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Title: Q Is for Quarry by Sue Grafton ISBN: 0399149155 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 14 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.52
Rating: 5
Summary: New Dimensions of Kinsey's Family in a Reality-Based Mystery
Comment: This book is essential reading for all Kinsey Millhone fans!
Ms. Grafton has outdone her usual brilliance. She has taken a marvelous series and made it better by adding two new elements to her well-honed heroine and typical plot. The first new element is that you will learn a lot more about what was going on in Kinsey's family before, during and after she was born. This new information will provide the basis for many satisfying plot complications in future to expand your enjoyment. If you skip this book, the next books in the series probably won't work as well for you. The second new element is basing her mystery on an actual unsolved homicide in Santa Barbara County, California in August 1969. As a result, we can all speculate along with Ms. Grafton about what really happened. If the real case is ever solved, we can also see how close she and we came to the right answer. By including four forensic reconstructions of the real victim, readers can also potentially help identify the victim. It's one thing to make up one's own neat little mysteries. It's a much grander and exciting thing to take on the real thing. I hope that Ms. Grafton will create other reality-based mysteries in the future.
As the book opens, Kinsey is about to turn 37 in four weeks . . . and is in a little more reflective mood than usual. Soon some of that's dispelled when she takes on a new role as leg woman for Lieutenant Dolan and Stacey Oliphant, who originally investigated killing of the stabbed and dumped young female victim in 1969 at Grayson Quarry on Highway 1 in Lompoc. Stacey had retired from the Sheriff's Department eight years earlier, but is back working part time on cold cases. This one?s lack of closure has always bothered him. He's suffering from a bad case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from which the odds against recovery are long. Dolan and Oliphant have known each other for forty years, and Dolan wants to help his friend regain his zest for life. As you can imagine, Kinsey doesn't like direction from anyone and working for men of retirement age who are more than old enough to be her father is a challenge. Oliphant is 73 and Dolan is 63. To that, you can add the complications of illness and lack of physical vigor. It's a whole new set of challenges for Kinsey.
There were several aspects of the story that especially appealed to me. First, Kinsey's disconnection from her family has seemed somewhat artificial to me over the prior books. How many people do you know who are so distant from most of their living relatives? By beginning to make some connections, Kinsey will become a more interesting character. For instance, what would Stephanie Plum's appeal be without her family? Second, some writers overdo family connections over time. The Amelia Peabody series seems to be bordering on that problem now. The books then become more about the family than about the story. Ms. Grafton has wisely avoided that. Third, Kinsey is working with people whom she normally would not have as colleagues. That also provides lots of new scope for her as a character and the chance to introduce interesting new characters. Both aspects of this book were successful. Fourth, part of the book also takes place in the Southern California desert, which is a rich counterpoint for the usual Santa Teresa surroundings in these novels. Having grown up near that area, I loved her treatment of desert life there. It's one of the best I have seen.
After you finish this story, think about some part of your family with whom you've never had much contact or have lost touch with. Give them a call and get together. Find out what you've been missing!
Rating: 5
Summary: Q Is For [There Will Be A] Quiz
Comment: Q Is For Quarry by Sue Grafton is different from the average Kinsey Millhone mystery, but I found myself enjoying this book more than I've enjoyed the last few novels in the series. First off,the book takes place mostly in a fictionalized version of the southeastern corner of California [south of Blythe and west of the Colorado River] rather than the usual fictionalized version of Santa Barbara, California. Second, Q Is For Quarry is the most police proceduralesque of the novels in the series. This isn't suprising since the novel takes off from a real cold murder case and involves two retired cops as main characters. Kinsey and the cops slowly unravel and reweave the evidence concerning the murdered girl found in the quarry until they tie up the loose ends and nail the killer. If you don't like lots of detail, you probably won't like this novel. Complaints concerning Kinsey's changing personality seem unfounded to me since the changes are consistent with the evolution of the character seen in the other novels. I think that Q Is For Quarry is a very good entry in the 'Alphabet' series and I hope Sue Grafton doesn't give up on Kinsey before she reaches Z.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good Book, Bad Recording
Comment: I love the Sue Grafton books on tape. Judy Kaye does a wonderful job at creating the different voices of the many characters in the book. The quality of the recording is very bad. I have to return two copies of this book on tape. Both tapes had a echo effect on it, and some of the tapes you could only hear any other word. So make sure you check your tapes for these problems
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Title: P Is for Peril by Sue Grafton ISBN: 0449003795 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman ISBN: 0345452534 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: "O" Is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton ISBN: 0449003787 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: N Is for Noose by Sue Grafton ISBN: 0449223612 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: To the Nines: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich ISBN: 0312265867 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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