Extraordinary ... Whether one agrees with Vic’s political viewpoints or not, is a smart and engrossing international mystery to unravel that will keep readers wrapped up in its pages.
For the most part, Shell Game is about what readers have come to expect from Paretsky. The elaborate plot is a little far-fetched, though that’s par the norm for the thriller genre, but not so complicated that it can’t be easily followed. Newcomers may struggle a bit with getting up to speed on various characters, which is to be expected if you haven’t read the previous books. Really, it’s the lack of suspense that feels like a miss here. Readers will guess the bad guy early, which significantly lowers the stakes for the rest of the story. Diehard fans of the series may not care because they love the characters and will happily follow them until the book’s end, but casual readers may find the final act lacking even though the writing itself is really good ... another twisting mystery that’s finely written, even if the suspense never reached nail-biting levels.
As is usually the case with Paretsky’s novels, there is considerable social and political commentary, so if you are a capital-C Conservative, you might want to give some thought to how much you are willing to have your convictions challenged. Everyone else can revel in the superb pacing, the well-developed characters and the crisp dialogue from one of the most consistently excellent writers in the genre.
Paretsky is brilliant at juggling strands, but the 19th Warshawski novel is also a panoramic vision of Chicago at a time when the city is so polarised that decent people don’t know who to trust.
Shell Game could hardly be more timely with its pointed riffs on #MeToo, the brutality of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the long reach of Russian oligarchs. At the same time, the novel is rooted in classic noir.
Even more germane for Ms. Paretsky are the issues themselves. In Shell Game, the topics explored include (in no particular order): sexual exploitation, racial profiling, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), the Russian mafia, art theft, the amorality and entitlement of America’s one percent, and parallels between the United States today and Germany in the 1930s. That’s a big menu, but all those things come into play ... But Ms. Paretsky always leaves us with food for thought.
Riveting ... Paretsky isn’t one to tiptoe around injustice, and this entry proves once again that she’s one of the sharpest crime writers on the scene today.
It’s pretty obvious early on who the criminal is, but that’s true in most Sherlock Holmes stories, and the knowledge doesn’t hurt any more here than there. The considerable pleasure comes from following the legendary heroine through an impenetrable maze of felonies knowing that you’re in a master’s hands.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
