Lightweight, but good enough for mystery fans

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	• S Is for Silence Sue Grafton G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2005 average customer review:based on 225 reviews view larger image
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Lightweight, but good enough for mystery fans

I can't remember the last time I read one of Sue Grafton's alphabetical mysteries but I was quite a devotee until around F or G. The novelty was in their smart, tough, frank female protagonist, who was not insusceptible to male attraction, but generally did not let such attraction rule her behavior (in my late teens to early 20s, this was a refreshing attitude to encounter).

Still, after more than a half dozen in a row, I started to get tired of Kinsey Milhone, and moved on to other things. But, finding myself bookless in San Diego a couple weeks ago, I happened on this novel and decided to give her another shot.

Like most respectable mysteries, S is for Silence is hard to put down, but I found myself less than impressed with the writing. Dialogue often seemed stilted, working too hard to convey too much information. I closed the book thinking that, after all, this stuff wasn't very good.

However. Days later I was still thinking about the story, pondering the twists and turns of the plot and the various characters. So while perhaps the writing could be tightened up, you can't really ask too much more of a (fairly lightweight) mystery novel than that its effect lingers significantly after the book's been closed.

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Welcome back Kinsey

I was quite impressed with this latest outing, which might be her finest yet.

By alternating between first-person Kinsey writing, which of course we love, and other POV characters from 1953, Grafton was able to develop her secondary characters quite fully as well. This also let us see the same events through different eyes, which is very cool when it's done right. And it is. That was also the best way to tell this particular tale.

We read Grafton for her characterization and observation, I think, plus Kinsey's attitude. But to get to the mystery itself, I thought I'd solved it at least three times before I did. And of course the clues were there all along. That's what makes the plot come together, the possibilities.

Sue Grafton remains the greatest mystery author writing today who isn't named Nicole Givens Kurtz.

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A project for Kinsey

I really liked this book, even better than other Kinsey books. There wasn't much Santa Teresa sentimentality in it or Polish food reviews and amazing (sexually active) 90-year olds. The whole thing was developed like a real-life project and the problem was solved very methodically by Kinsey being a master project manager. The landscapes and little towns and the people of the Southern California coast were still very vivid. The characters sounded real and most importantly there was closure at the end (something that I've been missing with Martha Grimes lately). Of course, I do not know much about England, but California is dear to my heart and it is described so beautifully! Overall, I would highly recommend this book if you want to lose yourself in a dream space for a few days!

ps. The deflowering of Lidia when she was only 14 years old by a 17-year old boy was so factual and detailed yet not pornographic (like a Rembrandt painting). This is masterful writing. Congratulations Sue Grafton!

Vehbi

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The Kinsey We Know and Love

Kinsey tags her umpteenth cold case when an old friend asks her to look into the case of another friend's missing mother, who disappeared over 30 years ago. The difference between this case and other cold cases Kinsey has worked, however, is that this time the author stepped outside the norm and wrote part of this story from a third-person viewpoint in the past, in the days before the crime occurred.

Violet Sullivan was living a tawdry life. A battered wife, she took revenge by having affairs with nearly every man in the small town of Serena Station. Since neither Violet's body nor her brand-new Chevy Bel Air were ever found, there are two camps as to what happened to her. Some believe she ran off and started a new life, leaving her daughter behind. Others believe she was murdered, and that her husband did it. Through the course of her investigation, Kinsey starts to believe Violet was murdered, but not necessarily that it was her husband who did her in. Glimpses into the past show that nearly everyone in town had a motive to murder Violet, as well as the fact that just about everyone in town seems to be lying about something. Their reasons for the lies come out throughout the course of the story, and of course, a lot of them have nothing to do with the disappearance of Violet Sullivan. Someone, however, doesn't like all the questions Kinsey has been asking, and soon she is in danger.

While this series started with a bang, it suffered near the middle of the alphabet. With the past couple of books, however, it is obvious that the author is once again enjoying writing the books as much as she did in the beginning, and that comes across in an exciting, page-turning novel. I was glad to see that Kinsey's annoyingly bossy new boyfriend was kept on the back burner this time out, while other recurring characters had their typical small parts. Kinsey's wry observations, as usual, made me smile a lot. The suspects in this book are many and quite varied, as well, since nearly everyone in town had a reason to want Violet dead. Despite a few under par selections, this is an excellent series. I'm glad to see that Sue Grafton is back "on" and writing a book a year. They're worth the read.

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Discombobulated Book List #2, 2006

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S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
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