I is for Innocent

I love Kinsey Millhone. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. I started reading the Alphabet series a few years ago - I think at the time it was up to O is for Outlaw. The idea of a mystery series each title beginning with a new letter amused me. I don't know why. I don't think it's particularly original. At least - I've seen a few others since. At the time though it was new to me and it just struck me as perfect. I flew through the series. Kinsey is riveting. She's brash and harsh and charming. She's fierce and flawed. She gets scared. She holds her own. She pushes herself to run often and tackles cases without judgement and with an open mind. Rosie and Henry are brilliant and I love the little family she builds around her.

But Kinsey show more Millhone isn't Jack Reacher - her speed is more Tracy Crosswhite. [book:My Sister's Grave|22341263] Her cases aren't full of action and high speed chases - they're slowly nitpicking away until something clicks into place. She writes down all her thoughts and places her facts and ideas on 3x5 index cards - which she often shuffles and rearranges to help her solve her case. And I love it. Kinsey Millhone is great - but she's not for everyone.

For some reason I've seen reviewers compare this to Stephanie Plum - I don't know why - this is absolutely NOTHING like that. Stephanie Plum is a very different character and an extremely different type of book. That's more fluff. Kinsey Millhone is more procedural mysteries. And this series isn't current - it was first published in the 80's - there's not really technology. Messages were relayed by calling the landlines. Paper files were still the main form of storage. Not everyone will enjoy reading this. But if you like your mysteries to be more like procedurals with a determined and fierce character - Kinsey Millhone is for you.



I loved this. There were heaps of twists and turns and it was very satisfying when the jigsaw was complete. I did want to see Lonnie's (the lawyer who hired her) reaction to the disintegration of his case - he goes away for a weekend and she solves the case. I didn't guess the killer which was nice. Great mystery. I just love Kinsey. Total badass. The shootout at the end. Awesome. And I love her struggling with her good angel/bad devil - hmm should I break in? Well...I've been so lawful up until this tempting room with possibly evidence...



4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. show less

This was a good entry in the series. Kinsey begins working on a case she picked up from the attorney she now rents office space from, after the previous investigator died suddenly. She finds unlikely gaps in his records, and begins to wonder if he was billing for work he didn't do, or if someone may have tampered with his files...and his life. Re-read in 2019

A solid mystery. Grafton's gimmick is less the alphabet, but the normality of her setting and characters. This isn't Chinatown -- it's Santa Teresa, a fictional analog of Santa Barbara. Neither big city street nor desolate rural isolation. The bulk of the book is careful attention to detail. Our hero never just drives across town. We get the detailed route. No room is entered without a careful description of all its contents. No one enters a scene without a complete description of what they are wearing. For me, this makes it far more plausible why this detective will eventually find and stitch together the clues. The only letdown was an action ending straight out of a television mystery. It wasn't bad but it was broke the pattern of the show more rest of the book.

Recommended. show less

Kinsey Milhone investigates an ex-husband accused of murdering his wife but he seems to have a good alibi. This was classic Kinsey where she questioned many characters that were sometimes friendly and sometimes angry. Throughout, Kinsey had many cynically funny observations or wisecracks.

It is always nice to slide back into a comfort read series after an extended absence. I don't know if it because of my recent binge audiobook reading indulgence of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series or the book itself, but it took me a bit of time to warm up to the story and settle my feet - and mind - back in circa 1980/1990's California, sniffing out the details of Kinsey's latest assignment. As with previous installments, I love the attention to detail Grafton puts into her stories, be it the description of the surroundings, the subtle details about the characters and the intricacies of solving a case, P.I. style that continue to bring me back for more. This particular mystery proved to be a rather good one, including the show more suspense build near the end, but the reason I really enjoy these stories is the fact that they are so entrenched in the late 1980's - early 1990's time period, I almost feel as though I am traveling back in time as I read them. great reminders of pop culture items like the magic 8 ball and the day to day realities of pay phones and land lines as opposed to cell phones are just some examples of the wonderful details Grafton includes in her stories. show less

Full review: https://wanderinglectiophile.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/mini-reviews-kinsey-millho...

The run around that the case in this book gave Kinsey was quite entertaining. I really enjoyed how this one untangled itself and it was very good at keeping me guessing. This one might be my most favorite in the series but only upon completing it will I be able to award this book that honor.

Overall, this is one of my favorite book series. I think Sue Grafton was incredibly clever and a great writer.

There are obviously some little things that ding the star rating, but really for the most part these books are very enjoyable. I’m always trying to guess where Kinsey is going with her line of thought in piecing the puzzle pieces together in her show more investigations. Sometimes I can see the direction it’s going to go and others I am pleasantly confused and pondering all the details and how they fit together. One of the things I like most about Grafton’s writing is that she can hing the whole plot on one tiny detail to an investigation. I’m sure that happens a lot in real investigations, but I find it so entertaining that Grafton wrote in such a way that these stories lend themselves to investigations rooted in reality. On the negative side of things, most of these books end a little too quickly for my taste. We can be trucking along to the climax of the story, the conflict happens, and the suddenly we’re at the end of the book within five minutes to the end of the audiobook (maybe about 10 pages in a physical copy?). Often the endings are abrupt and that’s a little off-putting for me.

I love that Grafton keeps her characters so realistic and grounded. Our protagonist isn’t some super powered private investigator or some heroin that’s had a rough past but trained to become as close to superhuman as possible in reality. No, Kinsey Millhone is just like the rest of us. I like that she’s got spunk, humor, sass, and a simplistic perspective on the world. It keeps things simple and clean, and that I feel is exactly who our Kinsey Millhone is in this series.

I started this series listening to the audiobook versions and I will probably keep “reading” them in this format. For about the first half of the series it is read by Mary Peiffer. Peiffer is not my favorite narrator but I believe my issues with her narrations are actually a sign of the times then. Audiobooks weren’t as prevalent back then and the rise of inflection and character voices were less common. This results in a very flat reading for much of Peiffer’s narrations. As the series goes along, she does begin to pitch her voice for characters as well as use inflections more. Unfortunately, she still sounds about twice the age of our main character and that’s a bit distracting. Now that I’m 11 books in though, I’ve gotten used to her as the voice of Kinsey. I’m not sure how well I will like it when it changes over to Judy Kaye in O is for Outlaw. show less

Kinsey is back for another adventure in her life as a private investigator. She’s been kicked out of her former offices, California Fidelity, and she’s started and new partnership with a local lawyer, Lonnie Kingman. She’s helping him investigate his cases in exchange for rent-free office space. The only drawback is the struggle to keep her investigative methods above board. If called to testify in court she needs to be beyond reproach, so breaking and entering is no longer and option.

Morley Shine, a fellow P.I., dies and Kinsey takes over a 6-year-old cold case he had been working on. She’s trying to help Kingman find evidence against a man accused of killing his wealthy wife, but the details don’t quite add up. Soon she show more finds herself in the middle of a bigger mystery than she’d originally bargained for. A hit and run, shots fired through a peep-hole in a door, poisonous mushrooms and her landlord’s hypochondriac brother all complicate matters.

As with all the Kinsey Millhone books, if you like the series, you’ll like this. If you don’t, this one is no different. I love having these books as a break or buffer between some of the bigger, meatier classic or modern lit books that I enjoy. They are a great palette cleanser. If I read Henry James and then dive straight into Edith Wharton, the two tend to blur in my mind. Having a quick mystery with the no-nonsense Kinsey is a perfect buffer. show less