Cerulean Kimono. A Dog-Faced-Dragon Hissing Flames: The Hard-Boiled-Egg Legacy of Violet

books:


	• S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) Sue Grafton Berkley, 2006 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 227 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

Enjoyable and good

As always what I would expect from Sue Grafton. A good mystery with a familiar character in Kinsey Milhorne. What is different though, is the switch from the first person to the third person in the past. Grafton carries this off well and it doesn't detract. All in all a good entertaining book.

Cerulean Kimono. A Dog-Faced-Dragon Hissing Flames: The Hard-Boiled-Egg Legacy of Violet

Using a crisp, time-warp prologue (or first chapter acting as a prologue) is a classic way of opening a P.I. mystery. I admire the artistic feel of this opening style, yet I generally have a hard time getting into a story which doesn't sit me right down into an ongoing, "right-now" narrative.

I slid fairly easily into Kinsey's "I am a..." intro in chapter 2, with the bar/lunch scene in which Millhone reluctantly met her client over a "to drool for," scrumptiously described grilled kaiser roll with salami and pepper-cheese, fried-egg, innards. The melted white cheese infused with red-pepper-flakes definitely hot glued me onto a bar stool along with the characters. The usual Quarter Pounder with cheese would have worked, too, but, for whatever reasons, Kinsey somehow got the gourmet bug in "S."

Once the flow of the flashback chapters seated into the flow of the "I-Kinsey" narrative, the Third Person narratives were engrossing as well as intriguingly and stylishly written. Maybe Grafton had an itch to explore thought patterns of characters with varying degrees of anti-heroic traits, who would be vastly divergent from Kinsey in behavioral motivation. With tremendous panache, Grafton painted these psychological portraits from "inside-the-hearts-of-sinners-and-saints," and she blended them so seamlessly into the 1987 reality that I began to lose track of the 30-yr-cultural-gap, even though the 50's icons, idioms, and inlets-to-the-past were firmly crayoned into each July 1953 chapter.

Though some of the facts uncovered held a dark horror more like King's work than Grafton's, and though that ambiance was released abruptly, I felt no let down with the ending. The full circle symbolism of the kimono and the kaiser roll was exquisite.

"S" is more a work of literary art, a true and classic novel with an experimental edge in the narrative machinations of the psychological profiling chapters, than it is a standard offering of detective fiction, though, for me, it also satisfied the cravings of that genre. I was left with a compulsion to reread several parts, then with a desire to reread the whole. This book has too much psychological pith to get it all in a single run through.

The epilogue left me with the peaceful, haunting essence of the first sight of cherry blossoms after an extended, bone chilling winter.

Only one question remained as I closed the book: Sue has earned the most exquisite, leading-edge, oil-painting renditions of the thematic essence of each of her books. Why is one of the classiest, most astute and revered publishing houses putting out Sue Grafton's phenomenal series with no artwork on the book-jackets?

for more information click here

One of Grafton's best

"S Is for Silence" by Sue Grafton is the 19th entry in the alphabet series of mysteries featuring possibly the best fictional female detective ever created, Kinsey Millhone.
This time out, Grafton has done things differently. She doesn't give us much of Kinsey's personal life. She does, however, give us a terrific, first-class mystery, taking us back in time and introducing us to a whole town full of interesting characters.

Kinsey is hired to find out what happened to a woman who vanished without a trace on the Fourth of July in 1953. In extensive flashbacks, Grafton lets us meet the missing Violet Sullivan, her family, friends, neighbors and the men with whom she was --?er -- "acquainted." Violet could be very friendly with men.

This book had me reading into the wee hours of the morning. I love how Grafton, unlike many mystery writers with a recurring character, doesn't use a plot formula, and she seems to challenge herself to do something new each time. I consider this one of Grafton's best books yet.

for more information click here

Fresh, upbeat and cozy!

Grafton's writing and characterization only improves with age. This could not be said for many writers who are continuing a series. It seems that after a while certain writers get tired of writing about the same character. If Grafton is tired she is not showing it!

Instead Grafton continues a nice tradition of an appealing, intelligent female detective hero who explores the seamy underbelly of coastal Southern California in a cozy and upbeat manner. This is not a noir hero but a zesty full of life woman who likes to eat well and nose out the truth.

I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks to the fifties and the way that Grafton described the lifestyle of a wild sexy woman who invigorated yet scandalized her neighbors.

for more information click here

S is for "Slightly Silly"

Being a long-time reader of Sue Grafton's novels, I awaited the release of "S" with great anticipation. Grafton should be applauded for capturing a high-speed, high-tech audience with 80's technology. Let's see Steven Spieldberg try that.

Ok, so I just have one question: What is Tom's motive? Are we talking greed? Or greed combined with derision for Violet's "easiness"? What? Am I missing something?

reviews: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, page 17, 18, 19, 20

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

A Whole Bunch of Mysteries & Thrillers
Books I Liked Reading - 2006
Mystery novels 24/7
Books on Tape 2006
Sue Grafton

search for books
s is for, kinsey, millhone, mystery, silence

Impressum / about us