BREAKDOWN
Book ID/图书代码： 03880011B47466
English Summary/英文概要： Carmilla, Queen of the Night, is a shape-shifting raven whose fictional exploits thrill girls all over the world. When tweens in Chicago’s Carmilla Club hold an initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse, a man stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying.
The girls include daughters of some of Chicago’s most powerful families: The grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is one of the world’s wealthiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is the Illinois Democratic candidate for Senate.
For V. I. Warshawski, the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Sophy Durango? Or to Chaim Salanter’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles for answers, she finds herself fighting enemies who are all too human.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 囊括金/銀/鑽石匕首大師獎
美國冷硬派推理大師Sara Paretsky
創造出史上最精采的女性偵探角色V. I. Warshawski
美國推理作家協會選為「最受歡迎女偵探」，風靡全球【本書簡介】
吸血鬼小說讓全世界的少女為之傾倒，如今小說情節即將化為真實！一群13歲的少女收到邀請函，邀請她們到廢棄墓地參加一場依小說情節舉辦的儀式。而她們召喚出來的不是吸血鬼，而是貨真價實的、像吸血鬼般被刺穿胸口的男性屍體…。
但是這群少女可不完全是一般出身的青少年，她們之中有人的背景是芝加哥最有權勢的家族；有位少女的祖父Chaim Salanter是全世界首富之一，而Sophy Durango的母親是民主黨提名的參議院候選人。
V. I. Warshawski受朋友Leydon Ashford之託，到墓園阻止並保護這幾位少女，但就在同一時間，Leydon Ashford卻死於非命…朋友之死燃起V. I. Warshawski的熊熊怒火，保護青少年的行動轉變成殺人案件，她決心查出真相，為朋友復仇！
墓園中那具男性屍體的身分是？他的死是否與參議院選舉有關？是不是Sophy Durango母親的敵手想抹黑她的舉動？還是跟Chaim Salanter在納粹佔領立陶宛時度過的童年有關，牽涉到國際恩怨？
隨著調查越來越深入，V. I. Warshawski所面對的敵人，是既光明，卻又最深沉黑暗的人性…。
【主角簡介】
V. I. Warshawski，美麗的私家偵探。她絕不是什麼賢慧溫柔，最大心願就是相夫教子的女性。偵探工作就是她的全部，不是閒暇時動腦用的消遣。她有強烈的正義感，性情火爆，深諳搏鬥技巧，可以獨自撂倒幾個流氓混混，必要時還會掏槍解決。即使常常因打架而成為醫院常客，甚至飽受恐嚇威脅，也絲毫無法動搖她的堅定信念。
即便她行事快狠準，卻是位刀子口豆腐心的偵探，也有女性和一般人的一面：廚藝還不錯，喜歡美食但又擔心變胖，在意自己的打扮，甚至最討厭整理房間。她可以強悍如鐵，與惡徒搏鬥，也可以溫柔如水，撫慰、同理脆弱的證人。
V. I. Warshawski是領照律師，受到已故的警官父親影響，選擇走偵探這一行，就此踏入芝加哥的無間道殘酷世界裡。在這種環境生存，她得比男性更剽悍，以一己之力在男性主宰的世界中獲得成功，就算遍體鱗傷、就算感到恐懼，仍不退縮。 (Eva)
Awards/获奖情况：“All of V.I.’s other powers, however, as well as those of her creator, Sara Paretsky, are as vital and limber as they were 20 years ago when she first charged down the mean streets of Chicago and into hard-boiled history in her debut adventure, Indemnity Only. If anything, the Warshawksi novels have only grown better: more ambitious in their construction and fiercer both in their feminist politics and in their commitment to storylines about social justice. A typical Warshawski investigation not only zooms in on the genre’s “usual suspects” (greedy opportunists, professional con artists, dysfunctional families), but also the larger social ills plaguing contemporary America.” — NPR“…Plotted with all Paretsky’s customary generosity, this standout entry harnesses her heroine’s righteous anger to some richly deserving targets, all linked together in a truly amazing finale.” － Kirkus, Starred Review
“…V. I. reigns as crime fiction’s spiky, headstrong warrior woman of conscience, and Paretsky, classy champion of the powerless, has never been more imaginative, rueful, transfixing, and righteous.” － Booklist, Starred Review
“Thirty years ago, mystery writer Sara Paretsky published her first novel starring intrepid Chicago P.I. V.I. Warshawski. On Tuesday, Paretsky will publish her latest Warshawski novel, Breakdown.” — USA Today
“What really matters in a Sara Paretsky mystery are the crimes behind the crimes — the corrupt politics, the class divisions, the economic inequities, the dirty business practices and all the other injustices that incite the wicked deeds we love to read about.” — NY Times
“At the start of MWA Grand Master Paretsky’s riveting 15th novel featuring Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski (after 2010’s Body Work), Warshawski goes in search of several 12- and 13-year-old girls, members of her cousin Petra’s book club, who are out after curfew. Warshawski finds the girls in a cemetery, steps away from a recently deceased man, Miles Wuchnik, who she later learns was an unscrupulous PI. Media attention on two of the girls—the daughter of Sophy Durango, a liberal U.S. Senate candidate, and the granddaughter of Chaim Salanter, a wealthy Jewish businessman linked to Durango’s campaign—intensifies an already mudslinging political race, particularly when it’s revealed that the girls were trying to perform a “vampire” ritual from their favorite supernatural novel.” — Publisher’s Weekly, Starred Review
this piece from the DAILY KOS, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/13/1335934/-Monday-Murder-Mystery-Sara-Paretsky, interesting and, very likely, helpful.
The piece, which includes a review of BREAKDOWN, starts as follows:
It is not possible to overstate the influence that Sara Paretsky has had on American detective fiction. She took women out of the binders that restricted them to the roles of femme fatale or hapless victim into which they had been placed by earlier writers like Raymond Chandler.
About the Author/作者介绍： Sara Paretsky於1947年生於美國愛荷華州。她先在堪薩斯大學拿到政治學和俄語雙學士，1977年一口氣同時在芝加哥大學取得工商管理學碩士和歷史博士學位。1982年出版第一本犯罪小說《索命賠償》，立刻引起推理迷的廣大迴響，1986年後專職寫作，並與友人創立了「犯罪寫作姊妹會」（Sisters in Crime）。2002獲選為英國推理作家協會鑽石匕首獎大師。目前已出版18本書，皆為紐時榜上的暢銷之作。
Sara Paretsky的作品極獲英國評論家的讚譽，過去曾以《Blood Shot》贏得英國犯罪作家協會的銀匕首獎，《Blacklist》拿下金匕首獎。她還編過幾本短篇故事選集，其中的《A Woman’s Eye》曾獲得安東尼獎。
Sara Paretsky is the author of eighteen books, including her renowned V. I. Warshawski novels. She was named 2011 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and is also the recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award given by the British Crime Writers’ Association. She lives in Chicago.
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