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• "A" is for Alibi (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries)
Sue Grafton

St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2005 - 308 pages

average customer review:based on 126 reviews
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5-star writing, 1-star mystery

This book is very well written. It does have a Sam-Spade feel about it, with many unpleasant details included to give it a noirish quality.

The downside is that the mystery is not particularly mysterious. I had the whole thing solved well before the halfway point, which made much of the going rather dull. I suspect that anybody who has read much in the way of mysteries will not be in the dark for long, and will be very frustrated that this detective is ignoring things that ought to be obvious.

So far this is the only Sue Grafton I've read, and it's good enough that I'll read more.


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First One and I'm Hooked

I am always in search of something good to read. This book turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It was a real page turner. Not only that it was the first in a series! Kinsey is a believable character. From her jogging to her bolied egg sandwiches with mayo. I liked her.









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Not an A, but rather a C

I was first introduced to Sue Grafton and her alphabet mysteries with her book D IS FOR DEADBEAT and was hooked. I then looked for the previous books to "catch up". I have to admit, that if I had read A IS FOR ALIBI first, I probably would have read another, but not been in such a hurry.

A IS FOR ALIBI is a good first book, but is nothing compared to her later tomes in her continuing career. The reader is introduced to Kinsey Millhone but doesn't get the full impact of Kinsey's strong character and inventive mind until later books. In A IS FOR ALIBI, Kinsey is an average private detective struggling to make ends meet. That's an ok premise, but when we meet the real Kinsey, the reader can't help but relate to her and fall in love with her spunkiness!

And then there's Henry! This is a man that everyone wants as a landlord - he's not a nosey neighbor, he's caring, intelligent (he does the crossword puzzles in ink!), and just an all around wonderful guy. And when he's in his kitchen baking bread, the reader can almost smell it, and your mouth begins to water just imagining it. But then again, we don't really meet Henry until later in the series.

This book will give you the basic facts you'll eventually need if you continue reading Sue Grafton's alphabet series, but have the next couple of books there to read immediately after you finish this one so this won't turn you off of the series.

Overall this is an average book, but you can be reassured that it's worth the time spent reading it because of the later books!



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Solid start for Kinsey Millhone

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series of Alphabet mysteries has been a huge seller since its inception in 1982. I've wanted to read the books for years but didn't for one reason or another. I finally sat down with the first entry, "A is for Alibi," and plunged into it. Nikki Fife is a young widow who was recently released from prison; she served eight years for killing her husband. She insists that she's innocent and hires Kinsey to clear her name.

Kinsey's first case is interesting and filled with a number of suspects. It's a solid mystery book. Kinsey is a likeable protagonist, who has just enough shades of gray and quirks. She's the kind of lead who doesn't distract too much from the mystery at hand, but she's interesting enough to carry the book. Grafton's writing is good - straight-forward but filled with nice details. At times, she spends perhaps a bit too much time describing Nikki and the murder suspects. However, that's a minor quibble. I wasn't blown away by "A is for Alibi," but it was good enough that I've already ordered the next entry, "B is for Burglar."



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A mixed bag

Sue Grafton displays both great strengths and glaring weaknesses in her first mystery novel.

First, the good stuff: Kinsey Millhone is a great character, a literary descendant of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but with a voice and vulnerability all her own. At key points in the novel, Grafton slows down the narrative enough to give the reader intriguing glimpses of Kinsey's background and personality.

Grafton shows promise as a writer. Some of her images are startling. She also knows a bit about how to keep readers turning pages. The book starts out slow, but after a potential key informant is murdered, it moves toward resolution at breakneck speed.

Unfortunately, the book's greatest weaknesses come at the end. Things start to happen too quickly, with Kinsey making a series of guesses about the case that turn out to be right. Grafton offers no insight on how Kinsey reached these conclusions, and precious little evidence to back them up. In my opinion, that's cheating. Grafton left me with nagging questions about loose ends in the plot and a feeling of dissatisfaction.

I like Kinsey, though, and since other reviewers have indicated that future books get better, I will keep reading the series.


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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15



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