K is for Killer

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.



Oh this one was fantastic. I loved Detective Cheney and the friendship they had. I loved Danielle. I was shattered by her death. But I loved the justice Kinsey got for her by reporting Roger killing Lorna to the mysterious fiance. Kinsey felt bad but sometimes there's just no good solutions. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the plot and the ending was good.



4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. show less

Solid but low-key entry in the Alphabet series. This is a cold case, so much of the story is gradually uncovering details about the victim. What makes this somewhat different is how Kinsey is affected Her running and eating habits don't change, but her hours do, as she almost very quickly shifts into working from evening to the wee hours and sleeping during the day. It doesn't really affect her investigation -- most of the people she needs to speak to are also night dwellers.But it provides an appropriate subtext for the final resolution. Oblique spoiler 1: What happens at the end is reminiscent of a pivotal moment in the television series The Closer. Oblique spoiler 2: One character when introduced immediately and correctly reminded me show more of "Dead Meat" in the spoof Hot Shots.

Recommended for fans. New readers should start with a few earlier entries to get a feel for "normal" Kinsey Milhone first. show less

A little dissatisfied with this one. No Henry, for one thing. And Kinsey does a couple things that, even with her guts and training, she shouldn't have done. The latter, as I recall, is a frequent quibble I had with these books the first time around. Repeatedly putting the protagonist in avoidable danger (that is, a situation he/she should have known better than to get into, and one that isn't absolutely necessary to save someone else or advance the solution to the puzzle) always gets a suspense/mystery/thriller author points off with me. Luckily, I enjoy the characters so much I can usually forgive it. And then there was the solution of this one, which came to Kinsey as a brain flash not exactly accounted for by putting all the bits show more together in a new and revealing way. Just a little too much contrivance. I wonder if Grafton was in a slump. What I did like, however, was Kinsey's reflex response to realizing who the killer was...a vengeful reaction that probably served justice but left her with a guilty conscience. I totally believed that part.
Reviewed in 2019 show less

Another home run for Sue Grafton. I loved this book but I almost hate to gush over it because that feels like it would go against the atmosphere of the book.

Kinsey has been asked to by a mother to investigate the death of her daughter on which the police have not been able to make much headway. From there Kinsey gets sucked into the life of the night people in Santa Teresa. She meets hookers, night djs, nurses that work the night shift and waitresses that work at night. Her own life gets turned upside down as she starts working nights and sleeping days. It really has a brooding atmospheric feeling like an old film noir.

The story has a lot of suspicious characters and lines of investigation to follow, a lot of leg work on Kinsey's part. show more The atmosphere almost clings around this book like night fog. In the end, you can decide whether justice was done or not. This is a story that will stay with you. show less

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

The ending of this one was not my favorite. It makes sense, but I hated it. I understand that sometimes cases will end in such a way, but it left me wanting and mildly disappointed. The plot and flow of the story was interesting though. A couple of stings left untied, but the tiny details to the case really show how easily the direction of an investigation can change.

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 show more is going with her line of thought in piecing the puzzle pieces together in her 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

Sigh. I needed a comfort read and even though I have read this book many many times, I was happy to re-read it again. I have this book in hardcover so it was perfect to read as I sat by the pool on Sunday afternoon. Grafton takes Kinsey through the nightlife in Santa Teresa. She feels adrift as she investigates who could have killed Lorna Kepler. With Henry being away visiting his siblings she feels even more adrift. I liked how Grafton chose to end this book and the introduction of the character of Cheney Phillips.

"K is for Killer" is the 11th Kinsey Millhone mystery. Kinsey is paying the bills and doesn't have much going on job wise at the beginning of this book. She gets pulled into looking into the murder of Lorna Kepler after her show more mother comes to Kinsey asking for her to investigate what happened to her daughter. Lorna's mother, Janice believes that her daughter may have been forced into a life she didn't want or the police were using her to go undercover. Instead Kinsey finds out that Lorna was living a double life where she mostly seemed to exist at night. There's a lot of twists and turns before Kinsey figures out what happens to Lorna.

Kinsey was great in this one. Determined to get to the bottom of what happened to Lorna she does what she does best. She interviews people, puts together notes, and starts linking things together. Without Henry around she's a bit adrift though and misses the way he made things homey. We already know that Kinsey was orphaned and raised by her aunt who seemed to bear no maternal instinct at all. However, we get to see that she does like her routines like going to Rosie and really loves her little house that was renovated.

Grafton has Lieutenant Dolan appear in this one. She also introduces the character of Cheney Phillips who is working vice in Santa Teresa. It's not to see Kinsey have someone to play off against as she investigates Lorna's death. We get to see his character get further developed in future books.

The book also introduces the character of Danielle who Kinsey becomes close to and who leads Kinsey to doing something that she didn't think was in her nature to do. I remember reading this for the first time and being shocked and then when the book leaps towards the end I was left open mouthed. Grafton I thought did a good job pushing Kinsey to a darker side in this one.

Looking forward to L. show less

I found this a sad read. A cold case which let us into the minds of parents, friends, siblings of the murdered girl but left us still not knowing who she really was. Like life really. Do we ever know, really know the people closest to us?

Kinsey soon finds that investigating this ten month old mystery is dangerous. The police suspected murder but could prove nothing. Kinsey is sure Lorna was killed and by a vicious man who kills again and looks to escape justice. Not if Kinsey can help it!

Another well written Kinsey tale to add to the series.