V. I. Warshawski

Biography

Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski, called "Vic" by her friends, is the daughter of Italian-born Gabriella Sestrieri, who, being half-Jewish, had to flee the Mussolini regime in 1941 and as a destitute immigrant met and married Anton "Tony" Warshawski, a Polish American Chicago police officer. Gabriella spoke Italian with her daughter, who became fluent in that language. On the other hand, the American-born Tony spoke only English with her, and she only picked up a few words of Polish from her father's mother.

Gabriella died of cancer when Vic was in high school; Tony died ten years later in 1976, implying that Vic was born about 1950. We also learn from Blood Shot (published as "Toxic Shock" in the UK) that Vic was last at her high school some 20 years previously, making the setting of this story in 1988, the year of the book’s publication. In an interview, Sara Paretsky pointed out that Warshawski aged in real time. However, in the 2010 "Hardball", Paretsky moved Warshawski's birth upwards to 1957, presumably since a 1950 birth would make her sixty years old in 2010, a bit too old for intensive physical activity. The change involved a considerable detailed retconing and re-writing many events of Warshawski's childhood, to fit with the new chronology.

Vic grew up on the southeast side of Chicago, in the shadow of shuttered steel mills and factories. Together with her cousin Boom-Boom she had many wild and dangerous adventures - becoming especially wild and reckless in the period of deep grief after her mother's death - and learning the techniques of street-fighting which would prove highly useful in her later career. She was involved in the girls' basketball team in her school, called "The Lady Tigers", and managed to enter the University of Chicago on a sports scholarship. During her university years, she became deeply involved in the counter-culture of the 1960s, taking part in freedom rides to rural Louisiana, traveling hundreds of miles to attend rallies addressed by Martin Luther King, demonstrating against the Vietnam War, and taking part in an underground abortion service. In the latter context, she first met with Dr. Lotty Herschel, who would become an important lifelong contact. However, being the daughter of a police officer whom she greatly loved and respected, Vic strongly objects to radicals calling the police "pigs".

After earning a law degree and a short stint as a public defender, she became a private detective specializing in white-collar crime. She had married fellow law student Dick Yarborough, but divorced him after two years when he became a corporate lawyer and developed a yuppie lifestyle and outlook. She has no children, but in many cases acts in a maternal manner towards teenagers neglected or abused by their parents.

In most novels, Vic is drawn into murder cases connected to white-collar crime. She often ends up pursuing cases that affect her friends, estranged family, or those she feels are being bullied by the upper crust of Chicago. Again and again, she uncovers and confronts major combinations of crooked business people and corrupt politicians, incomparably more powerful than herself, and emerges with at least a partial victory; though often the murderer, identified by the end of the book to Warshawski's (and the reader's) satisfaction, remains too powerful for the law to touch.

A lean, athletic brunette who runs to keep in shape, Vic is not afraid of physical confrontations; relying on karate or her Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol with its nine-round magazine.

Hot-tempered, sarcastic, and fiercely self-reliant, Vic prefers T-shirts and jeans and sleeps in the nude, but she can dress stylishly if necessary. She hates to admit being scared or vulnerable. Her capable and willful personality has led fans and literary critics to consider her one of the few feminist detectives. She loves opera and classical music, often singing arias and playing her piano in times of stress. She stays trim despite a ravenous appetite and favors multi-course ethnic meals with good wine, and throughout all her adventures takes care to provide the reader with precise information on what she had eaten, where, and whether or not it was tasty. She often indulges in big, greasy breakfasts and kielbasa sandwiches. She likes to soak for half an hour or more in her tub - a luxury which was not available in her childhood home.

She shares two dogs, Peppy and Mitch, shared with her neighbor. She is an ardent fan of the Chicago Cubs in baseball and the Chicago Bears in football, closely following the ups and downs of their respective careers. Her favorite brand of whisky is the Johnnie Walker Black Label, though she takes care not to drink it on the job.

In addition to one failed marriage, Vic has had several lovers over the years, such as the English insurance executive Roger Ferrant, the Black Chicago police detective Conrad Rawlings, and the war correspondent and human rights activist C.L. Morrell. Some of them appear in more than one book, even after the relationship has ended. Warshawski can be a passionate and caring lover, and feels deeply hurt when a relationship is ended. Nevertheless, she is fiercely independent even towards men she loves, would not consider living together, and deeply resents their feeling protective towards her, which men who love her are all too apt to do when she repeatedly risks her life in pursuing a hot case.

Her closest friend is Viennese physician Dr. Charlotte "Lotty" Herschel, who treats her various illnesses and combat-related injuries, and is in effect her surrogate mother.

Recurring characters

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