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obsidian_blue 's review for:
Q is for Quarry
by Sue Grafton
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.