5 comments about J is for Judgment (Sue Grafton).

1. I have always believed that a sub-par offering from Grafton is still head-and-shoulders above most other mystery series out there, and "J is for Judgment" proved me right. It has some disappointing flaws coming off of the superb "I is for Innocent", but for a fan like me they are easily forgivable. The tight, fast-paced plotting that made "I" so riveting is lacking here -- partly due to the nature of PI Kinsey Millhone's case. Here she is on the trail of Wendell Jaffe, a man who disappeared on the ocean one night when he was on the verge of being arrested by the police and has been presumed dead for five years. When a claims adjuster for California Fidelity Insurance (the company that Kinsey used to work for) spots a man with an uncanny resemblance to Jaffe in Mexico, the company hires her to find out if Jaffe is indeed alive so that they can go after the life insurance policy that Jaffe's 'widow' has just collected on. There is some great fun to be had while Kinsey heads down to Mexico to pick up on Jaffe's trail and tries to fit in lounging poolside, but once she returns to Santa Teresa, California she reaches an impasse in her investigation that even an expert like Grafton struggles with. Is Jaffe returning to his old stomping grounds to save his son from a murder trial? How do you look for someone that has left no trace? The plot bounces precariously while Grafton tries to align the stars, so to speak, for her readers, but comes out with some nice moments to balance things out. Kinsey also has to struggle with the sudden emergence of a family she never knew -- or cared to know -- existed. It is fun to see Kinsey forced to undergo a little self-examination, but the sub-plot sort of peters out in the book's climax. I assume that Grafton will re-visit the idea in the next book (at least I hope she will) so I'm not too upset about it. "J" is, ultimately, a book for the already initiated fans of Grafton's alphabet series. There's nothing wrong with that, but I do hope that it doesn't become a habit.



2. Sue Grafton writes a great series,you feel like you know the people in the book. Will read the whole series.



3. As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. She can be a terrific storyteller. After being badly disappointed by the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories, but buoyed by the "I" book, I was looking forward to "J," which promised a very interesting tale. Unfortunately, I was disappointed again (though not as badly as I had been by "G" and "H" or as I would be with "L"). It is difficult to get a handle on exactly why. The book is quite a mish-mash.
   
   Grafton opens the "J" book with a complex and fascinating premise, even if it was not exactly original (for example, see John D. MacDonald's "The Empty Copper Sea") -- a slick, near-bust land developer/real estate wheeler-dealer disappears under mysterious circumstances, is presumed dead, yet is spotted elsewhere years later. The early part of the book is interesting, with some good attention to detail. But the book never really takes seriously and runs with its opening plot idea.
   
   Instead, the book strings it out for a while, deteriorates into a series of subplots (about the kids, about the wife, about the cop, about the partner ...) that lead nowhere, and then diddles away any life the story has left with a let-down ending involving a marginal character with a confused motive. This is not helped at all by a last-minute attempt to suggest that the person was a master criminal after all, despite what appears to be impetuous, emotional, out-of-control, lunatic behavior. It leaves the reader wondering why it was worth slogging through all of the pointless personal subplots and complicated original premise.
   
   The book's excellent opening premise seems to be used merely as a gimmick to kick-start an aimless, pointless story. All of the characters' motivations are obscure and confusing: the son, the husband coming back, the partner, someone turning murderous overnight. The murder happens far too late in the book. The story bumps along to a conclusion using one contrived "confession" scene after another (cop investor tells about money still in existence; leads back to partner, etc.).
   
   The opening premise promised a finely crafted complex crime by a single mastermind. Yet, in execution, the promise evaporated because no one person in the story has his/her act together. No one is acting deliberately. Whatever happened -- the storytelling is so obtuse at times it is not entirely clear -- is a mass of completely haphazard and unconnected events (husband returning home because of son; son getting into trouble; cop homing in on extant money). No clear villain emerges who was responsible for one overarching, clever crime, just a bunch of disconnected people spinning their wheels. The attempt on literally the last page of the book to suggest that what had happened had a larger meaning is flip, inadequate, and unconvincing, as is a melodramatic end scene in which a character "swims out to sea."
   
   Generally, Grafton is a witty, upbeat writer, and Millhone is a fun character, and there is evidence of this in the book. The book provides some personal details of Millhone's family history that are mildly interesting. But in this book they feel distracting and painted-on. They fail to gel with the rest of the story and are not presented, much less resolved, in a meaningful way. Not since "H" has Millhone looked as haphazard, disorganized, procedure-oriented, coincidence-driven, and unprofessional. There is simply not enough of a coherent story to support her. The tone of the book is remarkably upbeat, but increasingly comes across as empty flippancy and scenery-chewing utilized just to get through a sagging, aimless plot.
   
   Again, a likable, comfortable lead character and tone and a good premise and beginning made me want to like the book. But it simply fell apart to the point where I cannot in all honesty give it any more than three stars.



4. This series of books is one of the most interesting I have come across. The main character and surrounding characters are very interesting.



5. For me, this one took a while to get into, but it was still a fun, entertaining read. The first paragraph grabs your interest. There are some changes in Kinsey's life, or maybe I should say in her past as she knew it. I look forward to seeing how this incorporates into future books. I'm trying to work my way through the alphabet.

5 comments about C is for Corpse (Sue Grafton).

1. I recently started reading these great books by Sue Grafton and really enjoy them. I was told to read them in order so of course I have only read three so far. I have found "C" is for Corpse the best so far. You begin to believe that Kinsey Millone is an actual person that exist, and can't wait to see what she will be up to next. She's smart, witty, fun, and you can't help but like her. I am saving "D" for deadbeat for my vacation so I will have a guaranteed great read.



2. I recently started reading the Kinsey Milhone series and this one so far is the best. On the first page, we learn that her client, Bobby, is dead and that she's never worked for a dead man before. The story moves quickly, and it was hard to put down.



3. Wonderfully written. Read it in just under 2 days while at the beach! Sue Grafton (and Kinsey Millhone) are tops! I love all the series so far.



4. This is the one that will not let you turn off the light. Her new client has asked her to find out what really happened when he had an almost fatal accident. He doesn't remember a thing except that someone wanted him dead. Her client is dead in three days after she takes the case. Kinsey must get to the bottom of this. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War



5. This character really grows on you. Kinsey goes from one escapade to another without hardly missing a beat. When I finished this book, I immediately wanted to start the next one in the series.

5 comments about N Is for Noose.

1. I JUST ENJOY EVERYTHING I HAVE READ BY SUE GRAFTON
   SHE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS



2. It was nice to see the main character in a different setting and put on her toes. Due to this little plot twist and a couple of others, Kinsey had a more vulnerable feel to her than in previous books and that was an interesting change. It certainly kept you guessing about "who done it" right until the end.



3. Along with "I" and "K," this is one of Grafton's better later books, with a solid, substantive plot and strong storytelling. But there are still some annoying flaws.
   
   In "N," Grafton patiently develops the story through beguilingly human interviews of person after person and genuine legwork. She builds to a suspenseful conclusion even when I've guessed much of it. The story is long on a sense of place and people and attention to the case details; short on philosophizing and social commentary; and non-existent on personal subplots. Compare Grafton's smooth, lean, credible, pleasurable storytelling with Marcia Muller's sometimes all-over-the-place, dreary, convoluted writing (as in Butcher).
   
   Millhone is hired by a deputy sheriff's widow to investigate why he was so upset the last six weeks of his life that he ended up having a heart attack on a lonely road at night. Dutifully, if gripingly ("oh, it's cold, oh, I want to be back in my own bed, oh, there's nothing to find out"), she interviews person after person and tracks lead after lead to piece it all together.
   
   Pieces seem to fall into place when Millhone interviews (several times, somewhat tediously, but, I guess, believably), a female cop back in her home base. Millhone learns that Tom Newquist had linked a killing of a violent ex-con by hanging with a similar killing of a drifter hanger-on of the con; both bodies had been left to rot in remote mountains. Tom was on the trail of the hanger-on (described hilariously by his horny 60-year-old ex-wife), when someone else got to the man first.
   
   Among the raving comments about the book, the reviews finally included something insightful: "While the usually sassy Kinsey wit is here ... there is less violence and more emphasis on character. One of the more thoughtful mysteries in the series." "Her best work since K Is For Killer."
   
   The sassiness of past novels, which can make the plots seem even more slight (K Is For Killer comes to mind), is less off-putting here. But Grafton maddeningly fails to engage in deductive reasoning along the way, letting what are obviously major clues drop without comment. And she stoops at times to horror/suspense melodrama and physical violence that only serve to undermine her character's credibility as a professional.
   
   Especially in the earlier novels, but also in some of the middle ones, Grafton is sometimes given to gratuitous physical abuse of Millhone. There is a very unsettling scene where Millhone is tailed by a tough in a sewn-tighter ski mask and black panel truck (conveniently left with the keys in it by a colorful local because it had been stolen so often he "stopped caring"), who then picks the lock of her isolated motel cabin, breaks in the door, beats her up, dislocates her fingers (leading to a long filler scene at the hospital), and gratuitously vandalizes her property.
   
   Similarly overblown is the end scene, where Millhone is drugged and stalked, as her mind amazingly manages to put all the pieces together and then, with superhuman strength, she takes the killer down, avenging her shame at being beaten up before, and then fends off another character.
   
   Though not without some suspense, the ending goes over the top, becoming a predictable, melodramatic mess. In her drugged frenzy, Millhone puts together pieces that should have been obvious, like about certain brownies and about the iron burn she inflicted on her motel assailant. Stupidly, Millhone earlier allows herself to be assaulted in the motel because she delays returning home to get her gun. Then when she brings one later, she sticks it under a mattress, where it is easily stolen in a staged break-in. One of the final clues is a clumsy code in Tom's notebook, which turns out to be ridiculously simplistic, strangely kids-stuff for a serious story. Themes like "secure in my ignorance of events to come" fall flat because Millhone should have picked up on the obvious danger signs at the time. She can come off as supremely ineffectual.
   
   Confusion surrounds the possible motives. I thought for a while that the ex-con was the abusive natural father of another character (the mother had two front teeth grayed from abuse). But the hanger-on would not have known the con back that far and no mention of this is made in the abrupt ending of the book. So I take what the book does mention, about a camping trip, at face value. Thrown in for good measure but apparently unrelated, one character is the lover of a woman who killed her husband 5 or 6 years earlier for insurance money, claiming she thought he was an intruder, and was put down by Tom, a straight-arrow cop, even though he had courted the same woman years earlier.
   
   At times, Millhone's whining about the case is excessive and annoying. Her brief personal recriminations about having been humiliated by the masked intruder, no doubt intended to foreshadow a humiliation motive, are short, superficial, and exploitative, transparently used for effect. Injected near the end is a bunch of bad-mouthing of Millhone that was supposed to set her up for a staged death but merely came off as a flimsy gimmick. The plot point about a character holding onto Tom's notebook for months on end, not even sharing it with her cop father or her mother, is as convenient a delayed-action storytelling ploy as it is unbelievable.
   
   Overall, the ending is very hurried. The epilogue is short and not very useful ("they let me read the police files," but does not tell the reader what they contained, just signs off with a hint of philosophisizing about the widow should have left well enough alone).



4. Considering this is a Sue Grafton mystery with a particularly fast pace and a tense and unsettling plot, I was surprised to see some negative reviews on here. Someone compared the town that Kinsey is based out of in this mystery to Twin Peaks and I can see the similarities. Every character seems to be hiding something and protecting someone, but who!?!? This Grafton mystery has quite a dark tone to it, which I love, and I consider this to be one of my favorite Kinsey cases. Kinsey is a character I seem to love more and more with each book I read in this series. An excellent, thrilling mystery!



5. This wasn't my favorite of the alphabet series, but was it was still good. In fact, I've read it twice. I read it a few years ago, then decided that I wanted to read the series in order. I've done that and it only made sense to refresh my memory with N is for Noose.
   
   Parts of it seemed to drag, but the character of Kinsey and her resourcefulnesss make up for the slow parts. I look forward to the next book in the series.

5 comments about K is for Killer (Sue Grafton).

1. Ahh, Sue Grafton. My guilty pleasure of choice, because with her (usually) firm grip on characterization and plotting she crafts the best mystery series out there with her alphabet mysteries -- and one could scarcely call them a 'guilty' pleasure at all. Having just read three heavy, depressing novels in a row I found that I needed an escape. So what did I do? I picked up the next installment of P.I. Kinsey Millhone's adventures and found solace in her hometown of Santa Teresa, California in the 1980s. "K is for Killer" is a step up from the clunking "J is for Judgment", but unfortunately suffers from some problems of its own. While I am imminently satisfied with "K", I am a little nervous. "H" was a flat-out stinker, "J" was pretty flawed, and now "K" shows visible signs of strain in Grafton's usually tight grip on pacing and plotting -- with only the sterling "I is for Innocent" remaining on par with the earlier books in the series. You see, while Grafton's style usually has the plot delving right into the mystery at hand (she is not an author who likes to waste time -- which is one of the things I love about her), in "K" it feels forced and unrealistic. Kinsey is approached by a client, Janice Kepler, who wants her to investigate her daughter Lorna's mysterious death ten months earlier, late on a Sunday evening. By Monday morning Kinsey has not only plowed through the background information that Janice supplied her with, but spoken to not one but TWO of the people involved in the case. Kinsey's investigation moves at such a rapid clip that it becomes completely implausible. And in all of her questioning, only one potential suspect in the entire book seems reluctant to talk to her. One suspect is even willing to squeeze her in at a moment's notice even though he has an important annual meeting in a mere fifteen minutes. Now come on -- guilty or innocent, wouldn't he rather prep for the meeting than re-hash the details of a case he's been talking to the police about for ten months?
   
   A lot of criticism has been lobbed at this book in recent reviews that Kinsey gets too unrealistically involved in the life of a young prostitute character, and I think this is only half true. She doesn't seem to get any more involved with this character than she does with other characters in other books, but her crazed devotion to the case is startlingly out of place, and makes it appear that way. And here lies the defining flaw of "K is for Killer": its plot is remarkably contrived for a Grafton novel. Kinsey even develops a curious -- and unexplained -- case of insomnia that allows her to keep working on the case at all hours and keep the plot moving (and how lucky for her that most of the suspects also work nights, so they are always available no matter how ridiculous the hour). Another all-too-convenient set-up has her randomly showing up at a suspect's house in the middle of the night for no apparent reason other than to stumble upon someone beating them half to death with a pipe. It might have been shocking if it hadn't been so predictable -- and there's a word I NEVER thought that I would associate with Grafton. The ending is also, frankly, ridiculous, and not because of who the killer turns out to be but because of how the final confrontation plays out and where it takes place. Ludicrous -- ANOTHER word I never thought I would associate with Grafton.
   
   So, with all of that griping why am I giving "K" four stars instead of three? Perhaps a degree of it is loyalty to Grafton, but not much. Truth is that as flawed as "K" is it's still an enjoyable ride, and it was just what the doctor ordered. I wanted a guilty pleasure and I got one, and the only troubling factor here is that "H", "J", and "K" have amplified the 'guilty' half of that equation a little too much. I look forward to continuing through the series with "L is for Lawless", but I hope that Grafton manages to bring the pleasurable aspect of her books back to the forefront.
   Grade: B-



2. I am an off and on again reader of Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries. Eventually, I will get around to reading them all, but it is not on my priority list of author's or series.
   
   That being said, I enjoyed this one. I thought the plot line led Kinsey to interesting people and places. As others have already noted, the ending is a bit forced. I understand why (Kinsey makes an ethical compromise that she would rather just gloss over) but it does not do much service to the reader.
   
   I give this one a B+ and I would say that this one makes me more likely rather than less likely to pick up another one in this series.



3. As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. She can be a terrific storyteller. After being badly disappointed by the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories, and buoyed by the more substantial "I" and (to a lesser extent) "J" book, I was looking forward to "K." When picking up "K," you have to wonder where the story can go, as Millhone herself admits: how in the world after all of this time is she going to be able to get to the bottom of a 10-month-old death with no clues?
   
   I found much of the book fast-paced and engaging, with diligent, believable legwork. Certain characters and descriptions are interesting. Grafton creates two memorable and likable victims. She gives them characteristics and a lifestyle that make them intriguing and make the reader want to know more. The book avoids the pitfall of venturing into out-of-its-depth "social commentary"; aside from a few scattered acerbic or snide remarks about pornography, the book is remarkably matter-of-fact and clinical, unlike Melodie Johnson-Howe's regrettably amateurish, ludicrous treatment of the subject in "Beauty Dies." There is thus a lot of interest in the interrogations of people who knew the victims. The interviews are matter-of-fact and believable, but they are not terribly informative, and show how much the suspense and interest of the book is driven by making the main victim a girl-next-door-high-class hooker and would-be porn queen.
   
   The twists in the plot that Millhone's investigation brings to light are generally believable (for example, one character's tampering with a crime scene and a jealous wife planting an item in a home). The "new" evidence she turns up is generally well-finessed to avoid the obvious question why the detailed police investigation fell flat.
   
   But the book grows increasingly frustrating when it becomes clear that the routine interviews are all the book had to offer and that they are not adding up to much. By contrast to the victims, the suspects are poorly explored characters with no motives. A land developer is not introduced until late in the book, as a result of a fortuitous tape recording. The "community meeting" about the development is one of the sketchiest, lamest, most exaggerated, least believable descriptions in the book (Millhone supposedly "falling asleep" is a lame excuse for skimping on details). The crucial link between suspects is an awful, improbable gift clue of a photo (why would a killer choose to attack a victim when it would be impossible to thoroughly search the apartment for such items, much less let it be shot in the first place? What good did it do to "kill all the witnesses," a throwaway line explanation, if possibly and glaringly incriminating evidence was left behind?).
   
   The payoff is a superficially (if at all) described land development scam with a pool electrocution killing on the side. Because the crime lacks intricacy and cleverness, the detection merely had to be, and is, serviceable and routine, if diligent, to uncover it. And, of course, it is assisted by plot contrivances like a hidden tape recorder, Berlyn's intervention, the photo, and the killer's attempt on Millhone's life. The last two of these are the most disappointing, but the story has too little payoff to offset any of them. The story also includes a regrettable and pointless coincidence (a "kinky sex" relationship between two victims) and depends on unexplained, implausible behavior (the killer blabbing supposedly ingenious murder plans to one of the victims). The melodramatic end scene where Millhone confronts the killer and is blasted with a stun gun, before the intercession of a "man in an overcoat," undermines her professionalism and is an abrupt, anticlimactic conclusion. The last-minute theme-type allusion to "returning from the darkness" of vengeance, tied to the book's leitmotif of "living in the darkness, in the night," is mere atmospherics, not meaningful substance.
   
   The bottom line is that the highly charged premise and interesting, entertaining elements along the way come to precious little in the end. This holds the book's rating down to between three and four stars, which, among the later books up to "O" that are closest to it in quality, is better than "J," "O," and probably "M," but not as good as "N."



4. I'm working my way through the alphabet and these books are proving to be a guilty escape. K is for Killer is one of the best ones so far. While these books aren't deep or graphic, they are fun, and I look forward to the next one.



5. Kinsey is asked to solve the murder of her client's daughter. The victim had a second job as a lady of the night. There are many suspects but Kinsey cannot point her finger at any of them. So who killed this lovely creature? The mystery is a complex one that keeps you turning the page. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and Natchez Above The River"
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War

5 comments about H is for Homicide (Sue Grafton).

1. I started the series when my husband went off to Iraq and sadly I got out of order! Finally, getting back to the begining of the series and I was at "H" Far and away her best book yet (and I have read the most recent). I admit I was concerned for Kinsey and had to skip certain passages. However, the last three words (as another reviewer aptly put it) will have me picking up the book again and reading it much more closely.



2. It's been a while since I read one of her books, but they're just as great as I remember. I don't recall her others being quite so violent as this, but the violence was necessary to the story. As an added bonus, but one that applies solely to this reader, I once had what I thought was a great idea for an antagonist in a thriller but was horribly unable to write the thing. Sue Grafton used a similar idea quite successfully here. I hate to see great ideas go to waste, so I'm happy she did that. As a fine and final endorsement of this novel, I'm going to read another one. Next week, unfortunately. Tough editing schedule.



3. H is for Homicide...the books just keep getting better. Kinsey is interested in the apparent homicide of a casual work acquaintance. Soon, she is investigating one of his ex clients for insurance fraud. In no time Kinsey is in over her head and without protection in Los Angeles in a gang ridden hood. She is undercover, and there is a surprise at the end. It is interesting to see Kinsey functioning totally out of her element and home environment.



4. Sue Grafton is an amazing talent! In H Is For Homicide, Kinsey's case has her dealing with some tough characters in even tougher areas around Los Angeles. The departure from Santa Teresa seems to be displeasing to some, but Grafton is able to put Kinsey into almost any situation anywhere and make it believable and entertaining. There are many great scenes with Kinsey, using a fun alias, dealing with her desire to get away from the shady creatures she's involved with while also facing her unstoppable desire to right wrongs and help out those in danger. Raymond and Bibianna are particularly memorable supporting characters as well.



5. There is a homicide and Kinsey doesn't want any part of it because she is already busy with a case. Kinsey's case takes her all over Los Angeles. The question is are the two cases related? The suspense keeps building and you cannot put it down. It is a great mystery, read and enjoy it. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War

5 comments about B is for Burglar (Sue Grafton).

1. Nice series for anyone that wants a decent mystery series to read at work or during down times.



2. Sue Grafton's second Kinsey Milhone book is a terrific mystery. Kinsey is hired by Beverly Danzinger to find her sister, a wealthy widow named Elaine Boldt. Beverly assumes that Elaine will show up at any time; after all, Elaine splits her time between residences in Santa Teresa, California (Kinsey's hometown) and Boca Raton, Florida, and could just be on vacation somewhere. Kinsey, though, begins to understand that what seemed like a routine case will be more challenging than she first thought. After tracking down Elaine's luggage, Kinsey realizes that she needs to work quickly to solve this mystery.
   
   "B is for Burglar" is a well-plotted but straight-forward mystery novel. Published in 1985, the book uses a no-fuss, old-fashioned approach - no CSI-style flash here. That's the appeal of this series, though. Kinsey is fleshed out more here than in the first novel ("A is for Alibi"), and we get some intriguing supporting characters. I just recently started reading Grafton's Alphabet Mystery Series, beginning with "A is for Alibi;" so I cannot compare "B is for Burglar" to the later entries. However, I can say that the novel is most definitely strong enough to make me want to read the next entry.



3. Another exciting book by Sue Grafton. This ending really surprised me. She gives you just enough information on each character that I'm constantly trying to guess who the bad guy/woman is. Kinsey is my hero!



4. It should be an easy case for Kinsey to find the flashy widow. She disappeared on her way to Florida. However the more Kinsey looks into the case the more complicated it becomes. Grafton winds you around the country and through the plot until that last paragraph. It is a fun mystery to read. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River'
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War



5. This book was hard to put down once I started reading it. The characters are well developed and the depth of description of locales is amazing. Having visited Santa Barbara, I can almost see the places that Kinsey speaks of when speaking of "Santa Teresa". Very enjoyable reading.

5 comments about "O" Is for Outlaw (Sue Grafton).

1. I have enjoyed all of Sue Grafton's books from A to N, and this is the first one I didn't think was very good. It just didn't grab my attention. For the first time I had trouble finishing one of her books. Not bad; just not up to par.



2. Sue Grafton has managed to maintain the quality of her Kinsey Millhone stories throughout her excellent series. I both re-read her books and listen to them on tape. Kinsey is a realistic character. We know who she is but her quirks do not take over the books--a pitfall many other writers of mystery series fall into. I keep checking for her next book...



3. I have read this entire series and cannot wait for the next letter to be
   written. I enjoy following the same detective through the years. Very interesting stories; great reads.



4. As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. Kinsey Millhone is an entertaining character. Unfortunately, the quality of the series became inconsistent, dipping badly by the time of the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories, rallying with stronger efforts in "I," to some extent "J," and "K," stumbling badly again with "L," but climbing up again with the fair "M" and good "N" books. My reaction to "O" is that it slumped down from "I," "K," and "N" to "J" and "M" territory.
   
   The book begins with Millhone being visited by someone who blind-bids on the contents of storage lockers when the person renting the locker has not kept up the payments. After refusing to budge on a price of $20, Millhone buys a box of old keepsakes of items from her past, all the way back to her tender school days, and then burgles the bidder's house to discover the location of the locker. Among the items, stuck to the back of something else, is a 14-year-old letter from Dixie, then bartender at the local cop bar, The Honky-Tonk. The letter tells Millhone that she should not be deserting her husband, ex-vice-cop Michael "Mickey" Macgruder, over his supposed involvement in the beating death of a Vietnam veteran with a plate in his head, because in fact Mickey was having an affair with Dixie and was at her place after hours when the beating took place. Apparently just before the letter had arrived all those years ago, Millhone left, never to look back, after less than a year of marriage, when Mickey asked her to give him a false alibi for the night of the beating. Mickey then left the police force, avoiding further investigation, on the advice of his lawyer, now a would-be politician. In later years, Mickey fell on hard times, drinking too much and losing his edge, scratching out an existence as a security guard. Soon after foraging the box, Millhone is approached by two LA cops investigating Mickey's shooting (by a gun he gave her for a wedding gift years earlier and kept). Throughout the book, Mickey lies in a coma.
   
   Millhone begins investigating, which is more difficult than it seems because Mickey is a loner with "paranoid" tendencies, using aliases and fake addresses. She finds his apartment (with delightfully dotty old landladies, who act nice to Millhone at first but later grow strangely cold), searches it and finds hidden cash and fake IDs. She circles back to one of Mickey's ex-cop buddies, to Dixie and her formerly down-and-out Vietnam paraplegic husband who has now become a mogul with a big fake limbs business, to Mickey's long-time lawyer and his wife, and to "the Tonk," now under ownership and patronage of sons of Mickey's cop circle who had hung out there before, with its young, moody waitress. Into the mix rides a seedy young biker character who turns out to be the dead vet's younger half-brother, who, after the death, followed his brother's footsteps cross-country to California. With a box of Vietnam-era artifacts collected by the brother, the biker confronts Mickey but later tells Millhone that they became buddies.
   
   Basically, two main plot lines flow from Millhone's look into Mickey's life. (There are subplots, like discovering which women Mickey has been involved with over the years.) First, after repeated visits to the bar, Millhone comes up with the idea that Mickey had tumbled to a scam being run out of the bar. This falls into place when an older guy shows up in the bar bearing the same name as one on Mickey's own fake IDs.
   
   Second, Millhone tracks Mickey to Louisville, KY, which he had visited shortly before being shot and which turns out to be the origin of multiple characters in the book. With some interviews and research, she uncovers events involving certain characters that date back to Vietnam.
   
   Millhone returns to California and, with the LA cops standing by, engineers a confrontation with the culprit that ends up spinning out of control into a lengthy car chase and action sequence. The book ends with a short description of later visits to Mickey in the hospital.
   
   The book has Grafton's usual pleasant, breezy readability and light tone. Millhone has some candid moments describing her school days and her reaction to discovering her first husband's infidelity. There is some texture to the characterizations (for example, an apparent tough street punk has a disarmingly natural, low-key scene with Millhone), although Millhone does at times seem to act impish or contrary just for the sake of it, and her exchanges with Henry seem to cut a little rough. Millhone does some legwork. There is some detail and complexity to the story, which holds together well enough on its own terms.
   
   But the book is painfully fragile under scrutiny. This is all the more so because Grafton chose potentially powerful, intense, and meaningful subject matter for the book, but she did not rise to the occasion.
   
   When all is said and done, Grafton does precious little to make Mickey come to life as a character. There is not enough vivid description of his past or present to back up the "outlaw" label of the title; he comes across more as a weird, lanky lunkhead (Grafton should have done a better job and made this her "M" book, for Maverick). His motivation and involvement in getting to the bottom of the scam at the bar and the Vietnam events are weakly explained and, as a result, feel strained.
   
   Indeed, as presented, the Vietnam plot -- both the original events and how they entangle characters in LA many years later, including Mickey -- is tenuous, contrived, and convoluted. This makes the book feel artificial, not alive with the raw emotion of deep, dark secrets and vindication of past wrongs (including wrongs to Mickey). The events are implausible, depending on one character having an affair (explanation is labored); another finding out at just the right time all about it (there is no explanation); the brain-damaged vet having the presence of mind to travel across country for repeated but completely unobserved attempts to shake down a character and coincidentally getting into a shouting match with Mickey; the biker half-brother, initially presented as a fierce misfit, following nobly and loyally in the brother's footsteps and becoming a puppy-dog confidant of Mickey and later Millhone; and so on.
   
   The bar scam plot is a pasted-on, time-consuming side show to the main story line. I take the point of other reviews that the book seems padded (it is over 350 pages). This plot also leads to a forced scene in which Millhone supposedly discovers through building a house of cards with her trademark notecards about her investigation that "the name is the same!" of a visitor to the bar and one of Mickey's fake IDs, rather than simply remembering the very recently observed and distinctive name on her own.
   
   Some reviewers are troubled by the coincidence of the bidder and police coming to Millhone, days apart. That does not bother me overly much, because the book explains that Mickey has fallen behind in his bills over the past several months and the shooting has only made matters worse.
   
   What does concern me is the plot contrivance that unlocks Mickey's past and makes Millhone look at events completely differently -- Dixie's 14-year-old letter. It is not only hard to believe that Dixie would choose to communicate with Millhone by letter sent to the couple's house (and then never follow up). It is even harder to believe that Mickey (alone in the house, after Millhone's walk-out) would be the one to receive the envelope and toss it aside unopened, yet keep it, so it turns up "stuck to something else" in the box the bidder gives to Millhone 14 years later.
   
   The tone of carefree, easy confidence and cocky detachment in Grafton's books can be entertaining and avoid pitfalls of melodrama or "social commentary." But it is out of place here. More attention is given to a couple of comic incidents where Millhone acts petulant or spiteful after finding out about Mickey's infidelity than any serious attempt to show the character dealing with the fact that she misjudged her husband about his involvement in the beating, that she walked out on him, that his heart seems to have gone out of his life, and that he is now dying.
   
   Contrary to soft-touch reviews, the clumsy attempt in a few final lines of the book to paste on supposedly emotional scenes in the hospital are far too little, far too late, as Mickey hangs on just long enough for Millhone to solve the case first before she decides to go through the motions of showing any feeling. The only remotely genuine, effective moment on that score in the entire book is when Millhone is halfway out the door of Mickey's apartment with all of his items of value but goes back to the closet to collect his old leather jacket that she remembers from their past time together, which she later wears to the bar. But I cannot tell if even that gesture was written more for plot contrivance (hidden contents; gets waittress' attention) than any idea of emotional truth.
   
   Finally, as others have pointed out, the chase-and-action ending is damaging, over-the-top excess that comes off as perverse, low comedy. It involves Millhone knowingly driving past two LA police detectives who were staking her out, as well as local police officers, with the armed culprit bearing down on her, grinning maniacally, in a following car. The scene drags on for the sole purpose of leading to a particular location where another character with a stake in the story line can overhear Millhone and the culprit exchange final comments about the case and burst on the scene with heavy machinery, dismembering the villain.
   
   The upshot, as I see it, is another light-read, fairly solid, middling-quality Grafton that ends up stuck between two and three stars. What is particularly disappointing is the missed opportunity to give the personal elements of the story anything close to the depth, feeling, and meaning they deserved, and to link them more directly and effectively to the story.



5. While each Sue Grafton book is pretty wonderful, this one is among my favorites thus far. As many other reviewers mentioned, this Kinsey book delves into her past as she attempts to figure out who shot her ex-husband. Two detectives, Claas and Aldo, seem to think Kinsey might have been involved. I loved how this book made Kinsey examine who she was at a young age and how she has changed in the years since her first marriage. The majority of the characters involved in this mystery are intriguing, including Belmira and Cordia, two women that I found to be among the most interesting in the novel. I recommend this series to people all the time. Fun novels with a fast pace and a fabulous protagonist in Kinsey. A delicious entry in a truly enjoyable series!

5 comments about M is for Malice (Sue Grafton).

1. We begin with M IS FOR MALICE by Sue Grafton. I put it on my nightstand immediately after finishing L IS FOR LAWLESS, but I needed a couple of weeks to get around to it. Damn this editing job. Great book. Her style just keeps evolving, which is the only way to keep a series going so long. I'm never able to solve her mysteries. Then she gives me the solution and I say, "Of course" because the clues were always in plain sight, but it doesn't matter because that's not why we read Sue Grafton. I'm also pleased that she didn't make M for the very obvious but lame Murder and I'm already wondering what X and Z are for. (Q is on my bookshelf waiting to be read. Quarry.)
   
   Next up is N IS FOR NOOSE by, you guessed it, Sue Grafton. The fourteenth book in the series, and each one is different. She's got the gift. Oh, and I did solve most of it 20 pages before the ending. Yahoo wahoo and yippee skippy.
   
   (Are any of Mr Gaskill's subscribers reading this? Hello, you wonderful you.)



2. As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. She can be a terrific storyteller. After rallying from the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories with stronger efforts in "I," "J," and "K," the "Lawless" book returned to the bottom of the heap. So I was not sure what to expect from "M." At least the book explains, "Mill-hone, ... Accent on the first syllable. The last rhymes with bone."
   
   The book is very slow to get started. The murder does not happen until page 200. Even after it does, the book continues to drag at a self-indulgently slow, lackadaisical pace. The murder is a crude, boring bashing-in of a person's head while he is sleeping, so there is nothing clever or interesting about the method or any detection related thereto.
   
   It looks as if someone from missing heir Guy Malek's bad-boy past has come back to kill him once Millhone runs him to earth for his construction company boss father as a now-humble, changed man. Millhone suspects the crime has its roots in a personal connection, fraud, and death from years ago. Without giving it away, the plot is a familiar cliche, embroidered with some complicated and sentimental details. So intent is the book on making Guy into a sympathetic character that it does not even have the courage of its convictions about his supposedly disreputable past. The characters are hazy and unmemorable.
   
   Again, Grafton paints on some personal subplots. Millhone gets involved in the case because of her relative Tasha. The book mentions Henry Pitts and his brother William and ethnic wife, who runs the diner up the street. The book injects P.I. Robert Dietz into the story. But this is all tacked on, superficially, with no meaningful connection or theme, just as Grafton's attempts to forge a link between Millhone and Guy Malek fall flat. These personal angles seem to get ever more perfunctory; reviews that find great meaning in those in "M" are fooling themselves.
   
   What distinguishes this book for me was its carefree, easy confidence, which makes it breezy reading in one sense. But it also makes the book slack, uninvolving storytelling that only really picks up in the last 50 pages. The book certainly has more to it than "L." "M" is in the ballpark of "J" or "K" only because, though hardly original, its plot ends up being more focused, coherent, and meaningful than those books.



3. How much more "back to basics" can you get than this? A multi-millionaire dies. The current will is missing so an older one has to be used. The dis-inherited black sheep son is found and brought back to the mansion. Murder & mayhem follow.
   
   Kinsey's personal life continues to evolve in this one. Set in 1986, the total lack of laptop computers, internet & cell phones are a bit jarring and will probably confuse younger readers (why doesn't she just google this person?) who don't pick up on the clues, do the math and figure out what year it is.
   
   I am an occassional reader of the Kinsey Millhone series rather than a hardcore fan, but it seems to me that they have a tendency to get better, rather than weaker like most series.



4. The plot is an interesting one. There is an inheritance of millions and there are four brothers to share it. However before anyone can inherit their money they must find the sibling that is missing. He has been gone for eighteen years. It is Kinsey's job to fine him. It is not simple and there is always suspense and intrigue when Kinsey is working. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream' and "Natchez Above The River"
   
   Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War



5. M is for Malice is one of the better books so far. Not only is there a compelling mystery, but we also get a visit from someone in Kinsey's past. I'm reading M, N and O in the three in one version, and there is a note from Sue Grafton about the time warp the character of Kinsey is caught in. I find myself wondering why Kinsey isn't using cell phones, computers, etc. and the author explains that since the time from each story is only a few months, not a year as the books come out, Kinsey is still in the 80's.

5 comments about P is for Peril: A Kinsey Milhone Mystery (Sue Grafton).

1. What was that? I've enjoyed Sue Grafton's A through O books over the past year, but this was sub-par. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, but it never did. The book just (mercifully) . . . ended.



2. I've to date read every book in the series (except "I" and "Q" which I'll read soon). Of these reads, this one is the most uninteresting book I've encountered. It's as if the author tired of the subject and decided that 350 pages was enough and... oh, well. At least the characterization of Kinsey is still intact. I'm sorry - I don't wish to write a negative review but the weak ending (and the lack of the "Respectfully Submitted" report) is what ruined the read for me.



3. I have been reading a lot of Sue Grafton lately and loving them all. This was the first one that I found I wasn't enjoying as much as the rest. After reading reviews here, I see that I am not alone. It's really quite strange. The main plot is fairly slow moving and not very captivating. I agree with other reviewers who said they liked the subplot with Kinsey trying to find a new office space better. Most of the reviews mention the peculiar ending. This book really needs a better conclusion than what we are given. I can understand Grafton's desire to try something new, but it's odd since it is part of a series and it's really more irritating that anything else because it just doesn't work. I would be curious to hear Grafton discuss this book in detail to better understand her process in writing it.



4. I have read all of this series so far (up through "T") and of all the books so far, I found this to be the weakest in storyline. There were too many sub-plots and characters that never got explained. All of the other "Alphabet Series" mysteries have been so engrossing that the books were hard to put down and I was eager to pick them up as soon as I could find a spare minute. But not this one. For some reason, this storyline did not grab me like all of her other stories have. It came across too much like she was trying to make some sort of "social statement" rather than writing a thriller. I won't give away the storyline or plot, but it did seem to me to be a little contrived, and too many coincidences occured for it so be "real-life". I love it when Grafton brings Kinsey's extended family (cousins, etc.) into play and wish she would do it more. If this book was being compared to most other fiction/mystery novels, I would have rated it a five, but I was comparing it to the other Grafton novels, and in my humble opinion, this one just doesn't measure up to the others she has written.



5. This is the first Grafton book I've read. If it's any indication of the quality of her other books, this will be the last. Some of this book reads like a printout of driving directions from mapquest..."I took such-and-such road to another road and stopped. I looked left and then turned..." who cares??? She drones on and on with minutiae which drag out the story and bore the reader. The rest of the book is like reading the weather forecast, as the reader is subjected to minutiae regarding the clouds, the mist, the rain. Big deal. Who cares? Boring. Pedantic. Predictable.

5 comments about Q is for Quarry (Sue Grafton).

1. As good as she always is. Got here in a good time and in great condition



2. I was puzzled by the story inserted about Kinsey's family background. It never was resolved. It was the only interesting aspect of the book.



3. This was only my second Kinsey Millhone novel, as I happened across a copy of this as well as one of the later books. I didn't find my lack of familiarity with Kinsey's previous cases (and supporting cast) to be a problem. However, I found this story dragged on too long, for very little payoff. The new information we learned about Kinsey's family was interesting as far as it went, but I can only assume it was a 'teaser' for later volumes.
   I can't compare/contrast or judge Grafton's writing style too much, but I thought she overdid some of the descriptive paragraphs, as well as the repeated, mundane activities(numerous fast-food meals, for example). While there's nothing wrong with fleshing out a story this way, those little 'digressions' took over the story after a while.
   'Quarry' just never really got off the ground. Too many 'shady, small-town' stereoypes, and nothing to really hook the reader, other than the murder being an 'old'(cold) case. Maybe tying the 1969 date to something more historically interesting(like the Manson or Zodiac murders) would have helped. Grafton should have spent more time coming up with fresher characters, rather than concocting clever fictional names for obscure desert towns.
   I didn't mind the two 'Statler and Waldorf' detectives, though their repeated failing health and 'hospital' references were overdone.
   I won't write off the 'Alphabet Mysteries' just yet...'T is for Trespass' will be my next review as soon as I finish it!



4. I think this is one of her better books.
   Have read the series up to this one, and like them all.



5. A body is found in a Quarry (Q, right), and is linked to a disappearance of a teenage girl 18 years previously. Kinsey Milhone links up with 2 retired police officers to track down the killer. The book is full of details that detracted, rather than helped, me as I read along. There are too many characters in the story, many of of them interlinked to each other in really complex ways. At one point, I almost had the urge to make a chart of them all and draw arrows, etc to make sense of who was who. In any event, when the identity of the killer is revealed, I was relieved....this book was beginning to sap my patience, and I was about to put it down and give up on it. This is the first Sue Grafton/Kinsey Milhone book I have read. I may just try one more book of hers, before I give up on her.