Order of Sara Paretsky Books
Sara Paretsky is an American novelist of detective fiction, largely featuring female private investigator V.I. Warshawski. Paretsky’s contributions to crime fiction include writing a female character who breaks all of the rules of what a female detective is “supposed” to be and transcending the typical labels.
Sara Paretsky had her first novel published in 1982, which was Indemnity Only. The frequency of her novels are typically about one every two years – sometimes more, sometimes less. Below is a list of all of Sara Paretsky’s books in order of when they were originally published:
Publication Order of V.I. Warshawski Books
| Indemnity Only | (1982) |    |
| Deadlock | (1984) | |
| Killing Orders | (1985) | |
| Bitter Medicine | (1987) | |
| Blood Shot / Toxic Shock | (1988) | |
| Burn Marks | (1990) | |
| Guardian Angel | (1992) | |
| Tunnel Vision | (1994) | |
| Hard Time | (1999) | |
| Total Recall | (2001) | |
| Blacklist | (2003) | |
| Fire Sale | (2005) | |
| Hardball | (2009) | |
| Body Work | (2010) | |
| Breakdown | (2012) | |
| Critical Mass | (2013) | |
| Brush Back | (2015) | |
| Fallout | (2017) | |
| Shell Game | (2018) | |
| Dead Land | (2020) | |
| Overboard | (2022) | |
Publication Order of V.I. Warshawski Short Stories/Novellas
| Photo Finish | (2011) | |
| Wildcat | (2017) | |
| Death on the Edge | (2018) | |
Publication Order of V.I. Warshawski Collections
| Windy City Blues | (1995) | |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Ghost Country | (1988) | |
| Bleeding Kansas | (2007) | |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
| Taste of Life | (2017) | |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
| A Taste of Life and Other Stories | (1995) | |
| Love & Other Crimes: Stories | (2020) | |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
| Writing In An Age Of Silence | (2007) | |
| Words, Works, and Ways of Knowing | (2016) | |
Publication Order of Sisters in Crime Books
| Sisters in Crime | (1989) | |
| Sisters in Crime 2 | (1990) | |
| Sisters in Crime 3 | (1990) | |
| Sisters in Crime 4 | (1991) | |
| Sisters In Crime 5 | (1992) | |
| Anthology series. | ||
Publication Order of Deadly Allies Books
| Deadly Allies | (1992) | |
| Deadly Allies II | (1994) | |
Publication Order of Anthologies
| The Eyes Have It | (1984) | |
| Mean Streets | (1986) | |
| Beastly Tales | (1989) | |
| City Sleuths and Tough Guys | (1989) | |
| Sisters in Crime 3 | (1990) | |
| A Woman's Eye | (1991) | |
| 1st Culprit | (1992) | |
| Women of Mystery | (1992) | |
| Deadly Allies | (1992) | |
| The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1991 | (1992) | |
| Female Sleuths | (1993) | |
| The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1992 | (1993) | |
| The New Mystery | (1993) | |
| 3rd Culprit | (1994) | |
| The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection | (1994) | |
| The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1993 | (1994) | |
| Bad Behavior | (1995) | |
| Women on the Case | (1996) | |
| First Cases, Volume 1 | (1996) | |
| The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories 1995 | (1996) | |
| Win, Lose or Die | (1996) | |
| Mystery's Most Wanted | (1997) | |
| Crime After Crime | (1999) | |
| The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century | (2000) | |
| Crime Story Collection | (2000) | |
| Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times | (2001) | |
| A Century of Great Suspense Stories | (2001) | |
| The Longman Anthology of Detective Fiction | (2004) | |
| Sisters on the Case | (2007) | |
| Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe | (2011) | |
| Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold | (2014) | |
| Chicago Blues | (2014) | |
| Gary Phillips' Hollis for Hire | (2018) | |
| Crime Hits Home of Stories from Crime Fiction's Top Authors | (2022) | |
| The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022 | (2022) | |
Notes: Blood Shot was published in the United Kingdom as Toxic Shock. Windy City Blues was also published as V.I. for Short.
do the books need to be read in order?
Not really but I’d recommend reading in publication order. There’s a change late on in the series that affects the chronology of the books and also changes a lot of things that occurs in the books that could make things very confusing.
There is some sort of gap between the Killing Orders(3) and Bitter Medicine(4). A new character Mr. Contreras and she is living in a new location. I tried finding copy of Skin Deep which sounds like a bridge novel indicated by a 3.5. Even though it was published in 1994. Any info available?
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I’ve looked into it but can’t confirm whether Skin Deep would fall in between the two or not. Sara doesn’t even list Skin Deep on her website. I also looked up reviews of Bitter Medicine and am not seeing anyone with a similar complaint that they felt there was something missing, or something to read between the two.
where does the windy city blues come in the v.i. warshawski series
It was published between Burn Marks & Guardian Angel. I’ll have it added under the “Collections” section soon.