For most of us, the ultimate mystery is what lies within our hearts: What makes us happy, what ghosts haunt us late at night? So who could possibly be up to the task of deciphering the inner life of mystery author Sara Paretsky? Fittingly, it’s Paretsky herself.
Paretsky, the creator of wisecracking detective V.I. Warshawski, is the author of many international best-selling mysteries, including “Fire Sale” and “Deadlock.” Her books have been translated into nearly 30 foreign languages and have single-handedly infused the age-old gumshoe genre with new life, thanks to one crackling smart, irreverent sleuth. Warshawski, who grew up surrounded by Chicago’s steel mills, knows the city’s geography — and its secrets — better than almost anyone, thanks to Paretsky’s encyclopedic grasp of the urban landscape.
Warshawski and her creator seem to have so much in common that some fans may be surprised to learn that Paretsky is neither Polish nor from the South Side. Instead, the author was raised in a Jewish household in small-town Kansas, an experience she chronicles in her new, deeply personal book, “Writing in an Age of Silence.” The memoir follows Paretsky as she metabolizes her lonely childhood and embraces her current life: celebrity writer with a deep social consciousness.
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