Tag Archives: library

Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton (2002) – BR00143 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 15 2019

Plot or Premise

Dolan brings Kinsey a cold case — an 18-year-old case of homicide for an unidentified Jane Doe.

What I Liked

The plot device of Kinsey working with Dolan while helping out a retired old-timer who was one of the original detectives on the case is flat out awesome. Kind of like the series Cold Case that was on TV a few years after the book was published. And the teamwork of three of them is a nice twist on the traditional “go it alone” storylines of most of Kinsey’s cases. As with some of the previous stories, she ends up in a small town where everyone knows everyone and the motives are all potentially interconnected. Finally, while there is some drama with Kinsey’s extended family, for once it ends up being relatively positive overall.

What I Didn’t Like

Dolan and Stacey bicker like an old married couple, and it gets tedious. The story is also about 30% longer than most of the novels, and it does drag in a few places.

The Bottom Line

Team Dolan works surprisingly well together.

P is for Peril by Sue Grafton (2001) – BR00141 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 10 2019

Plot or Premise

Kinsey is hired for a missing persons case, a retired family doctor, running a nursing home.

What I Liked

The mystery opens with a nice quirk — it’s the ex-wife who hires Kinsey, not the current wife. Like all Kinsey’s cases, it gets complicated really fast — cheating wives, messy divorced families, a search for new office space, Medicare fraud, kids who murdered their parents, etc.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-story about kids murdering their parents and the convenience of some evidence that comes to her from Henry by coincidence really detracts from the story.

The Bottom Line

Decent mystery, too much other noise.

O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton (1999) – BR00140 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 10 2019

Plot or Premise

Kinsey gets a blast from the past from her ex-husband, Mickey Magruder.

What I Liked

Kinsey finds out that when she walked out of their marriage thinking he was guilty of murder/manslaughter, he actually had an alibi that he didn’t reveal. He was never convicted, and in the years since, they’ve had no contact. It’s interesting to see her work through a sense of guilt and a desire to know the real truth. Before she finds him, someone shoots him on the street and he’s in a coma. Soon she’s wearing his leather jacket and hunting down his shooter. The story is solid but does jump around quite a bit to get to the final bit.

What I Didn’t Like

The solution is a bit “out there” for pieces tying together, and like a couple of the previous books, feels a little unfair to the reader. Not as bad as previous, however.

The Bottom Line

Pretty good story, could have been a contender.

M is for Malice by Sue Grafton (1996) – BR00139 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 8 2019

Plot or Premise

Kinsey is hired by her cousin Tasha, the lawyer, to track down the long-lost fourth son of a recently deceased construction company owner so they can file the will for probate.

What I Liked

Kinsey does a quick short-cut on finding the missing heir, and sets in motion a series of interactions with the rest of the family that results in death. Add in an old fraud, the return of Dietz to her life, and some emerging feelings for the prodigal son, and it is a full novel.

What I Didn’t Like

A couple of the final pieces to the puzzle are completely hidden until the last chapter, and it’s not even Kinsey who finds them. I didn’t feel it was playing fair with the reader, holding back some key elements until the end that no one had a chance to see being uncovered so much as like working on a puzzle for several days only to have someone spoil the ending by just telling you the solution.

The Bottom Line

Great novel, good characters, let-down for the ending.

L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton (1995) – BR00138 (2019) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 7 2019

Plot or Premise

Henry asks Kinsey to help some neighbours file a benefits claim for a deceased veteran…seems simple enough.

What I Liked

Kinsey tries to help out, and gets sucked into the mystery…was the vet really a vet? Who keeps breaking into his old apartment? Why was he so paranoid in life? Why is she helping people she doesn’t really like? It’s fun watching her incrementally get sucked in more and more, so natural. And then she’s off to Dallas, following a man and woman who robbed the apartment.

What I Didn’t Like

The story reads more like a treasure hunt than a mystery or a case. It’s not terrible, but it’s not really a mystery, and most of the main characters lie every time they open their mouth, with none of the stories being particularly interesting.

The Bottom Line

Okay story, not much of a case or mystery.