Total Recall

V. I. Warshawski, Book 10

By: Sara Paretsky

Narrated by: Sandra Burr

In Total Recall, Sara Paretsky brings together several disparate plots in one gripping story. This powerfully suspenseful novel confronts the machinations of a vast and corrupt industry that trades on the victims of Nazi terrorism; the strange and dubious phenomenon of "recovered memory;" and a personal story that brings V. I. Warshawski into the long-buried past of her dearest friend and mentor, Dr. Lotty Herschel.

Lotty was a child of nine when she came to England in 1939 as a refugee from Austria. Having lost her entire family to the Nazi terror, she grew up and completed her medical training in London - and there fell in love with a fellow refugee. She ended the affair when she discovered she was pregnant and bore the child in secrecy, giving it up for adoption. Now, that long-held secret may be exposed.

At a national conference in Chicago on Jews in Modern America, a man with recovered memories makes a dramatic appearance and claim - and his name brings consternation to Lotty. V.I. is retained to find out whether or not he is a surviving relative of Lotty's. It's a search that meshes stunningly with the pursuit of another case she is on - for what she uncovers, to her great peril, is brutal insurance fraud on an international scale.

Total Recall is Paretsky's most spectacular achievement to date, and takes V.I. to new heights of gusto, guts, passion for justice - and risk.

Catch all of our V.I. Warshawski titles.©2004 Sara Paretsky (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

the best one yet!

loved this one. this was the best one yet! must read all in one sitting!

The history and mystery of loss and pain

Perhaps my favorite mystery ever. Mystery is supposed to involve the twists and turns of the unsaid, the buried, the never faced. The tenderness and intensity of Vic's love for Lotty and the care with which she pursues the source of her anguish is exquisitely presented. As always the actual plot twists together from different, seemingly unrelated sources, and this is just the price we have to pay for a good story, I guess. I'm so glad I ignored some of the reviews of this book and actually downloaded it. It did more than get me through a bunch of exercise sessions. It led me to reconsider the carefully suppressed pain of my own parents who were from an entirely different place and circumstance.

It was so meaningful to begin to understand Lottie’s life story.

Susan Burr’s singsong, syrupy voice ruined this Audible book for me. V.I. Is tough and Susan failed to bring V. I.’s character to the performance.

“Total Recall” - one of the best

Best of the series thus far. The detecting portion was very well done but Lottie’s story made this book stand out. This is the first of the series in audio for me - Sandra Burr’s voice and reading was not the V.I. in my head. Her rendition of Lottie was right on, but not V.I.

My favorite Sara Paretsky

I found this story to be emotionally satisfying, believable and gripping to the end. I have listened to it many times. This seems to me to be a deeper character study of the people who fans of Sara Paretsky have come to know.