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Socialist Review Index (1993–1996) | Socialist Review 178 Contents
From Socialist Review, No. 178, September 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Tunnel vision
Sara Paretsky
Hamish Hamilton £14.99
Throughout the 1980s there was an explosion of feminist detective novels with plots and politics bad enough to make you cringe. Many of them were painfully predictable. From child abuse to violence against women – men were always guilty!
This puts Sara Paretsky in a league of her own. She is a feminist detective novelist with a difference. Her books have fast, sophisticated plots with great class politics.
In the two years between her last book, Guardian Angel, and her new book, Tunnel Vision, there have been countless unsuccessful imitations. Tunnel Vision is long overdue, but worth waiting for.
As usual Sara Paretsky comes up with a compelling plot about class and corruption. It is anti-establishment and anti-police.
Vic, the detective, starts off a small fry investigation which quickly gets out of hand. A rich woman is murdered and Vic isn’t too bothered. Vic’s investigation is not motivated by concern for the rich dead woman or the bank which she is connected to, but by ‘my old street fighter’s resentment of the rich and powerful people who spin me around’.
On the trail she exposes corruption at the top of US society and her own distrust for the police and the legal system. When it comes to solving murder she proves to be a better detective than the US police force who have everything at their disposal. The difference between them and her is that she wants to root out corruption and they want to cover it up.
Although this is a very good novel, the fairy tale ending is disappointing. The plot is too easily resolved which means that some of the sharp class observation is lost. I was also surprised to find that Sara Paretsky’s portrayal of a gay club bordered on the homophobic.
While you wait for Tunnel Vision to come out in paperback, why not try some of Sara Paretsky’s other books – which include Guardian Angel, Burnmarks and Toxic Shock.
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