Q is for Quarry

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.



Dolan is back! I loved his relationship with Stacey Oliphant - his friend and mentor. I loved that they both jumped on solving an old case for the same reasons - to keep the other one occupied and focused on something other than their health/bad habits, etc. I enjoyed getting to see Kinsey bounce ideas off of someone else too. And her converting Stacey to junk food.

The mystery was interesting but I didn't really like any of the characters involved. I was fascinated by the idea this is based on a real case. I hope that one day they can identify the girl and bring some closure to the family.



4 stars. show less

For me, this was a step up from P is for Peril. Kinsey's lack of strong relationships with others is a major theme. Another member of her family makes contact, but this time Kinsey finds herself enjoying rather than resisting the outreach, and realizing how lack of a family has molded her. Henry, her landlord, the one person with whom she often has real communication, is alive but conspicuously absent and never around to answer her calls. To make up for this, Dolan, an older cop who has made brief appearances in previous novels, recruits her to work on a cold case for Stacey, an even older retired cop on his last legs, medically speaking. Her relationships with Dolan and Stacey, and observations of how Dolan and Stacey relate, adds some show more warmth often lacking in her worldview.

My main peeve with the series has been that Kinsey always places herself in peril at the end. You'd think after 17 cases she'd learn better. But at least this time the episode is relatively brief.

In a rare endnote on the origins of the story and her writing process, Grafton reveals that the mystery was inspired by a real code case that came up as she was collecting materials. This lends a bit more substance and initial detail to the case of a woman's body found dumped in a quarry.

Recommended. show less

A wonderful offering from Sue Grafton. This is a departure from many of Kinsey's cases. Often she is reporting on a case she didn't want or had a bad feeling about. But this one she was excited to work on, assisting two retired detectives chasing down the cold case they could not let rest unsolved. This case seemed more exciting from the start. Unlike Grafton's other books, the basis of this book was a specific unsolved homicide in Santa Barbara County in August 1969 -- Jane Doe. As of 2011, no one has identified who she was, where she was from nor who killed her.

Grafton was allowed unprecedented access to the murder book of Jane Doe and saw some of the physical evidence. People familiar with the case said Grafton's account of the show more basic facts of her fictional case's beginnings follow closely the facts of Jane Doe's case. Grafton, of course, makes Kinsey more successful, providing a name and history for the victim as well as identifying the killer and the motive.

Because it was based on a real case, though, this book felt different from her others. Maybe a little more poignant. I enjoyed it greatly although I was disappointed with the identification of the actual killer. I really, really did not want it to be the character I liked so much. show less

Really, for a character with more than 18 books written about her, we don't know a heck of a lot about Kinsey Millhone. This one brings out her family in more detail, and I suspect by the time we get to Z there's going to be a mushy reconciliation with them. I hope not. A lot of the stories in this series are really good, and it would be a shame to finish them all out with mush.

Take this one for instance. Based on an unsolved true story of a young girl murdered in California, Grafton paints a lovely picture of small town America - the interrelationships, the unhappiness, the expectations, and comes up with an elegant and plausible plotline explaining the girl's death. Kinsey partners up with two old, sick cops who worked the murder, and show more the characterizations of the two are touching, and the relationships between the three are gently funny.

Grafton tries to push ahead some of the subplots of the other characters, but I'm not too sure what you can do with a romance involving a 90-year-old. I suspect it was put into the series as a bit of comic relief, and now she's going to have to write her way out of it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all gets put together. show less

Kinsey gets recruited by Lieutenant Dolan to help investigate a cold case, in which a Jane Doe was found stabbed and dumped in a quarry 18 years earlier. Dolan, who has had a health scare himself, thinks the retired detective who originally worked the case will get a new lease on life after cancer treatment if he can finally identify the woman and find out who killed her. Kinsey is stuck in a small town with two aging sick men trying to put together the pieces of a very old puzzle. And another one of Kinsey's mother's family members shows up, stirring up all her own resentments and abandonment issues. I seem to remember liking this one quite a lot when I first read it, but the story line felt a little bloated to me this time show more around---too many characters with too many old secrets. But it was fun to watch Kinsey introducing Detective Oliphant to every brand of fast food known to Californians in the 1980s. Grafton was inspired by an actual unsolved murder that came to her attention, and she was able to use some of the details in writing this novel. She was instrumental in having the body exhumed, and a reconstruction of her face sculpted by a forensic artist. Despite the efforts of Grafton and the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department, including wide circulation of images of sculpted likeness, the victim in that case remains unidentified and her killer unknown. show less

I loved this one. I loved the cold case. I loved the interaction between Kinsey, Dolan and Stacey. You really get some insight and can see just how much more comfortable Kinsey is with people older than her versus closer to her own age. The other good thing in this one is how great the older characters are written. They are active, engaged, coherent, ornery and just in general not just cranky old people.

The cold case is especially engaging and I loved it. The story leads Kinsey almost all the way to Arizona and Kinsey really shows us her ability to use multiple avenues of inquiry to try and find and answer. She and Dolan/Oliphant come at this case from many angles trying to get just one sliver of information to bring the cold case to show more an end.

I really appreciated that Kinsey was working for Lt. Dolan in this one – you could tell he came to her because he truly respects her and knows she is good at her job. Stacey Oliphant is another old geezer that I just fell in love with like Henry. He is so adorable and intelligent – what a great addition to the story.

I loved how at the end of the book the author explains the case that was her inspiration for this one and gives the reader some insight into how her story came together. This was definitely one of my favorites in the series. show less

This is my favorite Sue Grafton book so far. Probably because the plot of her book is based on a true case of a young woman murdered and her body left in a quarry. The homicide occurred in 1969 and the young woman has never been identified. There are artist sketches of the woman at the end of the book, hoping someone will identify her. Grafton did a great job developing a story about this woman and continued to build Kinsey’s story too. It’s interesting how she gains personal insight as she examines her relationships with friends and family.