01/24/2014

Sara Paretsky: ‘Critical Mass’

13:36 minutes

Marietta Blau was a pioneering nuclear physicist with a gender handicap. More than 40 years after her death, she has an unlikely place in the spotlight: as the inspiration for Sara Paretsky’s new V.I. Warshawski detective novel, Critical Mass.

Segment Guests

Sara Paretsky

Sara Paretsky is author of Critical Mass (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013). She’s based in Chicago, Illinois.

Heard on the Air

Read an essay by Paretsky.

Meet the Producer

About Annie Minoff

Annie Minoff is a producer for The Journal from Gimlet Media and the Wall Street Journal, and a former co-host and producer of Undiscovered. She also plays the banjo.

Explore More

A Novelist Inspired by Physicist-Muses

Author Sara Paretsky describes the scientific influences on her new crime detective novel, "Critical Mass."

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