors and by the end, when an old-fashioned "all the suspects are gathered in the same place" I was a bit aghast, but I will admit it was a page-turner.