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A review by nuevecuervos
C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton
4.0
I looked at this book on the shelf for I kid you not, 30 years and never thought to read it. My mother bought it from some book club or another during her Let's Explore Book Genres phase (which was awesome because I mean, how many people get the opportunity to embark on a quest to Read All The Things?) and it sat on a shelf in the house I grew up in, alongside other books I grew to know and love, but I never picked it up. I could tell you who wrote it and what it looked like because it was a beloved piece of scenery, but that's about it. A month ago, my mom gave me a huge pile of books to paperbackswap, and this was one of them. I listed it with a wistful sigh and stuck it in a box. A week ago, someone ordered it, so I pulled it from the box, and flipped through the first few pages... then I canceled the order and inhaled the book. This book now lives on my shelves permanently.
Murder mysteries are not my favorite genre, but I like them well enough now and again. Published in 1986, this book seems to have been in the vanguard of tough, no nonsense badass female private investigators who drink a little too much, have hard luck backstories and no luck with men. The heroine here is a loner; terse, highly-observant, capable, and stuborn, and recovering from an injury we assume has been sustained in a previous volume. She can also be hard-headed, though she seems to know when to listen rather than speak in the service of her investigations. She's unafraid of voicing unladylike opinions and loyal to a fault. That I just told you more about her that I know about some of my friends tells you that this character was beautifully drawn.
The mystery was fun(if tragic), the story was short, supporting characters believable. not all likeable. My main complaint was that the end was somewhat abrupt, but that's a very small complaint. I may not hunt down the rest of the books in this series right now, but if I ever feel the need for another murder mystery helmed by a hard-boiled female detective, I may indeed come back to it.
Of note, the very 1986 references to aerobics and leotards and "health food restaurants" (and HA, Telex) are not so overpowering as to render the story hopelessly unrelatable, and instead serve as amusing reminders of a time before cel phones and under armour. :)
Murder mysteries are not my favorite genre, but I like them well enough now and again. Published in 1986, this book seems to have been in the vanguard of tough, no nonsense badass female private investigators who drink a little too much, have hard luck backstories and no luck with men. The heroine here is a loner; terse, highly-observant, capable, and stuborn, and recovering from an injury we assume has been sustained in a previous volume. She can also be hard-headed, though she seems to know when to listen rather than speak in the service of her investigations. She's unafraid of voicing unladylike opinions and loyal to a fault. That I just told you more about her that I know about some of my friends tells you that this character was beautifully drawn.
The mystery was fun(if tragic), the story was short, supporting characters believable. not all likeable. My main complaint was that the end was somewhat abrupt, but that's a very small complaint. I may not hunt down the rest of the books in this series right now, but if I ever feel the need for another murder mystery helmed by a hard-boiled female detective, I may indeed come back to it.
Of note, the very 1986 references to aerobics and leotards and "health food restaurants" (and HA, Telex) are not so overpowering as to render the story hopelessly unrelatable, and instead serve as amusing reminders of a time before cel phones and under armour. :)