Bitter Medicine
Written by Sara Paretsky
Narrated by Susan Ericksen, Julia Whelan and Jesse Bernstein
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Private eye V.I. Warshawski finds herself up against rampant corruption in the city of Chicago in the fourth novel in Sara Paretsky's New York Times bestselling series.
V.I. Warshawski knows her friend Consuelo's pregnancy is already risky—she's sixteen and diabetic—but when the baby arrives prematurely, suddenly two lives are at stake. Despite V.I.'s efforts to provide Consuelo with proper care, both mother and daughter die in the local hospital. Suspecting malpractice, V. I. begins an investigation—and a reluctant romance with an ER doctor. But deadly complications arise when a series of vicious murders and an attack on a women's clinic lead her to suspect a cold-blooded cover-up. And if V.I. isn't careful, she just might have delivered her final case...
Sara Paretsky
Hailed by the Washington Post as “the definition of perfection in the genre,” Sara Paretsky is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski series. She is one of only four living writers to have received both the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain. She lives in Chicago.
More audiobooks from Sara Paretsky
Fallout: A V.I. Warshawski Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love & Other Crimes: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadly Housewives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2022 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghost Country Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murder to Go: Murder Mysteries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dealer's Choice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lilly And The Sockeyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Bitter Medicine
Titles in the series (11)
Indemnity Only Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadlock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Shot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Orders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bitter Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bitter Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Guardian Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Windy City Blues: V.I. Warshawski Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tunnel Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn Marks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Total Recall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
Bitter Medicine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dead Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Shot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing Orders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burn Marks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tunnel Vision Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deadlock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Total Recall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guardian Angel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Windy City Blues: V.I. Warshawski Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shell Game: A V.I. Warshawski Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hard Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indemnity Only Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fallout: A V.I. Warshawski Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Overboard: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dealer's Choice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lilly And The Sockeyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love & Other Crimes: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanishing Point Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bone Vault Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pay Dirt: A V.I. Warshawski Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walk Through the Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Y Is For Yesterday Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Likely to Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Broken Promise Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Naked Came the Phoenix Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Both Ends of the Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Suspense For You
Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silent Patient Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Then She Was Gone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5None of This is True: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Thing He Told Me: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfect Marriage: a completely gripping psychological suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teacher Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Guest List: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/511/22/63: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Know You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wrong Place Wrong Time: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Like It Darker: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Billy Summers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Misery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Under The Dome: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fool Me Once Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mr. Mercedes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Green Mile Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bright Young Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Flicker in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The It Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Bitter Medicine
232 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This classic feminist detective still shimmers with intelligence, ingenuity, integrity, and vulnerability.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5SPOILER ALERT!!!I had read a few of Paretsky's other Warshawski novels before I got to this one, and although I rolled my eyes a little bit at the way the tough P.I. gal from the gritty blue collar side of Chicago was always running up against (and bringing down) some big bad corporate criminal types -- whatever. The books were fairly well written and we all know those callous corporate criminal types are out there.I had to quit reading her with this one, though -- because the whole premise of the book is fatally flawed. And because I'm in a position to know, from personal experience, just how off-base she was here, I know I'm going to be impatient and unable to suspend disbelief from here on out.The big bad corporate criminal in Bitter Medicine is a huge hospital conglomerate that builds a new hospital in a majorly upscale neighborhood and is so interested in pure profit that it doesn't equip itself appropriately for the care of a poor pregnant woman who lands there and goes into premature labor.Only here's the thing: it would be shocking and horrible if hospitals didn't (and maybe the big, for-profit ones don't, what do I know) give proper care to indigents who end up in their emergency rooms. But Paretsky made this one up out of whole cloth . . . because the OB/GYN floors and neo-natal critical care units these days are full of affluent moms who are there with their in-vitro-fertilized babies (or the twins and triplets that were the result of fertility treatments). Labor and delivery, neo-natal care -- those are big cash cows for hospitals these days and there's just no way there wasn't even going to be a highly skilled OB/GYN doc at this hospital. It's pure fantasy. Which is fine, but Paretsky is so full of fire to expose the negligence and indifference of the corporate world -- and she didn't even bother to do her own homework.Oh yeah -- I know a little something about NICU's and the whole treatment of pre-term labor because my own four babies were each born about 10 weeks early. We're not affluent, and fertility treatments had nothing to do with it. But the doctors and nurses who took care of my babies -- saved their lives.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Having enjoyed one book in the V.I. Warshawski series, I expected similar good things from this novel, but I was ultimately disappointed.It opens well, but gradual slides downhill. It didn’t grip me at all. I do like the main character, but she isn’t enough to carry the lacklustre plot.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I like the mystery detective as a fighter for social justice.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Passable airport book but it feels pretty dated, first published in 1990 and taking place in the mid-1980s, I reckon. A hard drinker, an exerciser, sexually active, VI must have been something of a pioneer in the female detective genre. Her cavalier attitude to breaking the law, breaking and entering, theft and more is still probably singular. I like the Chicago setting, but I'd look for something recently published if I read one in the future. This is the first one I've read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5About a 16 yr old girl who dies after giving birth.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5really stupid. this is the first one i've read. i'm not in a hurry to get another one but she's so famous.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Enjoy the company of these characters especially Contreras.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski brings a teenager about to give premature birth to a private hospital where the mother and her baby die. Warshawski asks her friend, Dr. Tregiere, to check procedures; he's found murdered later. When the supposedly bereaved husband is murdered, Warshawski begins to dig into the life and death of the young mother. There are other appalling deaths as V.I. gets to the facts behind a tawdry cover up. The city of Chicago, with its ethnic mix, and neighborhoods, as enlived by Paretsky, plays an important role. I’ve loved Paretsky’s work since the first one, this one was no different. There were sufficient plot twists and turns, a romantic interlude, loveable yet annoying characters... all the stuff that makes us enjoy V.I. It’s sort of like one of the famous RedHots, Chicago style hot dogs. Big on flavor and history, reminding those of us who spent time there why we remember it so fondly despite the weather.