Bleeding Kansas

Sara Paretsky was one of the very first serial mystery fiction authors I began reading after Agatha Christie. I enjoyed her realistic slice of the harsh life with hardcore characters and a very strong female protagonist. I wasn't concerned over whether she'd do well writing a non-mystery, non-serial......more

The novel is not a V I Warshawski book but I read it now because I am going through Sara Paretsky's books in the order in which she published them. The only other non-Warshawski novel so far was Ghost Country but that one was set in Chicago, as are all the Warshwskis. This is a stand-alone set in Ka......more

A quotation from the book that caught my attention:"The hardest thing about adolescence is that everything seems too big. There's no way to get context or perspective, ..... Pain and joy without limits. No one can live like that forever, so experience finally comes to our rescue. We come to know wha......more

I think we're supposed to like Susan. I don't. She is just that annoying! I do, however, dislike most of the Schapens as thoroughly as is expected. I guess this is Paretsky's ode to her home. The cover promises a "gripping novel," a "strong and stark protrayal of the heartland." Well, it does seem t......more

I have been reading some of Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series and enjoying them. I got this book by mistake thinking it was part of the series. It is not. On GR it is misidentified as a mystery. It is only logical: Paretsky writes mysteries. Paretsky wrote Bleeding Kansas. Therefore, Bleeding Kansas......more