S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
by Sue Grafton
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Book Reviews of S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
Book Review: My favourite in the alphabet series - absolutely gripping
Summary: 5 Stars
Sue Grafton's work has matured and this was one of the best books I read this year.
A woman disappeared fifty years ago and Kinsey Millhorne is hired to find out what happened to her. As she unravels a tangle it flips between 1953 and present day. When Violet Sullivan went missing, so did her adored little dog, a new car and $50,000. Was she murdered by her drunken, violent husband? That is the general consensus but the true story is much darker and it appears that Violet's life was entwined with many others.
There are lots of red herrings, twists and turns and I never worked out what had happened on that July 4th in 1953 until the last few pages. It gripping from start to finish. The ending was quite sudden, and this is my only slight niggle with the book.
Kinsey is investigating this as a cold case and the people she interviews give their own version of events, not always complete, not always true.
I am not going to spoil it for other readers by divulging too much but there are parallel sub-plots which I found really rounded out the book for me.
Violet's daughter Daisy was with the babysitter the night of the murder, and I really liked the thread involving the teenage babysitter and her boyfriend, especially what might happen in the future.
Remember, nothing is as it it seems in a small town.
I can't wait for the next one in this series. Sue Grafton is a skilled writer and, like Tami Hoag and now Sandra Brown, she takes time over each book, honing it until it is near perfect. The quality of the writing, plot lines and editing are all excellent.
Book Review: Lightweight, but good enough for mystery fans
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Book Review: My first Grafton, but won't be my last!
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my first Grafton novel and I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it as much as I did! this is a series but the book stands alone (though now I am curious to read some of the earlier books). Kinsey Millhone is a female private detective, from Santa Teresa, CA. She is on the case of 50 year old murder at the request of one Daisy Sullivan. Daisy's Trailer trash Mom (Violet) Disappeared on Independence day 1953. No one could ever figure out if Violet took off with a man or was murdered. When Kinsey starts nosing around some of the locals get bent out of shape, and someone is trying to scare her off the case. I won't give away any of the surprises, but there are plenty of twists and turns. An interesting sidelight is how the author switches voice in the book, from first person Kinsey, as the investigator to flashbacks of what occurred back in 1953. This could have been confusing but the author does a great job of weaving the two together, without giving too much away.
Book Review: Different Perspectives...
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. In S is for Silence, Kinsey is approached by a young woman wanting to find out what happened to her mother...over thirty years ago. While Grafton's previous books have been from Kinsey's point of view, this one shifts, and not only lets us see things through Kinsey's eyes, but flashes back and gives us other character's perspectives.
In this time of instant information and technological wizardry, it is interesting to see how a private investigator in the 1980's had to find out information from an event that happened 30 years before that. No Google searches for Kinsey!
I am glad that Grafton has chosen to keep Kinsey in real time, which leaves her in the eighties. Kinsey is detail oriented and an old fashioned sleuth. This book grabbed me from the start and didn't let go!
Book Review: A good read but not a good mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good read masquerading as a mystery. As a whodunit it is somewhat languid and lackluster with the usual red herrings that don't add up to much and an arbitrary ending. What it is though is an absorbing study of a wanton and destructive woman in small town California in the 1950's and her horrible comeuppance. The novel switches between Kinsey's voice in the present day and the background told from many points of view in the 50's. The intertwined lives, the pettiness and passions of small town lives are rendered very well. Forget the ho hum mystery. Enjoy it for what it really is. Just as Ruth Rendell of Wexford fame switched over to Barbara Vine to write the brilliant "A Dark Adapted Eye" Sue Grafton is spreading her wings and I for one look forward to more.