Critical Mass

Locations
Call Number: Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Paretsky, Sara
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult A/V 4-week checkout	Adult BOCD / Fiction / Mystery / Paretsky, Sara	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Compact discs.
Read by Susan Ericksen.
V.I. Warshawski's closest friend in Chicago is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel, who lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Lotty escaped to London in 1939 on the Kindertransport with a childhood playmate, Kitty Saginor Binder. When Kitty's daughter finds her life is in danger, she calls Lotty, who, in turn, summons V.I. to help.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

not about atomic bomb development submitted by camelsamba on June 24, 2014, 12:45pm The plot was engaging but parts made me cringe. I did not enjoy the sections that are full of foul language and brutal violence, but I suppose they were realistic for their settings (meth houses, etc.) Just not my favorite thing to read, you know? Overall, though, I enjoyed the story. There were times when I wanted to shake V.I. and say "what's wrong with you? you are missing >this< connection!!!" But I suppose if I were exhausted, or had been in a shoot-out, or dug through a hazardous meth-production waste pit, then I might forget certain salient details as well. I suppose that approach is more realistic than the mysteries where the detective (or cozy-style faux-detective) makes giant leaps of logic based on things the reader isn't privy to. And it's not like I figured out every detail, but on occasion I made the connection before she did.

I first heard about this book on Science Friday, and requested it from the library right away. I was expecting more connection to atomic bomb development (I had just finished Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon so had atomic race on the brain), but the historic plot was more about the development of early computers. I must say that the plot twist with Martina was not at ALL what I was expecting!

Early in my listening, I was not enjoying the narrator (although I don't remember why not), but I got used to her. This book is one where they signal the end and beginning of a disc with music, which is good if you are listening in a car.