What are we Sue Grafton fans going to do when she finishes her alphabet mystery series? We'll be in deep trouble, unless she starts a new series. In U is for Undertow, PI Kinsey Millhone is visited by Michael Sutton, 27 years old, who remembers something he saw 21 years ago that may shed light on a young girl's kidnapping in 1967. While his story sounds implausible, there are elements that sound truthful, so she begins to investigate.

Of course things get complicated and the mysteries grow. Indeed, she also gets caught up in family struggles that mirror her own dysfunctional family situation. Cheney, Dolan and Stacey make brief appearances.

Grafton jumps between 1988, the setting of the book, and 1967 when the original kidnapping took place. She tracks down relevant parties from 1967, some remaining local, some having moved away. As usual, her characters are colorful, her plot is exciting, her writing sucks you in. Grafton continually shows that you don't need a lot of blood and guts to create absorbing mystery. ( )

U is for Undertow is Sue Grafton’s 21st adventure starring the unsinkable Kinsey Millhone and it’s one of her best. In this chapter of Kinsey’s life and career she’s faced with a 21year old unsolved crime that seems to lead to nothing but dead ends. And she’s facing a family reunion with her long estranged family.
Sue Grafton is an amazing storyteller and mystery writer and it definitely shows in this dramatic and nail biting page-turner. She keeps us up to date on all our favorite returning characters and introduces us to a supporting cast of many, some of which are solid citizens but many who are not and all are eclectic in their relationship to each other. Her dialogue in unmistakably hers, but in this volume it just flows better than I’ve seen for a while. Her story line/plot is as always interesting and exciting and I like how she incorporates past events with what’s happening now. And now just happens to be 1988. I sometimes have a hard time reading contemporary fiction that’s set in the near past, without today’s technology it seems somehow jaded, but I have no problems of that sort with this series. In fact what it does is make me scratch my head and wonder what we did before cell phones and high speed internet access. The mystery is quite a puzzle and who better to solve it than our own Kinsey Millhone with her unique and always moral attitude toward crime and her profession. And in this episode she seems much more content with herself then in some of the previous reads.
You cannot go wrong with this novel, it’s all that you remember about Kinsey and better. If you enjoy a great mystery especially with a strong woman heroine who knows what she wants and who she is then you’ll love this book. If you just love a great who done it then look no farther. If you’re a lover of crime or PI fiction this fills the bill. I guarantee this will satisfy any lover of mystery or just great fiction. If this is your first foray into the series it does fine as a stand-a-lone, but you’d be missing out on a great deal of information and finding out what makes Kinsey tick. My suggestion is after you finish reading this, go back and start with A is for Alibi. ( )

Sue Grafton is my favorite of all the mystery writers barring Raymond Chandler. Kinsey Millhone is just shy of her 38th birthday in 1988 and she's hired by a guy who says he remembers when he was 6 years old seeing 2 'pirates' bury a treasure which he thinks is the body of Mary Claire FItzburgh. It is not Mary Claire's body, but the clues and the case eventually lead Kinsey to the truth. As usual, an A.  ( )

I gave this Sue Grafton novel 5 stars. Okay, I'm an easy grader and I really liked this book. I think it's the best of her alphabet books so far. It's also one that you need not have read the previous A through T to appreciate. It's an excellent stand-alone "thinking man's" detective mystery novel. ( )

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed all of Sue Grafton's books. Each time I say that the just-finished one is the best yet; I think maybe U Is for Undertow may be the very best of the series.

Kinsey Milhone, a P. I. in the California town of Santa Teresa, is approached by a young man who has suddenly remembered seeing two “pirates” bury a body 21 years ago, when he was six, around the same time a child was abducted.

This book switches between points of view of Kinsey and her current investigation and some of the other characters' points of view of both current and years earlier when the abduction took place.

Kinsey has two interesting and unrelated problems to contend with here: (1) a 21 year old murder that a young man swears he saw back when he was 6, but since he has a problem with truthfulness, few really believe him, especially when he leads them on what turns out to be a wild goose chase; and (2) dealing with her recently found family and whether or not to attend an upcoming family event. She is presented with some new and enlightening information by her cousin, and that may help her in her decision.