203 reviews for:

S Is for Silence

Sue Grafton

3.76 AVERAGE


3.75. Enjoyed it, nice to have a visit with Kinsey and remember this series.

Always an excellent read and I do so enjoy the attention to small matters that seem inconsequential and ordinary that lead to the unraveling of the puzzle. I love the selection of food that slots into the story and often enough brings people together providing clues with an ease that doesn't require a violent interlude.
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not particularly well written, and it was a struggle to keep up with all the characters. The end felt unsatisfying - unclear what the motive was.

I love Sue Grafton's writing. This is the first in the series that is not written entirely in the first person (as a typical hard boiled detective novel). This new addition of third person narrative adds depth and intrigue.
adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.5 stars

It's been a couple of years, I think, since I picked up Grafton's ABC series. But I'm on a mission to finish series, or get caught up on series, that I've been reading. I have seven to go and decided maybe audio was the way to accomplish it.

This title takes us back and forth between 1953 and 1987, present-day for our main character Kinsey Millhone. On July 4, 1953 Violet Sullivan left the house for an evening of fireworks and drinking. Liza, the babysitter, and Daisy, Violet's daughter, were left at home. Foley, Violet's husband, had been gone all day. 3 days later, after the mandatory length of time one had to wait to report a missing person, Foley reported Violet missing and the search started for her, her dog, and/or her car. Nothing and nobody was ever found.

34 years later Kinsey Millhone meets Daisy Sullivan, Violet's daughter. Daisy must know what happened to her mother so she hires Kinsey to hopefully do what no other person has been able to do in 34 years, find out what happened to Violet Sullivan. As Kinsey starts digging around in 1987, the reader is taken back to 1953 through the voices of several people who saw Violet the night she disappeared and the days leading up to July 4, 1953. All of them have a version they never disclosed to the police for a variety of reasons and as the reader, we find out the full stories of each. In 1987, Kinsey is slowly finding out the full versions of edited stories and trying to put the pieces together to give Daisy some sort of long-sought closure. Private Investigator Kinsey Millhone gets further on finding Violet Sullivan than anyone else ever has and someone else isn't too pleased about that.

I really liked this title. Maybe it's because I haven't read one of the series in a couple of years or maybe because this one was different than A-R. I don't recall Grafton crafting one of the stories prior to this one by flipping back and forth between timelines. It kept my attention. With this particular Kinsey story my only complaint is the lack of closure for the reader. Sure, Kinsey solves the case but we aren't privy to why things happened as they did and the 1953 stories didn't, in my opinion, make that clear. So I'm left scratching my head just a bit as to why Violet disappeared. I can make my guesses but I would have loved a post-mortem.

It is 1987 in ‘S is for Silence’, #19 in this mystery series, and PI Kinsey Millhone arrives in Serena Station prepared to uncover old secrets and to disturb honest citizens. Her new client, Daisy Sullivan, has decided the disappearance of her mother, the neighborhood sexpot, in 1953, has become an unbearable taint on her life that she has been unable to move past. Daisy has the lingering suspicion that her father, Foley, an alcoholic, had something to do with her mother’s disappearance.

Violet Sullivan had her way with every important businessman in the little town. She had a husband who beat her up and a little girl, but none of that slowed her down. During the days leading up to when she vanished, she had connived, tricked and argued until she had a brand new car, a Bel Air Coupe. One of the whoppers everyone remembers her telling that week too was how she had $50,000, but since Foley had been paying off the car for years after Violet was gone, stamped lie to that claim. Or is that why she left?

If she left.

It was the fourth of July, and most everyone had gone to watch fireworks. Well, not everyone. By the time everyone was back home later that night, Violet and her new car had vanished!

I was a little bit unsatisfied by this Kinsey Millhone mystery, but never mind. It is a perfectly respectable mystery and a good, if a tad bit pro forma, beach read. The characters were a touch too flat, and I definitely missed Kinsey's usual friends and neighbors. However, the distinct whiff of the repressed environment of the 1950's, shown in flashbacks alternating with Kinsey's present time of 1987, put me off a bit on reading this novel. I hated the 1950's decade.

I normally have no trouble getting into her books, but for some reason this one I just could not get into. I don't know if it was the set up, the characters or what, I read until page 170 and finally said forget it. Flipped to the end to find out what happened and was done. I'm hoping it was just a fluke thing and I will love the next one.

Needed a cozy mystery novel to read during my vacation last week and this filled the bill. Kinsey always delivers. While the mystery in this one could be a bit hard to follow, it still was an enjoyable book with a great conclusion. I’m sad that my time with Kinsey is coming to an end. I’ve enjoyed spending time with her and the rest of this quirky cast of characters.

I really enjoyed this Kinsey Millhone Mystery. She is solving a 34 year old mystery of the disappearance of Violet Sullivan. The book alternates between the present time and the past, telling it from multiple characters' point of view. I thought the ending was a bit rushed, but other than that, a good read.