Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Very interesting book to read. It only took me a handful of days to read it because I could hardly put it down. As usual for Kinsey Millhone, she gets very involved in the quest to find out the identity of Jane Due who was murdered 18 years prior. Can't wait to read the next book in the series.
Enjoying this series, some different team mates in this one who quickly became familiar. I liked the plotting, and the sleuthing that led to different witnesses and locations, and appreciated the link to a real Jane Doe case detailed at the end of the book.
Read all of these up to this one, I think. Never got back to them. Tried a couple times, and now will probably finish.
This was a great addition to the series. Kinsey works with two old buddies from the police department to solve an almost 20-year old murder of a Jane Doe. The mystery is fantastic, and the new developments in Kinsey's personal life are fascinating.
It's easy to forget just how good Sue Grafton's stories are. The titles rarely descibe the plots for me so I tend to mix up the series with others when trying to recall tehm. This one, though, actually descibes the story. And, I'm reminded just how carefully the plot builds and how real the actions seem.
As ever, I use the setting for the book to relate modern conveniences and in this one am put to recall just how nice it is to have a phone, camera, and encyclopedia at hand at all times the way we have now.
As ever, I use the setting for the book to relate modern conveniences and in this one am put to recall just how nice it is to have a phone, camera, and encyclopedia at hand at all times the way we have now.
One of the slower books, with a lot of characters and relatively little action. It's also one of the books where Grafton takes it outside Santa Teresa and focuses on other characters.
This really ends up being one of the favorites of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone or Alphabet mystery series. I think that Grafton hit a real sweet spot not only with Kinsey investigating, but including retired Lieutenant Dolan (familiar to readers) and retired detective Stacey Oliphant. This story was written based upon a real life cold case that occurred in Lompoc. In this edition, Grafton included pictures (artist rendition using clay) of the young girl who I believe is still unidentified as of today and only known as "Jane Doe."
"Q is for Quarry" has Kinsey at a bit of loose ends. She gets a call from Dolan who is now retired from the Santa Teresa police department. He meets with Kinsey to talk her through a cold case that he and a former coworker and friend Stacey Oliphant investigated together 18 years ago. Dolan has personal reasons for wanting Kinsey to help out him and Oliphant (no spoilers). What is funny though is that when Kinsey meets with Oliphant he wants Dolan included for different but also similar theme reasons. The three of them end up making a wonderful little trio together and we get to follow via Kinsey's point of view as they start to track down initial witnesses and piece together the live of their Jane Doe.
I thought Kinsey was great in this one. I actually liked the fact that part of her is feeling a bit stung on the revelation regarding Cheney Phillips. Kinsey and her romances always felt secondary to me in the series. But it was still interesting to read her as being interested in someone. It's been a while.
The interaction between Dolan and Stacey were freaking hilarious. I got nothing else to say but that honestly. The are very much The Odd Couple.
The other characters we know and love (Rosie and Henry of course) and we get some new faces as Kinsey and the boys track down leads.
I thought the writing for this one was very focused. And that Kinsey and the rest of the trio were very good at their jobs. One thing that always surprises me which I wonder if other people realize, is that most murders in the United States go "cold." I read and watch a lot of investigative shows, and honestly if there wasn't a way to test DNA who knows how many other cases would go unsolved. But the police in the United States don't go out and solve crimes as a regular occurrence of their day. This cold case and the real life one that it inspired definitely lets you see how much of police work is honestly just luck and putting things together. And often you don't get that.
The ending was very interesting I thought and I liked the final nail on the whole thing. I used to always wish before she passed away that Grafton had done a novella or something on just Kinsey's cases and you could find out where perpetrators and some of the victim's families were now.
"Q is for Quarry" has Kinsey at a bit of loose ends. She gets a call from Dolan who is now retired from the Santa Teresa police department. He meets with Kinsey to talk her through a cold case that he and a former coworker and friend Stacey Oliphant investigated together 18 years ago. Dolan has personal reasons for wanting Kinsey to help out him and Oliphant (no spoilers). What is funny though is that when Kinsey meets with Oliphant he wants Dolan included for different but also similar theme reasons. The three of them end up making a wonderful little trio together and we get to follow via Kinsey's point of view as they start to track down initial witnesses and piece together the live of their Jane Doe.
I thought Kinsey was great in this one. I actually liked the fact that part of her is feeling a bit stung on the revelation regarding Cheney Phillips. Kinsey and her romances always felt secondary to me in the series. But it was still interesting to read her as being interested in someone. It's been a while.
The interaction between Dolan and Stacey were freaking hilarious. I got nothing else to say but that honestly. The are very much The Odd Couple.
The other characters we know and love (Rosie and Henry of course) and we get some new faces as Kinsey and the boys track down leads.
I thought the writing for this one was very focused. And that Kinsey and the rest of the trio were very good at their jobs. One thing that always surprises me which I wonder if other people realize, is that most murders in the United States go "cold." I read and watch a lot of investigative shows, and honestly if there wasn't a way to test DNA who knows how many other cases would go unsolved. But the police in the United States don't go out and solve crimes as a regular occurrence of their day. This cold case and the real life one that it inspired definitely lets you see how much of police work is honestly just luck and putting things together. And often you don't get that.
The ending was very interesting I thought and I liked the final nail on the whole thing. I used to always wish before she passed away that Grafton had done a novella or something on just Kinsey's cases and you could find out where perpetrators and some of the victim's families were now.
This was not my favorite of the series. There seemed to be an endless reviewing of old leads that led nowhere, followed by a confusing series of interactions where pretty much everyone lied or omitted relevant facts for no discernible reason. I like all the books in the series, and I managed to stick with this one until the end, but it was a little bit of a struggle.
This book was really book. I came across it when I was moving books around and picked it up and started reading a bit. I figured I'd just read the first chapter or so but next thing I knew I was half way through. I was fascinated with how different this story felt. It seemed a lot more realistic and really tapped into my love of stories that deal with the past. I love reading about cold cases where the law enforcement involved work to solve a cold case. I was surprised when I got to the end to find out this was based on a true case although Sue did add a lot to turn it into a good story. It is so sad that the real case was never solved but I really hope it will be some day.
