Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Fire Sale
    Unavailable
    Fire Sale
    Unavailable
    Fire Sale
    Audiobook14 hours

    Fire Sale

    Written by Sara Paretsky

    Narrated by Sandra Burr

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    V. I. Warshawski may have left her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she learns that she cannot escape it. When V. I. takes over coaching duties of the girls' basketball team at her former high school, she faces an ill-equipped, ragtag group of gangbangers, fundamentalists, and teenage moms, who inevitably draw the detective into their family woes.

    Through young Josie Dorrado, V. I. meets the girl's mother, who voices her worries about sabotage in the little flag manufacturing plant where she works. The biggest employer on the South Side, discount-store behemoth By-Smart, pays even less, and Ms. Dorrado doesn't know how she'll support her four children if the flag plant shuts down.

    The elder Dorrado's fears are realized when the plant explodes; V. I. is injured and the owner is killed. As V. I. begins to investigate, she finds herself confronting the Bysen family, who own the By-Smart company. Founder William "Buffalo Bill" Bysen, now in his eighties, has four sons who quarrel with each other and with him; the oldest, "Young Mr. William," is close to sixty and furious that his father doesn't cede more power to him. And then, there's "Billy the Kid," Young Mr. William's nineteen-year-old son, whose Christian idealism puts him on a collision course with his father, his grandfather, and the company as a whole.

    When Billy runs away with Josie Dorrado, V. I. is squeezed between the needs of two very different families. As she tries to find the errant teenagers, and to track down a particularly cruel murderer, her own life is almost forfeit in the swamps that lie under the city of Chicago.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 28, 2005
    ISBN9781597109192
    Unavailable
    Fire Sale
    Author

    Sara Paretsky

    Hailed by the Washington Post as “the definition of perfection in the genre,” Sara Paretsky is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago.

    More audiobooks from Sara Paretsky

    Related to Fire Sale

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Reviews for Fire Sale

    3.5/5

    217 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Another great book. I’m working my way through them all!
    • 3/5
      What I liked:*The parts about the girls basketball team that V.I. is volunteered to coach, particularly how V.I. ends up bonding with them when she didn't expect to.*That V.I. is encouraging the basketball team to keep up their studies and to try to go to college as well as giving them life lessons.*"Billy the Kid" who seems to be the only family member who truly cares for the South Siders. *Learning about long QT syndrome*Coach McFarlane also seems to have encouraged her players and cared about them--enough so that V.I. feels she owes it to her coach to do as she's told.What I didn't like:*The way Christians are portrayed. The pastor damages a gang member's vehicle because the guy plays loud music outside the church trying to entice his girlfriend to come out to hang with him. The same pastor damages a local business's locks. The church seems to teach that birth control and abortion are sins but doesn't seem to teach the kids about abstinence or why it's important, or about the facts of life (such as you CAN get pregnant the first time you have sex). Billy the Kid is ridiculed for his beliefs.*Sex is treated casually by many characters. Freddy seems to have kids by several women. Bron has multiple girlfriends. *The privileged attitude of the Bysen family
    • 4/5
      Finished reading "Fire Sale" and if you missed it earlier as I did, you'll definitely want to find a copy! I love strong female characters especially in the mystery/private-eye genre and V.I. Warshawski is definitely a favorite created by Sara Paretsky. One of the main delights is the prose of the novels is so pleasing to read - a definite step up from street talk, without the 4-letter words, and at times leaves further descriptions to the reader's imagination. I'm ready to find another in the series!
    • 4/5
      The first Sara Paretsky book I've read in many years and it was a worthy addition to the V.I. Warshawski series. I enjoyed it very much and wish Paretsky would write faster!
    • 3/5
      I've read all twelve of Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels over the years. I don't read too many mysteries or detective stories, but I've consistently sought these out: Paretsky's a top notch writer, giving us a memorable cast of recurring characters and a sympathetic, tough-but-vulnerable protagonist in V.I.

      Her previous outing, Blacklist, was a disappointment. Pacing was slow, and the plot felt secondary to political points that the author wanted to make. I'm happy to say that with Fire Sale, Paretsky has given us a much better read.

      BySmart, really a stand-in for Wal*Mart, is a huge chain of stores, run by the Bysen family. The Bysens are used to getting their way. They do not renegotiate with their suppliers. They have a great deal of money -- thus a great deal of power. One of their suppliers is a flag manufacturing plant in Warskawski's home turf of South Chicago. An explosion that destroys the plant puts them out of business and means one less employer for South Chicago residents. It also draws suspicion and sets Warshawski on the path of an investigation that includes a missing Bysen family member, a runaway teen from the local high school, and a recording device that might tell the whole story -- if only it could be found!

      Paretsky hasn't abandoned making points about social and political issues here, which is fine. However, we're introduced to a few too many stereotypically drawn South Chicago residents, battling the demons of unemployment, poverty, and teenage pregnancy. These characters feel a little bit two-dimensional. Still, unlike Blacklist, Fire Sale is still a page-turner: just what you want from a good Warshawski outing!

    • 4/5
      Finished reading "Fire Sale" and if you missed it earlier as I did, you'll definitely want to find a copy! I love strong female characters especially in the mystery/private-eye genre and V.I. Warshawski is definitely a favorite created by Sara Paretsky. One of the main delights is the prose of the novels is so pleasing to read - a definite step up from street talk, without the 4-letter words, and at times leaves further descriptions to the reader's imagination. I'm ready to find another in the series!
    • 5/5
      I started reading mysteries in about 1987ish because I saw Sara Paretsky on the Today Show and she made her V.I. Warshawski character sound like someone I wanted to know. She was right and I went on from there to meet many other wonderful characters in many other mystery books but Sara and V.I. will always have a special place in my heart. In Fire Sale, V.I. is back in her old South Chicago neighborhood to help her old high school basketball coach who is too sick to coach and needs V.I. to temp. When one of the players' mom asks for her help looking into something at work and that work then mysteriously burned to the ground, V.I. got her next case. It's as good as all of her adventures.
    • 4/5
      Another story about Chicago PI VI Warshawski. In this one she's drafted in as temporary basketball coach to a school in a disadvantaged neighbourhood of south Chicago, where the poverty of most of the population is in stark contrast to the multi-billionnaire owners of a chain of stores, By-Smart, who employ many locals. VI starts getting interested in By-Smart after a fire at a local textile firm supplying By-Smart and finds herself dragged in ever deeper. Appealing characters and amusing dialogue together with good plotting and detailed authentic locations make this an easy read.
    • 5/5

      As fab as ever. Possibly more so.

    • 5/5
      Vic gets involved with a wealthy family and with poor families from her South Chicago neighborhood. A plant mysteriously explodes. Vic tries to find a cruel murderer.
    • 4/5
      I've always enjoyed the V.I. Warshawski series, and this one is a good addition to it. V.I, has been sucked back into her old South Chicago neighborhood, "temporarily" coaching the girls' basketball team at her old high school since the permanent coach (who was V.I.'s mentor) is out, combatting cancer. V.I. inadvertently becomes involved in the neighborhood labor problems, and this leads to the usual action-packed, fast-paced plot that Paretsky does so well.However, Paretsky does have one weakness as an author. While V.I.., Mr Contreras, Peppy and Mitch (the dogs), and other long-time members of the series are complex-well drawn characters, most of the one-timers are not. They tend to be one-dimensional and this is very evident in Fire Sale; the villains are really just too mindless and border on boring.Other than that, it's an excellent read.
    • 4/5
      Tone of language: Emotional, wrenching, self-deprecatingCharacters: A fierce, independent, empathetic heroine, with almost superhuman endurance and dedication, who takes care of everybody in needPlot twists: Multiple narrative threads twist together in unimaginable waysPace: Lengthy pauses to explore innner feelings and consider possible explanations of crimesValues: You can't fix everything in the world, but you can take care of one thing at a timeSexuality: A background of adultery and teen motherhood as a consequence of povertyBackground research: Basketball coaching, ghetto culture, family corporations, dog trainingTargeted audience: EveryoneObjectionable to any groups: Corporate officersFlaws: Everyone gives the PI confidential information even though they don't want anything to do with her. They have no motives to reveal information to her.
    • 4/5
      Not one of Paretsky's better mysteries, but it still beats the hell out of most of the pulp you get on the shelves these days. I was disturbed by her strange chronology of events, but the mystery was sound.
    • 3/5
      Baked on the well known recipe of nosy neighbour, adorable dogs,friends with problemsolving skills and a cup of social conscience. Predictable but wellwritten.