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mpeace95's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
hirvimaki's review against another edition
4.0
One of the best. With more insight into Kinsey past, this tales contains lots of action, mystery, and suspense. Artfully pulling together seemingly disparate pieces into a clear picture if something Grafton excels at and this one is quite masterful. A great read.
morr_books's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
book_concierge's review against another edition
4.0
Audiobook performed by Judy Keye.
Book # 15 in the popular Alphabet series starring private investigator (and former cop) Kinsey Millhone. It starts when a man who buys abandoned storage lockers calls to tell Kinsey he’s found a carton stuffed with personal memorabilia with her name on it. Turns out the storage locker belonged to her first ex-husband, Mickey.
Of course, it’s not so simple as that. Mickey’s been shot and Kinsey looks like a possible suspect. But who would go to the trouble to frame her? And what was Mickey up to that would get him shot?
I love that the series is set in a time before computers and cell phones, when investigators (whether police or private detectives) needed to be both inventive and persistent in tracking down all the leads and possibilities. The plot is suitably intricate but Grafton reveals little bits and pieces of the puzzle, letting the reader try to figure out the solution right along with Kinsey. I confess that I was unsuccessful until I was practically hit over the head with the information.
The ending was satisfying and somewhat touching. That last poignant paragraph was a nice surprise.
Judy Keye does a marvelous job of performing the audiobook. I loved the various voices she used for some of the more colorful characters: neighbor and landlord, Henry; Cordia; Duffy; Porter Yount.
Note: I read about four or five of these books early on and then stopped. A couple of years ago I re-read the first in the series and really enjoyed it. Now, after reading this one, I’m making a promise to myself to go back and read them all.
Book # 15 in the popular Alphabet series starring private investigator (and former cop) Kinsey Millhone. It starts when a man who buys abandoned storage lockers calls to tell Kinsey he’s found a carton stuffed with personal memorabilia with her name on it. Turns out the storage locker belonged to her first ex-husband, Mickey.
Of course, it’s not so simple as that. Mickey’s been shot and Kinsey looks like a possible suspect. But who would go to the trouble to frame her? And what was Mickey up to that would get him shot?
I love that the series is set in a time before computers and cell phones, when investigators (whether police or private detectives) needed to be both inventive and persistent in tracking down all the leads and possibilities. The plot is suitably intricate but Grafton reveals little bits and pieces of the puzzle, letting the reader try to figure out the solution right along with Kinsey. I confess that I was unsuccessful until I was practically hit over the head with the information.
The ending was satisfying and somewhat touching. That last poignant paragraph was a nice surprise.
Judy Keye does a marvelous job of performing the audiobook. I loved the various voices she used for some of the more colorful characters: neighbor and landlord, Henry; Cordia; Duffy; Porter Yount.
Note: I read about four or five of these books early on and then stopped. A couple of years ago I re-read the first in the series and really enjoyed it. Now, after reading this one, I’m making a promise to myself to go back and read them all.
badseedgirl's review against another edition
4.0
Kinsey Millhouse got just a tad bitchy with her 87 year old landlord. I'm not sure I liked that. It was interesting that we have now had the backstory of both of Kinsey's ex-husbands.
melissa_who_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I was into the Sue Grafton Kinsey Millhone series for a long time ... and then I fell out of reading them. Some were not as good as others (not surprising in a series: not all are equal) and it began to feel repetitive.
But I was looking for books on CD to listen to in the car, and found O for Outlaw ... and very much enjoyed it. Liked the narrator - again, not quite how I imagined Kinsey's voice, but believable. A good choice.
And I enjoyed the story, of anger and redemption, and of coming to terms with the mistakes of the past - your own mistakes, and those of others; and the hubris that accompanies youth and growing out of it (or not).
Kinsey acquires a box of her old papers and documents, in a box that had been in her first husband's storage unit. She finds a letter that changes her perspective on the end of her marriage and sets out to find her ex-husband and sort out their past. But events overtake her search, and her voyage into the past to discover the truth of the present becomes more urgent.
Riveting.
But I was looking for books on CD to listen to in the car, and found O for Outlaw ... and very much enjoyed it. Liked the narrator - again, not quite how I imagined Kinsey's voice, but believable. A good choice.
And I enjoyed the story, of anger and redemption, and of coming to terms with the mistakes of the past - your own mistakes, and those of others; and the hubris that accompanies youth and growing out of it (or not).
Kinsey acquires a box of her old papers and documents, in a box that had been in her first husband's storage unit. She finds a letter that changes her perspective on the end of her marriage and sets out to find her ex-husband and sort out their past. But events overtake her search, and her voyage into the past to discover the truth of the present becomes more urgent.
Riveting.
qu33nofbookz's review against another edition
1.0
Right out of the gate I am not liking this book! In the preface Mrs. Grafton tut tut's her readers about their questions of the time line. In this she points out that in this the now 15th book we have gone from the year 1982 to 1986 and Kinsey is currently 36 years old....any reader would know this because she often gives Kinsey's age in her introduction of Kinsey to the reader in every book but usually the date pops up multiple times. No need to try and shame your whole audience on the questions of a few readers who may have read the books out of order or just weren't paying attention. On the reminder/clarification note though I have been thinking...In 4 years Kinsey has been in mortal danger at least 14 times, shot multiple times, been beat up and assaulted every few months,had her home blown up, been in a few car crashes and totaled her car, been to jail, been under cover, been involved or the cause of multiple people's deaths, killed a few people with nary a peep about it from the cops or the dead person's family, had an affair with a married man, been involved with an on again off again (she said she loved him) PI/bodyguard, reunited with an ex husband briefly, grown jaded, spiteful and judgmental, found a long lost family she wants nothing to do with, lost her favorite job and gained another and has become more like a criminal than the right side of the law person she is supposed to be without going to jail for real for all her law breaking or getting her PI licence taken away. Also, her IQ seems to be dropping along with her morals and good personality with every book. I don't know any PI's but even in fiction that seems like a lot to have happen in just 4 years. Enough of this rant let's get into the story!
Kinsey gets a call from a man who has found some personal papers of hers when he bought up a storage unit on the auction block for default payments. He offers to sell it to her for $30. She meets him and bullies him into selling for $20. She recognizes that they came from her first husband's (Mike) storage even though he used a fake name to rent the thing and that there were some things she may have wanted besides the papers that were sold even though she had forgotten about them for 15 years. She tries to bully the name of the storage facility out of the guy when he won't tell her instead offering to sell her the name since she shorted him on his price for her papers. She say's she'll find out herself even though he tells her there are over 1,500 facilities. She leaves and then finds and goes to the guy's house knowing he is away. She has no qualms what so ever about breaking in to steal the information since he wouldn't just give her what she wanted and she's too lazy to do the work herself, blaming the guy for her actions because she's a bitchy brat and wanted it and he said no. She dresses as a city worker to snoop around the house and not have the neighbors calling the cops then crawls in through a dog door. The dog in the house lets her get around on her hands and knees. She steals the receipt for the storage unit from the guy's office (one he needs for business or bank records but she doesn't care or even think about that) then almost gets caught when the guy comes home. He finds part of her disguise that she manages to take with her when she finally escapes the house. (really this guy won't be curious about this later?) She then admits to herself she shouldn't have done all that because she risked her job, her freedom, it's bad and she hasn't thought or cared about Mike since the divorce and has actively cut him out of her past not telling anyone about him. So why does she care about finding the storage unit facility and possibly about his personal information? Who knows but without it we won't have a story because I suspect he's recently dead or will be shortly... (O for outlaw was probably supposed to be the ex-husband Mike but I'm going to apply it to Kinsey).
While lamenting the bad thing she has just done for no reason than because she was mad she was said no to she goes through the papers. Everything about them says what a horrible person she was as a kid (she's no different or worse now) and she is shocked at how bad she might have been and doesn't link it to her present. Her land lord Henry (who she's in love with) shows up and needing a ride. She drives him around and tells him about her B&E and he's concerned about why she doesn't get a dog!!!! Not that what she did was illegal or that she needs to readjust her attitude or thinking. She refuses to tell Henry about Mike when he asks. We as the reader learn as she reminisces that he is older by at least 15 years, they married when she joined the police at 21 and hadn't known each other long, the marriage lasted less than a year, and she tired of him before that since he was just like her but she was blind to it (because she is oh so saintly), when I'm of the opinion in her description of him he was better than she was/is.
Anyway now she wants to find him just because she's curious. Her last contact for him is no longer good so she tracks down an old friend from when they were married and in the police after finding a letter that she never opened the day after she left Mike. She's mad because it gives Mike the help he needed that she didn't and she jumps to the conclusion that he was having an affair with the letter writer. She confronts the old friend with this news hoping to bully him into getting what she wants and shaming him for not telling her long ago. He gives her gruff about how she ruined his career by leaving him when he was in need of help and how she is not one to judge since she has done far worse then Mike. (Mike got into an altercation with a drunk who was later found dead and he was blamed at first. He was proven innocent but the damage was done, he had to quit his dream job and she'd left him.) Since then he has supposedly been on the straight and narrow and not in his old friend's life. He gives her a few pointers to get her lazy butt in gear to find him herself and off Kinsey goes.
Next Kinsey goes to confront the woman Mike was having an affair with, an old bar tender Dixie who is now rich. She judges Dixie harshly, gets into a hissy fit cat fight with her and tries to shame her while she points out Kinsey knew what she was getting into when she married Mike. (Kinsey total forgets that she did the same thing with another cop with her in the Dixie role not 2 years ago and gave advice to his next mistress on how to get the guy away from his wife!!!!!). If I were the Dixie I would have shut the door in Kinsey's face after giving her the boot out of my house. When Kinsey gets home there are 2 detectives waiting for her. She thinks it's about her B&E and tries to think of ways to save her butt (which should be in jail). Instead, they ask about Mike and insist that she called him a few weeks ago. She argues with them and finds out Mike has been shot and is in a coma and they are looking for leads. She tries to bully answers out of them and refuses to answer their questions then gets mad because it's how the police work....she was the police she should know this but she throws a tantrum. She does find out that Mike was shot with her gun which he gave her and she left with him when she moved out. Also he supposedly called her and talked with her for half an hour recently but she denies it. She asks to see him and is told no since he is still in danger and she is the suspect. Later she goes to see him anyway and tries to bully the nurses to tell her what hospital room he is in. One of the detectives show up and chastises her but lets her see Mike even though she is still a suspect! Next she tries to find out where Mike lived so she can snoop around his place. She asks and tries to trick several people including the secretary of Mike's lawyer who is running for public office. (People in the 80's must have been very gullible because they all help her even as they tell her they aren't supposed to. What is it about this bitchy, pushy, crude woman that makes these people fall all over themselves to put their jobs and reputations on the line to help her when all she does is lie and be rude to them and is sometimes caught but they go ahead anyway?)
Kinsey finds Mike's apartment and surprise surprise breaks in ignoring the police tape and warning on the door about an active crime scene. (She should know that this could be grounds for any suspect's case to be through out of court if anyone knew she was there but she doesn't think about that till later and then she doesn't care.) While she is the snooping around his place she finds caches of guns, money (even though he asked his lawyer for some because he lost his job and is broke), fake ID's and what she thinks is evidence of a lover. The police have left behind evidence in the form of bank statements in plain view so Kinsey steals those. When she is leaving she is confronted by the land lady whom she makes immediate friends with. She and her sister/co-land lady know Kinsey broke in and probably took something but decide that's okay and warn her the police will be by again any minute. They help her out the back door and promise to call should they have more information for her. (Really? I mean come on, they don't know her from Eve and she broke into a crime scene but what the hey we'll not tell the cops and give her anything she wants for no reason but it moves the plot along.) The bank statements Kinsey snatched are odd but she doesn't know why just yet but aims to find out. His job situation was odd too when she calls and again gets some random stranger to tell her all.
The land lady calls and says that the police know someone broke into the apartment and stole evidence but they didn't turn her in but she should watch out. She goes back because the place is going up for rent and she needs to get all his contraband. As she gets ready to leave a motorcycle guy who knows Mike shows up and breaks in. She manages to escape with her stuff, his contraband and his leather jacket which is familiar to her. She barely gets away from the motorcycle guy and stays the night with the landladies. In the morning the windows are being fixed and Kinsey meets Mikes neighbor whom she befriends and exchanges information with. When she leaves she steals Mike's mail from his box. When going though his stuff and mail she finds out he loaned his old police buddy $10K as a loan and that loan came due not long before he was shot. Also he took a sudden and expensive trip to Kentucky. Henry comes over and see's all the stuff she stole and confronts her, they fight and Kinsey tells him she is happy and likes being a criminal. He leaves disappointed but that's not going to stop her, she thinks she'll tell the detectives later. The loan was for the buddy's son Tim to buy the old tavern so she goes there. Tim is hyper alert (probably from being a Vietnam vet who was dishonorably discharged after rumors of murder) and the bar is making money so she's stumped. A waitress there recognizes Mike's jacket which Kinsey is wearing, she ignores this (hello! a clue!). When she gets home Dixie is waiting for her to apologize for her behavior and what she did in the past (why? Kinsey is in the wrong over the fight and the past is the past). Kinsey treats her like shit and they make plans to maybe have dinner since her husband liked Kinsey (why she was a bitch back then too). The next day Mike's neighbor calls and gives her the number of the place Mike went to in Kentucky. She calls and finds out it's a boy's school and Mike was looking into an old student who was a journalist who died in Vietnam. Henry comes over to apologize and take the blame for getting upset over her behavior! (What is wrong with these people?) He also gives her an alibi for the days the detectives suspect her for and the answer to the mysterious phone call she'd denied. Kinsey calls the detectives to clear herself but not to tell them what she's done or been up to. The detective tells her he knows that she broke into the apartment and stole stuff but can't prove it and warns her he wants to arrest her if she doesn't back off. She gets mad (seriously?!) She goes back to the bar and find's Tim on something and the son of the other friend getting high in plain sight and that the waitress who noticed Mike's jacket is his girlfriend.
Kinsey and the waitress talk and Kinsey finds out she was Mike's new lover. She see's the biker again and get's a partial name. Later she call's her former cop lover and tells him all she's done in the case and he doesn't bat an eye and agrees to have traffic cops look out for the biker dude?! (again what is wrong with these people?) She tells him she thinks that something odd is going on at the bar and to look into that too. At night is is invited to Dixie's house for dinner and meets up with Mike's lawyer and says she's concerned about his bills to get him to talk, thank god he doesn't take the bait. She lets it slip to him that Dixie was Mike's lover. When he's gone she talks to Dixie's husband who gives her the scoop on the lawyer's private going's on in campaign and marriage.
Kinsey gets a call from a man who has found some personal papers of hers when he bought up a storage unit on the auction block for default payments. He offers to sell it to her for $30. She meets him and bullies him into selling for $20. She recognizes that they came from her first husband's (Mike) storage even though he used a fake name to rent the thing and that there were some things she may have wanted besides the papers that were sold even though she had forgotten about them for 15 years. She tries to bully the name of the storage facility out of the guy when he won't tell her instead offering to sell her the name since she shorted him on his price for her papers. She say's she'll find out herself even though he tells her there are over 1,500 facilities. She leaves and then finds and goes to the guy's house knowing he is away. She has no qualms what so ever about breaking in to steal the information since he wouldn't just give her what she wanted and she's too lazy to do the work herself, blaming the guy for her actions because she's a bitchy brat and wanted it and he said no. She dresses as a city worker to snoop around the house and not have the neighbors calling the cops then crawls in through a dog door. The dog in the house lets her get around on her hands and knees. She steals the receipt for the storage unit from the guy's office (one he needs for business or bank records but she doesn't care or even think about that) then almost gets caught when the guy comes home. He finds part of her disguise that she manages to take with her when she finally escapes the house. (really this guy won't be curious about this later?) She then admits to herself she shouldn't have done all that because she risked her job, her freedom, it's bad and she hasn't thought or cared about Mike since the divorce and has actively cut him out of her past not telling anyone about him. So why does she care about finding the storage unit facility and possibly about his personal information? Who knows but without it we won't have a story because I suspect he's recently dead or will be shortly... (O for outlaw was probably supposed to be the ex-husband Mike but I'm going to apply it to Kinsey).
While lamenting the bad thing she has just done for no reason than because she was mad she was said no to she goes through the papers. Everything about them says what a horrible person she was as a kid (she's no different or worse now) and she is shocked at how bad she might have been and doesn't link it to her present. Her land lord Henry (who she's in love with) shows up and needing a ride. She drives him around and tells him about her B&E and he's concerned about why she doesn't get a dog!!!! Not that what she did was illegal or that she needs to readjust her attitude or thinking. She refuses to tell Henry about Mike when he asks. We as the reader learn as she reminisces that he is older by at least 15 years, they married when she joined the police at 21 and hadn't known each other long, the marriage lasted less than a year, and she tired of him before that since he was just like her but she was blind to it (because she is oh so saintly), when I'm of the opinion in her description of him he was better than she was/is.
Anyway now she wants to find him just because she's curious. Her last contact for him is no longer good so she tracks down an old friend from when they were married and in the police after finding a letter that she never opened the day after she left Mike. She's mad because it gives Mike the help he needed that she didn't and she jumps to the conclusion that he was having an affair with the letter writer. She confronts the old friend with this news hoping to bully him into getting what she wants and shaming him for not telling her long ago. He gives her gruff about how she ruined his career by leaving him when he was in need of help and how she is not one to judge since she has done far worse then Mike. (Mike got into an altercation with a drunk who was later found dead and he was blamed at first. He was proven innocent but the damage was done, he had to quit his dream job and she'd left him.) Since then he has supposedly been on the straight and narrow and not in his old friend's life. He gives her a few pointers to get her lazy butt in gear to find him herself and off Kinsey goes.
Next Kinsey goes to confront the woman Mike was having an affair with, an old bar tender Dixie who is now rich. She judges Dixie harshly, gets into a hissy fit cat fight with her and tries to shame her while she points out Kinsey knew what she was getting into when she married Mike. (Kinsey total forgets that she did the same thing with another cop with her in the Dixie role not 2 years ago and gave advice to his next mistress on how to get the guy away from his wife!!!!!). If I were the Dixie I would have shut the door in Kinsey's face after giving her the boot out of my house. When Kinsey gets home there are 2 detectives waiting for her. She thinks it's about her B&E and tries to think of ways to save her butt (which should be in jail). Instead, they ask about Mike and insist that she called him a few weeks ago. She argues with them and finds out Mike has been shot and is in a coma and they are looking for leads. She tries to bully answers out of them and refuses to answer their questions then gets mad because it's how the police work....she was the police she should know this but she throws a tantrum. She does find out that Mike was shot with her gun which he gave her and she left with him when she moved out. Also he supposedly called her and talked with her for half an hour recently but she denies it. She asks to see him and is told no since he is still in danger and she is the suspect. Later she goes to see him anyway and tries to bully the nurses to tell her what hospital room he is in. One of the detectives show up and chastises her but lets her see Mike even though she is still a suspect! Next she tries to find out where Mike lived so she can snoop around his place. She asks and tries to trick several people including the secretary of Mike's lawyer who is running for public office. (People in the 80's must have been very gullible because they all help her even as they tell her they aren't supposed to. What is it about this bitchy, pushy, crude woman that makes these people fall all over themselves to put their jobs and reputations on the line to help her when all she does is lie and be rude to them and is sometimes caught but they go ahead anyway?)
Kinsey finds Mike's apartment and surprise surprise breaks in ignoring the police tape and warning on the door about an active crime scene. (She should know that this could be grounds for any suspect's case to be through out of court if anyone knew she was there but she doesn't think about that till later and then she doesn't care.) While she is the snooping around his place she finds caches of guns, money (even though he asked his lawyer for some because he lost his job and is broke), fake ID's and what she thinks is evidence of a lover. The police have left behind evidence in the form of bank statements in plain view so Kinsey steals those. When she is leaving she is confronted by the land lady whom she makes immediate friends with. She and her sister/co-land lady know Kinsey broke in and probably took something but decide that's okay and warn her the police will be by again any minute. They help her out the back door and promise to call should they have more information for her. (Really? I mean come on, they don't know her from Eve and she broke into a crime scene but what the hey we'll not tell the cops and give her anything she wants for no reason but it moves the plot along.) The bank statements Kinsey snatched are odd but she doesn't know why just yet but aims to find out. His job situation was odd too when she calls and again gets some random stranger to tell her all.
The land lady calls and says that the police know someone broke into the apartment and stole evidence but they didn't turn her in but she should watch out. She goes back because the place is going up for rent and she needs to get all his contraband. As she gets ready to leave a motorcycle guy who knows Mike shows up and breaks in. She manages to escape with her stuff, his contraband and his leather jacket which is familiar to her. She barely gets away from the motorcycle guy and stays the night with the landladies. In the morning the windows are being fixed and Kinsey meets Mikes neighbor whom she befriends and exchanges information with. When she leaves she steals Mike's mail from his box. When going though his stuff and mail she finds out he loaned his old police buddy $10K as a loan and that loan came due not long before he was shot. Also he took a sudden and expensive trip to Kentucky. Henry comes over and see's all the stuff she stole and confronts her, they fight and Kinsey tells him she is happy and likes being a criminal. He leaves disappointed but that's not going to stop her, she thinks she'll tell the detectives later. The loan was for the buddy's son Tim to buy the old tavern so she goes there. Tim is hyper alert (probably from being a Vietnam vet who was dishonorably discharged after rumors of murder) and the bar is making money so she's stumped. A waitress there recognizes Mike's jacket which Kinsey is wearing, she ignores this (hello! a clue!). When she gets home Dixie is waiting for her to apologize for her behavior and what she did in the past (why? Kinsey is in the wrong over the fight and the past is the past). Kinsey treats her like shit and they make plans to maybe have dinner since her husband liked Kinsey (why she was a bitch back then too). The next day Mike's neighbor calls and gives her the number of the place Mike went to in Kentucky. She calls and finds out it's a boy's school and Mike was looking into an old student who was a journalist who died in Vietnam. Henry comes over to apologize and take the blame for getting upset over her behavior! (What is wrong with these people?) He also gives her an alibi for the days the detectives suspect her for and the answer to the mysterious phone call she'd denied. Kinsey calls the detectives to clear herself but not to tell them what she's done or been up to. The detective tells her he knows that she broke into the apartment and stole stuff but can't prove it and warns her he wants to arrest her if she doesn't back off. She gets mad (seriously?!) She goes back to the bar and find's Tim on something and the son of the other friend getting high in plain sight and that the waitress who noticed Mike's jacket is his girlfriend.
Kinsey and the waitress talk and Kinsey finds out she was Mike's new lover. She see's the biker again and get's a partial name. Later she call's her former cop lover and tells him all she's done in the case and he doesn't bat an eye and agrees to have traffic cops look out for the biker dude?! (again what is wrong with these people?) She tells him she thinks that something odd is going on at the bar and to look into that too. At night is is invited to Dixie's house for dinner and meets up with Mike's lawyer and says she's concerned about his bills to get him to talk, thank god he doesn't take the bait. She lets it slip to him that Dixie was Mike's lover. When he's gone she talks to Dixie's husband who gives her the scoop on the lawyer's private going's on in campaign and marriage.
h3dakota's review against another edition
3.0
Well, I didn't roll my eyes as much on this one, anyway. LOL New narrator, which is taking some getting used to, as I really liked the previous reader a great deal.
sam_capstick4's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0