Another one of my favorites. Stayed up till wee hours of the morning to finish. ( )

Very good. Her best in the series as Kinsey tracks down the identity of a ?Jane Doe? murder victim of 20 years ago that leads to an area of CA she grew up in. Mostly about small town intrigues and relationships.

This is my favorite Sue Grafton book so far. Probably because the plot of her book is based on a true case of a young woman murdered and her body left in a quarry. The homicide occurred in 1969 and the young woman has never been identified. There are artist sketches of the woman at the end of the book, hoping someone will identify her. Grafton did a great job developing a story about this woman and continued to build Kinsey’s story too. It’s interesting how she gains personal insight as she examines her relationships with friends and family. ( )

I love Kinsey Millhone. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. I started reading the Alphabet series a few years ago - I think at the time it was up to O is for Outlaw. The idea of a mystery series each title beginning with a new letter amused me. I don't know why. I don't think it's particularly original. At least - I've seen a few others since. At the time though it was new to me and it just struck me as perfect. I flew through the series. Kinsey is riveting. She's brash and harsh and charming. She's fierce and flawed. She gets scared. She holds her own. She pushes herself to run often and tackles cases without judgement and with an open mind. Rosie and Henry are brilliant and I love the little family she builds around her.

But Kinsey Millhone isn't Jack Reacher - her speed is more Tracy Crosswhite. [book:My Sister's Grave|22341263] Her cases aren't full of action and high speed chases - they're slowly nitpicking away until something clicks into place. She writes down all her thoughts and places her facts and ideas on 3x5 index cards - which she often shuffles and rearranges to help her solve her case. And I love it. Kinsey Millhone is great - but she's not for everyone.

For some reason I've seen reviewers compare this to Stephanie Plum - I don't know why - this is absolutely NOTHING like that. Stephanie Plum is a very different character and an extremely different type of book. That's more fluff. Kinsey Millhone is more procedural mysteries. And this series isn't current - it was first published in the 80's - there's not really technology. Messages were relayed by calling the landlines. Paper files were still the main form of storage. Not everyone will enjoy reading this. But if you like your mysteries to be more like procedurals with a determined and fierce character - Kinsey Millhone is for you.



Dolan is back! I loved his relationship with Stacey Oliphant - his friend and mentor. I loved that they both jumped on solving an old case for the same reasons - to keep the other one occupied and focused on something other than their health/bad habits, etc. I enjoyed getting to see Kinsey bounce ideas off of someone else too. And her converting Stacey to junk food.

The mystery was interesting but I didn't really like any of the characters involved. I was fascinated by the idea this is based on a real case. I hope that one day they can identify the girl and bring some closure to the family.



4 stars. ( )

It's been many years since I last read a Kinsey Millhone. I stopped, as readers of crime series often do, because the plots become formulaic and the last little bit seemed to have been drained out of character development.

I picked up this particular volume for a number of reasons, not least in the hopes that I would feel the same enjoyment from a return to Kinsey as I had when I revisited V.I. Warshawski last year after a long hiatus. No such luck. While Q is for Quarry wasn't a bad read, it felt tired.

Maybe if I'd stuck with the series and read this shortly after finishing the previous volumes I'd have been more interested in Kinsey's family history, but as it was that sideline struck me as arbitrarily tacked on to the main story. And although the book's afterward makes it clear that the premise for the story was based on a a real unsolved murder, Grafton's plotting transformed those circumstances to a classic Kinsey-style story that wasn't difficult to decipher.

I almost feel guilty for not rating this book more highly. After all, crime fiction enthusiasts who today enjoy books with women as the main character certainly owe a deep debt of gratitude t0 Sue Grafton, along with Sara Paretsky, for paving the way. But I guess I'll forgive myself since I've become bored with series with male protagonists, and dropped them, for the same reasons. ( )