Good Until Near the End-What Did Happen?

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	• P Is for Peril (A Marian Wood Book) (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries (Hardcover)) Sue Grafton Amazon Remainders Account, 2001 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 253 reviews view larger image
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Good Until Near the End-What Did Happen?

This book was good until I came toward the end-then it was lost. It didn't really have time to build the final climax. So it was disappointing to me.

Dr. Dowan Purcell has been missing, and his ex-wife, Fiona is the one who hires Kinsey to find out what really happened to him, not Crystal his current wife. So Kinsey begins to search back into Dowan's background, and the longer she traces back to what may have happened to Dowan, the more it seems Fiona is the suspect. Or it may be Dowan's troubled teenage daughter Leila, who had everything against her dad. Kinsey doesn't know what to make of the whole thing, at least not for a long time.

Then Kinsey puts herself into another type of danger as well that has nothing to do with the case. She answers an ad for apartment space that two gentleman are offering. She ends up with the apartment, only to find out that these two men who are brothers, are very dangerous. One of them, Tommy, makes the moves on Kinsey and starts to follow her around. Kinsey better watch her back when she decides to break the lease, and these guys come after her.

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So-So

First, I did not like the ending at all!!!

Second, two stories in one...Tommy was too predictable!!!

This was okay...maybe "Q" will be better...lets hope!!!

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No "Respectfully Submitted" ???

P is for Peril is the another of Sue Grafton's quests to cover the entire alphabet with Kinsey Millhone mysteries. It's a very good mystery, but G is for Gumshoe still has to be my favorite!

P is for Peril has Kinsey hired by a bitter ex-wife to try to find a missing doctor. Dr. Dowan Purcell disappeared leaving many unanswered questions and speculation of fraudulent Medicare claims at the nursing home he runs. There seem to be many questions and no answers, so it's Kinsey's job to try to find him and get those answers.

Seems like a simple cookie-cutter type mystery plot, right? Not on your life! Throw in the current wife, a former stripper, with a teenage daughter whose sole purpose in life is to annoy adults and despise any and all authority. This current wife, Crystal, is rumored to be having an affair with her personal trainer. Then there's Crystal's ex-husband who still believes she's coming back to him.

When Kinsey finds the good doctor's body, murder and not suicide is the outcome and these characters each have their own motives for wanting him dead. Even though she's off the case, Kinsey can't let it go and digs even deeper to find the identity of the killer. Seems like Kinsey Millhone has taken on some personality characteristics of Eve Dallas, of J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) fame - one who "stands for the dead". Hmm, could Sue Grafton be a J.D. Robb fan?

Where this novel falls short is the reader doesn't feel anything for these characters. Crystal fades in and out of witchiness (Epinions won't let me use the other word for this). Fiona (the ex-wife) is just a plain nut case and wants the status of being married to a doctor. Then there's stepdaughter who's spoiled rotten and needs military school instead of a fancy boarding school. And why is she like this? In my opinion it's because her mother can't be bothered, she even has a nanny for her toddler son, so she can sit on the deck and eat cheese and drink wine. Yep, life must be hard if you're an ex-stripper, married to a doctor and living the good life!

A sub-plot has Kinsey looking for new office space and she meets a hunky landlord and his oddball brother. This could have been an entire book by itself if the story line was better developed. In fact, it might have been a very interesting tale with a bit more added. This entire sub-plot was rushed and the reader had to hurry to try to keep up. Then before you know it, it's over. Very anti-climatic to say the least!

But the saddest part was when I read the last page and there wasn't the usual closure, "Respectfully submitted, Kinsey Millhone". Come on, Ms. Grafton, where's the ending we've all come to know and love? Instead we're given an Alfred Hitchcock type ending where the reader surmises what will happen. The ends aren't tied up in neat little bows that we expect when reading one of the Alphabet Mysteries. This change from tradition left me wanting the old style back. I want the "Respectfully submitted" back in the ending and not a guessing what happened type ending.

Now don't get me wrong, P is for Peril is still a very good book and will have you guessing in several places. In my opinion, it's just not as wonderful as we've come to expect from Sue Grafton and her heroine, Kinsey Millhone. Leave the cutesy stuff for someone else!

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