Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Total Recall
    Total Recall
    Total Recall
    Audiobook15 hours

    Total Recall

    Written by Sara Paretsky

    Narrated by Sandra Burr

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The bestselling V.I. Warshawski novels have dazzled readers and earned the acclaim of critics everywhere. “V.I. Warshawski rules,” writes Newsweek, crowning her “the most engaging woman in detective fiction.” Of V.I.’s creator, the Chicago Tribune says “Sara Paretsky has no peer.”

    Now Paretsky brings her incomparable storytelling brilliance to her most powerful Warshawski novel yet. Total Recall follows the Chicago P.I. on a road that winds back more than fifty years—and into an intricate maze of wartime lies, heartbreaking secrets, and harrowing retribution.

    For V.I., the journey begins with a national conference in downtown Chicago, where angry protesters are calling for the recovery of Holocaust assets. Replayed on the evening news is the scene of a slight man who has stood up at the conference to tell an astonishing story of a childhood shattered by the Holocaust—a story that has devastating consequences for V.I.’s cherished friend and mentor, Lotty Herschel.

    Lotty was a girl of nine when she emigrated from Austria to England, one of a group of children wrenched from their parents and saved from the Nazi terror just before the war broke out. Now stunningly—impossibly—it appears that someone from that long-lost past may have returned.

    With the help of a recovered-memory therapist, Paul Radbuka has recently learned his true identity. But is he who he claims to be? Or is he a cunning impostor who has usurped someone else’s history…a history Lotty has tried to forget for over fifty years?

    As a frightened V.I. watches her friend unravel, she sets out to help in the only way she can: by investigating Radbuka’s past. Already working on a difficult case for a poor family cheated of their life insurance, she tries to balance Lotty’s needs with her client’s, only to find that both are spiraling into a whirlpool of international crime that stretches from Switzerland and Germany to Chicago’s South Side.

    As the atrocities of the past reach out to engulf the living, V.I. struggles to decide whose memories of a terrible war she can trust, and moves closer to a chilling realization of the truth—a truth that almost destroys her oldest friend.

    With fierce emotional power, Sara Paretsky has woven a gripping and morally complex novel of crime and punishment, memory and illusion. Destined to become a suspense classic, Total Recall proves once again the daring and compelling genius of Sara Paretsky.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 16, 2017
    ISBN9781543612493
    Total Recall
    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.

    More audiobooks from Sara Paretsky

    Related to Total Recall

    Titles in the series (11)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Suspense For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tony Hillerman's Daughter Anne On Keeping Her Father's Mysteries Alive

      May 29, 2018

      With new focus on a female character, Anne Hillerman is successfully reviving her dad's immensely popular novels.

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Fiction No. 251

      Mar 15, 2022

      The Art of Fiction No. 251
      20 min read

    • Article

      The Eulogy

      Jul 13, 2022

      The Eulogy
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown Stories

      Nov 13, 2020

      Lockdown Stories
      6 min read

    • Article

      Jason the Heat Guy

      Jan 11, 2021

      Jason the Heat Guy
      11 min read

    • Article

      Competition

      Dec 15, 2021

      IN COMPETITION No 274, you were invited to write a poem called The Phone. Your entries were all the better for the unease, at the least, you felt for the machine. ‘Man home to wife, he barely greets her/ But dials the shop to order pizza,’ observed D

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Posting

      Jun 27, 2023

      The Posting
      35 min read

    • Article

      Like Ripe Fruit

      Nov 5, 2020

      Like Ripe Fruit
      7 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      I’m looking at a photograph of a bearded Romaine Tenney on his hay mowerhitched to draft horses in a half-cut field. Tenney, whose Vermont farm was slatedto be swallowed by Interstate 91, immolated himself, rather than be forciblymoved. My son says,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Nineteen And Pregnant In 1969

      Nov 1, 2022

      I hadn’t been religious for some time, but I prayed, God, please don’t let me die. The post Nineteen and Pregnant in 1969 appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      You agreed to meet him in one of those cafés you imagined yourself writing in if you could afford to live in that city. He was also a writer, but older, and you wanted to know how to get published. Slip a picture of yourself in with your poems, he ad

      6 min read

    • Article

      Notes on Etiquette

      Mar 1, 2019

      Notes on Etiquette
      10 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      What Will We Do for Fun Now?

      Dec 15, 2020

      What Will We Do for Fun Now?
      23 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      All Words Fly

      Aug 21, 2018

      All Words Fly
      10 min read

    • Article

      Immaculate

      Nov 1, 2020

      Immaculate
      9 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Guide

      Jan 2, 2022

      Summer Reading Guide
      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘Toni, It’s Mum. There’s Been An Accident’

      Oct 13, 2021

      Edited extract from Lost & Found: My story of heartbreak and hope by Toni Street with Sophie Neville Like many teenage boys, Stephen loved sport and he loved hanging out with his mates. But he was happiest out on the farm with Dad. They were a tight

      11 min read

    • Article

      Night Visions

      Sep 10, 2022

      Night Visions
      6 min read

    • Article

      Last Love

      Dec 8, 2023

      Last Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Character Studies

      May 18, 2021

      Character Studies
      5 min read

    • Article

      The New Commandments

      Apr 22, 2020

      IT’S getting sombre. The PM’s trip to St Thomas’s winded us all. Our bluff gallows humour, the usual British response to crisis, evaporated. His resurrection (at Easter, with a timeliness that even Dominic ‘Second’ Cummings could not have engineered)

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Total Recall

    4/5

    72 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I love the V.I. Warshawski series, I have listen to many of the books and look forward to many more. I have always given 5 ? this time I am taking one star away because the reader is different. Once I get used to a reader they become the voice of that character. I sure hope you can get back and use the voice of V.I. and all the other regular characters, its just not the same.
      Thank You,
      P. Moore
      Vermont

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The one where Vic's investigation includes the background of Lottie Herschel and the Holocaust. One of the best, a real page turner.
    • 2/5
      Not up to regular standard of writing. I found this story did not catch my attention and was difficult to plow through.
    • 2/5
      5 hours into this 6 hour abridgement, I finally admitted to myself that I just plain didn't care if I found out how everything ended.

      The detective work (such as it was) was sloppy, there were no characters that were sympathetic (a mass murder of everyone involved would have been more satisfying), and the appalling lack of social skills that supposedly passed for witty banter made me grind my teeth.

      This is the 2nd Warshawski book I've abandoned this week. I'm done.
    • 5/5
      Lotty reluctantly reveals some of her past while VI uncovers insurance fraud.
    • 5/5
      11th in the V.I. Warshawski series, set in contemporary Chicago.Paretsky always sets her plots around at least one and usually more social issues, weaving them together in an intricate way so that the issues all bear on one another and the plot as well. Total Recall is one of her best in this respect.Max Loewenthal, the director of Beth Israel Hospital where V>I>’s other close friend, Lotty Herschel works as a surgeon, has a greed to participate in a seminar about recovery of Jewish assets lost during the Shoah. This is in answer to the political efforts of an Orthodox rabbi who is leading a political movement to force insurance companies to pay on policies made out to Jews who died during the Holocaust; the movement is particularly hard on Jewish institutions that it perceives as not being firm enough on this issue. A bill is pending before the Illinois legislature. But life is complicated by an African-American alderman who is also demanding reparations from companies who benefitted from slavery before the Civil War.Add to that paul Radubka a man who claims that he was in Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp that held, among others, Jewish children. paul claims that he had lost his memory due to an abusive foster father, that he has reclaimed those memories thanks to a therapist that uses hypnosis to help people recover such memories--and he has decided that Max and Lotty are his relatives. He gains media attention, and suddenly all of Chicago is focused on this fragile little man who then accuses V.I. as well as Lotty and Max of preventing him from reuniting with his family.Yes, eventually there is a murder. But while that’s sort of standard police procedural stuff, all the issues surrounding the murder are not, and Paretsky handles them superbly in what could very well be her best book in the series to date.It’s utterly absorbing in what we learn about the transport of Jewish children to England just before the war shut everything down, the survivors, the raging debate over the recall of memories through hypnosis, and the arguments on both sides of the issues, both for recovery of Jewish assets and for slave reparations.A fine though not particularly unusual plot greatly enriched by Paretsky’s handling of sensitive social issues. As usual, her stock characters is the series--V.I., Lotty, Max, Mr. Contreras, and a first-timer who will reappear in other books--are very well drawn, making up for the relative thinness of the “bad guys”. An outstanding read, not only for V.I. fans but also for those who enjoy having their police procedurals fleshed out with contemporary issues.
    • 3/5
      After loving the initial books, I seem to have a hard time getting excited about the V. I. Warshawski stories. For the last couple, the writing failed to absorb me. I can't really point my finger at why this was so; the plots were interesting but my attention just kept wandering. If I had to guess, I think I simply wanted the books edited down a bit. I was on the verge of giving up the series. This one turned that aspect of the stories around; I found myself engaged with the writing. There wasn't the sense that Paretsky was dragging the story. On the other hand, there's the story, itself—the mystery aspect of this plot is so completely ho-hum and uninteresting for 99% of the book that there's still no real win here. What was interesting was the Holocaust side story of Victoria's older friends. Unfortunately, that was only a small percentage of the 400+ pages. It's a shame because the small link between the Holocaust angle and the insurance scam angle could actually have been a real winner if it had occupied more of the book. Instead of making it a small device to answer the question, "Why are we even telling Lotty's story?", it would have made for a more thrilling book if it had come center stage 200 pages earlier.I'm still uncertain about whether to continue this series.
    • 5/5
      One of V.I.'s most interesting and baffling mysteries!
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars (rating shown may vary depending on whether site allows half star rating)In this book, we get to learn some of the history of V. I.'s friend, Lotty Herschel. V. I.'s former boyfriend's sister recommends V. I. when a family's life insurance claim is denied because the insurance company claims they paid out the policy 10 years ago. I guessed parts of the plot long before V. I. figured them out.
    • 5/5
      I love every one of the V.I. Warshawski books, but I may just love this one the best. This is a wonderful, meaty read. V.I.'s friend, Lotty Herschel, is totally freaked by a guy who, through therapy, has recalled the memory of his mother. His newly recovered memory places him in Nazi territory during the occupation and makes him Jewish. While Paretsky generally weaves a decent plot around really interesting characters, this time she has a great plot, too.
    • 4/5
      This is a really amusing short story. I can completely see where the movie(s) got their idea, but the short story is really a lot more about what's in Quail's head while the movies turn it into action (and leave out the second half of the short story's plot). I can't really get into that last bit without spoilers, but I really enjoyed the story and prefer it to the movies. The movies are fun, don't get me wrong, but I think the plot and pacing are better in the story.Is this worth a read? Absolutely. If nothing else, it's really short, so you even if you don't like it you won't spend much time on it.
    • 4/5
      My first exposure to Total Recall was the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie version. The original story from which it’s based is a much more condensed version only really sharing the basic premise of the story. Douglass Quail is a bureaucrat languishing through his mundane life while longing for a trip to Mars, something that is out of his reach. The next best thing is to have memories of a trip to Mars implanted in his mind, where he is an interplanetary spy on a dangerous mission. I’m sure most people know how the story goes from there. The story omits all of the actual parts of going to Mars, where the movie expands upon the story.I have to admit that I’m partial to the Schwarzenegger movie version. The original short story presents a much simplified version of this but it’s still interesting, compelling, and well-written. There are a couple of good twists, which I was already familiar with, but the most interesting part of the story is the whole implanting of the memory and how it’s explained in the story. It’s a type of story that despite its brevity, packs a big punch. The final twist at the end was especially satisfying. This is the type of story fans of science fiction will enjoy.Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth
    • 4/5
      Total Recall is set in Chicago and is quite a complex read. The story covers three separate plots that may or may not be connected. The main mystery is centered around an insurance scam, with protestors demanding the recovery of Holocaust assets. PI Warshawski soon finds herself in the middle of another issue concerning the identity of troubled holocaust victim looking for his family. For some unknown reason, this has a devastating affect on Warshawski's friend, Lotty Herschel. As Warshawski bounces between these two themes like a pinball (authors own term), it is difficult at times to remain focused on either plot. The chapters with Lotty's personal interjections are a little jarring at first, although her story is one of the mystery threads the reader is following, so it is helpful to see things from her perspective. Lotty's chapters are also quite moving. Not all the characters in this book are likable: Paul Radbuka's behavior is irrational and a little hard to stomach, and Lotty's treatment of her friends is questionable. The ending is also a little flat with unresolved issues for some of the characters. Totall Recall is a long book, with a lot of information for the reader to digest, however, the story is engrossing. The suspense starts with the discovery of the first murder and continues to build. Paretsky creates good tension between her characters, all of whom are flawed, and the secrets between them keep the reader turning the pages. Total Recall is a decent read.