Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky
Born	June 8, 1947 (1947-06-08) Ames, Iowa
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	Jewish
Education	University of Kansas, Lawrence, B.A. in political science (summa cum laude) 1967 University of Chicago, M.B.A. 1977 University of Chicago, Ph.D. in history 1977
Genres	crime fiction
Spouse(s)	Courtenay Wright, m. 1976
Children	three
Relative(s)	David (father), Mary (mother)
Influenced Stieg Larsson
www.saraparetsky.com

Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is a modern American author of detective fiction.

Life and career

Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa and raised in Kansas, graduating from the University of Kansas 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; her dissertation was entitled "The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England Before the Civil War." She also 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. She is an alumna of the Ragdale Foundation.

She was to appear in an amateur light opera production in 2011.

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 offices looking for clues, and can hold her own in a street fight. But she also 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.

Bibliography

Novels

• Indemnity Only (1982)
• Deadlock (1984)
• Killing Orders (1985)
• Bitter Medicine (1987)
• Blood Shot (1988) (Published in the UK as Toxic Shock)
• Burn Marks (1990)
• Guardian Angel (1992)
• Tunnel Vision (1994)
• Ghost Country (1998) - non-Warshawski novel; ISBN 978-0385333368
• Hard Time (1999) ISBN 0-385-31363-2
• Total Recall (2001) ISBN 0-385-31366-7
• Blacklist (2003) ISBN 0-399-15085-4
• Fire Sale (2005) ISBN 978-0739455944
• Bleeding Kansas (2008) - non-Warshawski novel; ISBN 978-0399154058
• Hardball (2009)
• Body Work (2010)

Short story collections

• Windy City Blues (1995)
• A Taste of Life and Other Stories. London, Penguin, 1995 .
• V.I. x2 (2002)

Non-fiction

• Case Studies in Alternative Education. Chicago Center for New Schools, 1975 .
• Writing in an Age of Silence (2007) ISBN 978-1844671229

As editor

• Eye of a Woman (short stories). New York, Delacorte Press, 1990 ; as A Woman's Eye: New Stories by the Best Women Crime Writers, London, Virago, 1991 .
• Women on the Case (1997) ISBN 978-0440223252; as Woman's Other Eye, London, Virago, 1996
• Sisters On the Case (2007) ISBN 978-0451222398

External links

• Sara Paretsky discusses Indemnity Only on the BBC World Book Club
• Official website
• Sara Paretsky Interview with TheCrimeHouse 2010 http://www.thecrimehouse.com/interview-with-sara-paretsky/
• 2007 lecture by Sara Paretsky at the Library of Congress.
• Webcast
• Audio/Video recordings of Sara Paretsky discussing "Truth, Lies, and Duct Tape" as part of the University of Chicago Human Rights Program's Robert H. Kirschner Memorial Lecture Series.