A different sort of Detective...

books:


	• "A" is for Alibi (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries) Sue Grafton St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2005 - 308 pages average customer review:based on 125 reviews view larger image
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A different sort of Detective...

Although I had guessed who the killer was at barely the beginning of the third chapter, I had been wrong about my guess of motive. The ending surprised me and was not as wrapped up as I would like from a mystery. It was a quick read, though, and worth the time.
Also, I really like the Kinsey Millhone character. She is very straightforward and blunt. I like that the author is willing to let her make mistakes (big ones).

Alibis

Laurence File was dead and his Wife was convicted of the crime. When she is release on parole she hires Kinsey to find the truth of her husbands murder. Kinsey finds all kinds of complications in trying to discover the truth and finds more bodies, new and old. This is a great mystery. 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

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Kinsey is My Favorite PI

As the first in the series of Alphabet Mysteries, Sue Grafton just begins to "flesh-out" the Kinsey Millhone character. I really liked this book and although the antagonist was predictable, I enjoyed getting to know the characters involved in this novel, as many of these characters will be seen again in the later books in this series. This book sets a groundwork for the later novels and gives some basic insight into Millhone's motivations which are expounded in later novels. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as I have all of Sue Grafton's works. This would have gotton 5 stars if the outcome hadn't been so predictable.

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An old favorite revisited

It's been a while since I read Grafton's alphabet series from the beginning, and a few things immediately came back to me:

1) I still love Kinsey. Yeah, she's rude, yeah, she's a little too fond of her vino, but nobody's perfect. That's what makes her a great character.

2) This book does a very good job of demonstrating just how detailed and boring real PI work is. It's not like in the movies, where a major clue/revelation unfolds at the first stakeout or interview. There are a lot of seemingly disparate bits of information that have to be drawn out of uncooperative people and eventually put together--somehow. This book covers that very well.

3) The early Milhone books show their age, especially this one. I'm not talking about the technological antiques littered through the book, like lack of cell phones or even the virtual absence of answering machines (they weren't common in 1982). It's in the style and pace of the writing. Grafton had a great deal of freedom to tell her story in a more deliberate, painstaking, detailed way. You don't see writing like this very often anymore.

Things like violence, language and gratuitous sex don't bother me in a PI mystery. Grafton obviously wasn't shooting for soft-boiled or cozy here, so making Kinsey virginal and polite, and the narrative squeaky clean and civil would have made the series more like a Nancy Drew turns 30 piece. Sorry, but Nancy Drew stops being great by the time most people are 12. If you're a grown up, you're allowed to read (and write) grown up stories. I think Grafton was deliberately trying to get a Chandleresque book with the twist of a female Marlowe. Female PIs were just about unheard of when Grafton wrote this book (I think Marcia Muller was the only person using the device before Grafton).

Anyway, after Chandler and Hammett, Ross MacDonald and Mickey Spillane, I also thought it was sort of normal for a PI to get tangled up romantically/sexually with a suspect (even THE suspect!). It's sort of a given in the genre, but the masters know how to make it work. Grafton wasn't quite at that level in this book, but Chandler, Hammet, et all, weren't masters with their first efforts, either. If you're gonna do hard-boiled California P.I., ya gotta get some S=E=X in the mix. Surprisingly, this was one of the more believable parts of the book, at least for me. I could well understand Kinsey's attraction to Charlie--I'd gone out with about a dozen non-murderous copies of him back in my own single days. So just because that aspect doesn't ring true to some people...believe me, it can ring very true to others.

In conclusion, the book isn't the greatest ever written, or the best Grafton's ever done, but it's a good introduction to the series. The author created an intriguing character I wanted to read more about, and I definitely wanted to see how Kinsey went about solving other mysteries. Thankfully, Grafton got the chance to do it. The series gets progressively better with each book after this, in every respect, with the plots and Kinsey getting stronger in direct proportion to Grafton's confidence in her writing and storytelling.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

READ THE SENSATIONAL BLOCKBUSTER THAT STARTED IT ALL!

Take it from the top in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton?s knockout thriller that introduced detective Kinsey Millhone?and a hot new attitude?to crime fiction?

A IS FOR AVENGER
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she?s got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

A IS FOR ACCUSED
That?s why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she?s out on parole and needs Kinsey?s help to find the real killer. But after all this time, clearing Nikki?s bad name won?t be easy.

A IS FOR ALIBI
If there?s one thing that makes Kinsey Millhone feel alive, it?s playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer?and sharper?than she imagined.

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