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    Bitter Medicine
    Bitter Medicine
    Bitter Medicine
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Bitter Medicine

    Written by Sara Paretsky

    Narrated by Sandra Burr

    3.5/5

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    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...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 25, 2006
    ISBN9781423300113
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Bitter Medicine

    3.5/5

    233 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      One wonders how V. I.'s business survives since she seems to spend a lot of time investigating things for her friends and family without being paid for it. In this book, V. I. begins to wonder about Friendship Hospital when she has to rush a teen who's in early labor to it. I'd forgotten that V. I. had been a lawyer--still holds her bar association membership apparently, so she's not really lying when she says she's someone's lawyer, even though she is no longer actively practicing law.(Warning--possible spoilers ahead--read at your own discretion.)The in-labor-teen is the daughter of Dr. Herschel's assistant. One admissions person seems to imply that they aren't treating her emergency situation because she's indigent, and when V. I. calls her on the statement, she runs to get the Administrator who claims that isn't what's going on. Dr. Herschel sends her associate Malcolm out to the hospital to help treat since he knows more of her medical history and Dr. Herschel can't get away from her main hospital right away. Sometime after he arrives, the baby dies. Later that night, Dr. Herschel gets called out to the specialty hospital but by the time she arrives, the teen (mother) has died also. The head of obstetrics at Friendship Hospital strikes up a relationship with V. I. but he seems overly consumed with thoughts of "did I do enough". The hospital pays the husband $5000 in exchange for a release form--but then he decides to sue Dr. Herschel and her associate--which also brings the hospital back into the lawsuit picture. Dr. Herschel's clinic is picketed by anti-abortionists. Eventually it becomes alot like a riot and the clinic's windows are broken and the inside of the clinic damaged. It is only after she's sued that Dr. Herschel realizes that all her files with the last name Hernandez are missing. V. I. tries to get her a copy of the hospital report. V. I. discovers that her ex-husband, a $200 an hour lawyer, is representing the head of the anti-abortion group and wonders who's paying him.Malcolm is killed before he gives Dr. Herschel his report of what happened when he went out to the specialty hospital. Later, Fabiano (the husband of the dead girl) is killed. V. I.'s apartment is broken into (but her grandmother's venetian glasses survive this time.)It takes a bit of unraveling, but V. I. manages to figure out how it all ties together eventually. I like V. I.'s neighbor (Mr. Contreras) though he could be a bit annoying at times. I'm glad she stepped in to help him out rather than make him go to his daughter's house. Max Lowenthal seems like an interesting character also. I wonder if we'll see more of him in future books in the series. I was sad to see Malcolm's character killed off--he seems to only appear in this book--Dr. Herschel suddenly has an associate who is aligned with her ideas of medicine (something not always easy to find in the real world) and then he's gone--and for no good reason!
    • 2/5
      Having 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.
    • 4/5
      I like the mystery detective as a fighter for social justice.
    • 4/5
      This is an earlier V.I. Warshawski novel, somewhat dated (mid 80's, I think), but most of the content is still relative to today. The storyline wasn't bad, but I have mixed feelings about the main character of Vic. I appreciate that she's supposed to be a tough female lead character, but I'd like to be able to see a little more of her inner character. My favorite thing about this series is that it's set in Chicago, and I can relate to the place names, locations, etc. I esp. love the references to the Cubs, and in this case, it was nice to flash back to a few 80's references from back in the day (this is showing my age, I guess). I question, however, the choice of having Donada Peters as the reader for this audiobook. While a very competent reader, her British accent didn't quite fit with the Chicago setting, and I was somewhat offended by her pronunciation of Harry "Caray" (w/ the emphasis on the 2nd syllable) on at least two occasions. Still, I've decided I enjoy Paretsky's novels enough to probably read some more if they happen my way.
    • 3/5
      Passable 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.
    • 5/5
      About a 16 yr old girl who dies after giving birth.
    • 2/5
      really stupid. this is the first one i've read. i'm not in a hurry to get another one but she's so famous.
    • 3/5
      Enjoy the company of these characters especially Contreras.
    • 1/5
      SPOILER 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.
    • 4/5
      Chicago 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.