Sisters On The Case Volume 2celebrating Twenty Years Of Sisters In Crime

by Sara Paretsky

Presents twenty mystery stories from various writers, including Sue Henry, Rochelle Krich, Susan Dunlap, P.M. Carlson, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Linda Grant, Kate Grilley, Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Nancy Pickard, Claire McNab.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Anthologies, Fiction, Crime, Audiobook

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Sara Paretsky is a modern American author of detective fiction. Paretsky was raised in Kansas, and graduated from the state university with a degree in political science. She did community service work on the south side of Chicago in 1966 and returned in 1968 to work there. She ultimately completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago, entitled The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War, and finally earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Married to a professor of physics at the University of Chicago, she has lived in Chicago since 1968.

The protagonist of all but two of Paretsky's novels is V.I. Warshawski, a female private investigator. Warshawski's eclectic personality defies easy categorization. She drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label, breaks into houses looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight, but also she pays attention to her clothes, sings opera along with the radio, and enjoys her sex life.

Paretsky is credited with transforming the role and image of women in the crime novel. The Winter 2007 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection is devoted to her work.

Her two books that are non-Warshawski novels are : Ghost Country (1998) and Bleeding Kansas (2008).

Reviews

[Cyndi]

These are good mystery stories. I had never realized that women crime writers were so rare back in the eighties and nineties. Thank you, female writers, for continuing to share your stories!

[Jerry B]

Would we have picked up this paperback without Sara Paretsky's name in bigger letters than the book title? Frankly, probably not. While we don't necessarily dislike such short-story anthologies, we had not heard of any of these authors, despite being relatively fond of female mystery writers, except our famous editor and Margaret Maron of Sigrid Harald / Judge Deborah Knott fame. Paretsky wrote a lengthy forward detailing the reason for the book - to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Sisters In Crime", a group to promote female authors in getting published and staying in print. She also authored one of the longer entries, in which her leading lady VI Warshawski, solves her first crime while only a child -- so that was a lot of fun for her fans. Many of the stories seemed dull and pointless, but several were intriguing and provided possible new author leads; in sum, about what you would expect to essentially read 20 authors at random in mostly 10-15-page little tales.

[Steve]

Sisters on the Case is an anthology of twenty short mystery stories, all by woman authors, celebrating the twentieth year of Sisters in Crime, "an international organization of women writers of crime and mystery." All but three of the stories are original in this book. There is an introduction by the editor, Sarah Paretsky, giving a brief summary of the history of women as mystery authors and of the founding of Sisters in Crime. At the end of the book there are short comments about each of the contributors. (Seventeen of them are mentioned as being past presidents of Sisters in Crime.)

For the most part, these stories are good but not outstanding. My favorites are Kate Grilley's "Maubi and the Jumbies" (which, oddly, has no crime or detection), Sarah Paretsky's "A Family Sunday in the Park," and Dorothy Salisbury Davis's "Dies Irae."

I will make one further comment: I don't understand why hit-men started being portrayed as the good guys in some crime stories.

[Sue Chant]

Unengaging and sometimes poorly executed collection of short stories. Some were OK but the only really good one was the Sara Paretsky and I've already got that in one of her collections. Not worth the effort.

[Christine Lucia Asha]

This collection was really good, I liked most of them....although a few too many seemed to be about Irish cops and thankfully the longest and most boring story was the last one or I would not have finished the book!

[Jean]

Some stories in it were okay. But not outstanding authors.

[Lynn Howard]

As with any anthology, I liked some better than others.

[Russeller]

Not the best writing I've ever read...

[MaryAnn]

I liked the concept of the collection of the authors more then anything else. Women supporting women where women have not been accepted before. Solidarity!

Most of the short stories are neat,complete and orginal. Good reads.

[Tes]

I do like a good mystery. These were short stories so it was just perfect for those short spurts of time (lunch, breaks, etc.) I am always looking for mystery authors that I haven't read & this gave me several leads.

[Giovonnae]

A great set of short stories. Many surprise endings. Sara P does an excellent job in picking these stories and the one of her own that she adds is very interesting. Gives some good background on her own life.

[Francine]

This was a great book for e-reading--short stories that could be read while waiting for various appointments. I enjoyed most of the stories, read some authors I hadn't heard of before, and will look them up on Goodreads and the library.

[Pam]

10/27 rec via bookmooch

[TJ]

Good collection. Felt it was lacking in queer women mystery writers. A lot of the women mystery writers I read were not represented. But overall a good collection.

[Jenna]

The "Lady Patterly's Lover" by Charoltte MacLeod parody was quite amusing.

[Cynthia]

Home sick with a cold, what can I say?

[Sarah]

These are VERY short, an odd selection to combine, and not great.

[Kim]

A book of short stories. Not so great.

[Ruth]

Good. Lots of short treats.

[Fern]

Fun bite sized reads. Great range of approaches to the crime genre. Now to hunt down some Anna Katherine Green to read

[Kevin Shoop]

Grade: D

Sadly, these stories are mostly subpar. Audio version is horrendous...difficult to follow the stories because of the flat narration.

[Tony Thomas]

I started this book with great expectations. But it was a big disappointment. Really boring book. Only one or two short stories were good among the collection.

[Donna]

Ok short stories