Q is for Quarry

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 show more 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. 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.

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

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