Abandoned by Booklikes

Okay let's start with the good, we get into the racial history of a town in Kansas. You can see how things were set up different for those who were white and black. If the book had managed to focus on that this would have been stronger. Instead, Paretsky throws in the military, hidden secrets about germ warfare, Russians (how topical), and the initial investigation seems to be lost in trying to tie into too many things in this town's past.

"Fallout" takes place entirely with VI in Lawrence, Kansas tracking down a man (August) that Bernie (Boom Boom's goddaughter) knows from her hockey teammate. Bernie asks VI to help find him since there was a break in at a gym he worked at and many people are starting to think he had something to do with it. When VI goes to work and finds out August left town to go with an aging African American actress to her hometown in Kansas to film her life, she follows. From there the book flails into a chaotic mess. 

VI is at a crossroads with her relationship with Jake. Yeah things looked great in the last book, but out of nowhere he has gone to Switzerland to play music for a year (I was so confused about this) and gets resentful of VI's job, her life, and her not following him. I hated we just got emails from this character with VI not doing anything to head off what is coming her way relationship wise.

VI's nosy neighbor is missing (thank goodness) and Lotty and Max are barely in this one. Unfortunately we have freaking Bernie showing up in this one again and I swear I loathe this character. I am not the only reviewer that cannot stand her. After this book she better not pop up in one of VI's cases again. 

The secondary characters we meet are interesting in this one. I did laugh at people pointing out that wherever VI went dead bodies or women in need were out there. Small towns are pretty hilarious. So kudos for Paretsky for capturing that in this book. I just wish the book had focused more on the town and the history. Throwing in the germ warfare and what happened in this town in the 80s (which is not believable) was a hard pillow to swallow. I just found myself rolling my eyes through most of this book. There was another big plot point (who was a character's father) that I could not with. I maybe slammed my Kindle at that point and turned on Netflix to watch Death in Paradise for a n hour. 

The writing was typical Paretsky, I just had issues with the logic leaps in this one as I said above. The flow was off mightily in this one though. The whole book felt draggy. Reading about VI trying to work out, or walking her dog (why was the dog even with her???) just became monotonous after a while. 

Moving the action from Chicago to Lawrence wasn't a problem for me. Just the way the plot unfolded. I like it when the main character is out of familiar surroundings. Makes the books more interesting when you get into a long running series like this.

I read an excerpt of the next book, "Shell Game" and it looks interesting.