Mystery Marathon, Part 1

continuing with my mystery jag, a few words about Blacklist ,  Paretsky's latest V.I. Warshawski caper.  it's longer than it probably needs to be, but engrossing.  i never understand everything in a V.I. mystery, and this one is no different.  i mean, i understand it when it's happening, but i can't keep it straight all the way through.  this one is about rich folk on Chicago's Gold Coast, some of whom have murky pasts connected to Communism, and HUAC investigations.  a reporter who's been working on events and people from this past time ends up dead in a pond on a suburban estate; a young Egyptian whose visa has expired disappears, inspiring panic in the hearts of Homeland security guardians (the story takes place soon after the Patriot Act goes into effect). 

V.I. finds the reporter's body while on a totally different errand and soon becomes entwined in the whole mess.  the book gives Paretsky a good vehicle for many nasty digs at Homeland paranoia and shots at both McCarthy era blacklisters and today's  Patriot Act misplaced zeal.  there's really way too many plot lines and the separate lines tangle together like snakes, causing an impatient reader like G to give up somewhere in the middle and skip to the end.  i like how Paretsky always brings politics into her mysteries, in one form or another.  so i read it all.  and enjoyed it quite a lot.