U is for Undertow

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 really enjoyed this one. I liked the changing viewpoints and they way the pieces all fitted together. Although I did want to know if Memory's father was Jon?

Plus after all the effort Michael's brother and sister went to give Kinsey evidence he was wrong - I kind of wanted her to meet with them and be like well gee, now who was wrong?

I was amused by the ending to the case. Kinsey is a total badass. And I was pretty impressed with Kinsey's shot, even if she was all, oh anyone could do it.

Kinsey's family. Man. What a bloody disaster that lot is. I felt sorry for Kinsey when she has to return the photo album. She hardly needs more reasons not to bother getting to know them all. The reveal at the end of Grand being a wheelchair bound old lady was surprising. I feel sorry that Kinsey's probably not going to get the answers she's looking for.



4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. show less

Hace ya bastantes años que llevo siguiendo los casos de Kinsey Millhone, la detective privado creada por Sue Grafton, y su abecedario del crimen. Recuerdo que sus primeras novelas eran frescas, con un personaje carismático llamado Kinsey que me acabó conquistando desde sus primeros títulos, en los que hacia alarde de su insistencia en sus investigaciones, como un perro de presa, aparte de su perspicacia. Pero Kinsey no es una Sherlock Holmes moderna, con unas dotes extraordinarias para la investigación, donde llega y se queda con el personal con sus observaciones y su sarcasmo. Kinsey hace mucho trabajo campo, entrevistando a los implicados en cada caso, para después hacer informes y escribiendo datos en tarjetas para ir show more relacionando la información recogida, para así encontrar pistas. Aunque también es verdad que sus pesquisas obligan muchas veces a los malos a cometer descuidos.

Kinsey vive en Santa Teresa, California, y es una mujer que fue policía, pero como no le iban los uniformes, lo dejó a los dos años. Con dos divorcios a sus espaldas, es una mujer con una rutina propia: le gusta correr por las mañanas, adora a su casero Henry, y come en el local de Rosie. En lo profesional, se encarga de pequeños casos para ir subsistiendo. He de reseñar que las novelas de Kinsey transcurren en la década de los ochenta, algo que hace bastante particular las descripciones.

En 'U de ultimátum', la novela número veintiuno de la serie, Michael Sutton acude a Kinsey para que le ayude con un problema que le ha surgido. Hace poco ha recordado que cuando era niño vio a dos hombres enterrando un bulto en el bosque, y ha asociado este dato con un caso de la época no resuelto, la desaparición de una niña que fue secuestrada. Los datos proporcionados por Michael paracen tan precisos, que acepta investigar sólo un día. Quién le iba a decir a Kinsey con lo que iba a encontrarse.

Si las primeras novelas escritas por Grafton eran frescas, como digo, en las últimas se mantiene esta frescura en el personaje, pero también se nota que las historias están excelentemente escritas, son más literarias. Grafton hace más complejas las tramas y su construcción hace que mantengas la atención durante toda su lectura. En este caso, lleva la historia por dos épocas, los años sesenta y los ochenta, dando voz tanto a Kinsey como a varios personajes más, con lo que la complejidad aumenta. Pero eso no impide que la autora salga airosa. Grafton está en forma. show less

In this installment, 38-year old PI Kinsey Milhone is asked to look into an unsolved 21-year old kidnapping case when a young man suddenly remembers something he witnessed as a boy. Looking into the details of the case forces her to confront people and places and memories from her own high school days - before she became the confident and accomplished woman she is now.

This has been an amazing series. Twenty-one books now, and the quality of the writing has been pretty constant. I love that it is set in the 1980's - a time that I clearly remember, yet is so different from today. No one had cell phones or personal computers. There were still pay phones on every corner. Kinsey made notes on index cards and used a real typewriter to write show more reports. The fax machine was the biggest gee-whiz gadget around. I also enjoy reading descriptions of the the details of the California countryside surrounding the fictional Santa Teresa - a thinly disguised Santa Barbara. Kinsey spends more time writing reports and doing research in the library or courthouse than she does chasing bad guys. Her personal life is spent cleaning house and having dinner in the neighborhood diner. She complains about her relatives. She lives such an ordinary life. I adore her. And I loved this book. show less

For a short time at the beginning of this book, I was wondering why I'd decided to revisit Kinsey Millhone quite so quickly. Then the story drew me in and I found it a compellingly GoodRead.

Kinsey is visited by a young man, Michael Sutton, who claims to have suddenly remembered, after reading a story about a young girl's abduction and subsequent disappearance, of having, at the age of six, seen two men burying "something". He decided it was the body of the young girl who had been abducted, because he felt that the dates matched up. The police had long since given up on that case, and they sent the young man to Kinsey Millhone. She decided his description of the setting was sufficiently detailed that she convinced the police to dig show more around the site the young man pointed out. All they found was the body of a dog, along with the dog's tag.

Kinsey gets curious about why the dog tag indicated that the dog didn't live anywhere near the back woods in the tony community where its remains were found. So, one thing leads to another and all becomes clear by the end. I won't tell you anything more. You should read the book yourself.

One thing I found interesting is that the book jumped back and forth between Kinsey's mucking about in April, 1988, to the lives of three, not obviously related, people living in 1963, 1967 and also, some of the time in 1988 while Kinsey was following her investigations.

So, we have a disaffected high school student, Jon Corso, whose mother dies from some illness, like old-time consumption, when he was ten, and while his father was away. The father subsequently marries a toxic woman, one bent on total control of all around her. When Jon first met her, he was reminded of a black wasp, ready to sting anything in her way. She banishes the boy to an attic suite over the garage, so as to keep him away from her daughters from a prior marriage.

Then, we have a couple, the Unruhs whose son, Greg, turns into a hippie and parks out in their driveway in a yellow school bus along with a dominating, "go with the flow, dude" nature woman, "Destiny", and her 8-or-so-year-old son, "Sky Dancer". The hippie woman gives birth and a few days later and then packs up Greg and her own son and abandons her new-born daughter, "Rain". Baby Rain had been a pain in the ass because she didn't take to nursing immediately, and so cried a lot from hunger and lack of nurture. The Unruhs adopt Rain, and she subsequently thrives.

Finally, we have a successful banker, Walker McNally who "drinks a bit". He promises his spouse he will lighten up, perhaps even go "sober". But one weekend, while his spouse and child are away, he falls off the wagon and kills a young woman in a car accident.

So what, if any, are the relationships between Michael Sutton, the Unruhs, The hippies in the yellow school bus, Jon Corso, and Walker McNally that tie them together in the story? Well, that's for you all to find out. Hope y'all have as much with that process as I did. show less

Every time I finish a Grafton novel, I feel it has been her best and cannot be topped. Then she writes one that does.

In this book, she is approached by a young man who thinks he saw two men bury the body of a kidnapped child when he was six years old. While she is skeptical, she starts to look into it and when they find the burial site pretty quickly, it looks like this fellow isn't crazy until the body found is of a dog.

You know Kinsey will not give up. Meanwhile one of the kidnappers is having major personal problems which we follow in a parallel narrative. This novel was difficult to put down.

I had stopped reading the Kinsey Millhone series back around "J" or "K" and it was high time I returned! Kinsey, like her author and like many of her readers, has matured--although more slowly than the rest of us. Far more of Kinsey's background has been slowly unraveled over the intervening books and it was a pleasure to learn more about her childhood, youth, and family. Unlike some mysteries, the identities of the persons involved are revealed to us bit by bit but we still don't see how all the pieces fit together until the end, creating a delightful atmosphere of suspense. In addition, I was reminded that Sue Grafton, like Elizabeth George and others, is not just writing a whodunnit or a howdunnit, but is exploring themes that relate show more to the human condition. I won't say what characteristics and situations are at play in this volume, but read it yourself to find out! show less

The latest in Grafton's alphabet series, and in my opinion a top-tier installment. I haven't been this pleased with one of her books for quite a while - I think "Q" was the last one I liked this much. And I guess it is somewhat similar - I am a sucker for a "cold case" - a kidnapping from ~20yrs in the past - and Kinsey's on the case. This one (like Q) also features flashbacks from the major players from years ago. So while this separates you from Kinsey, giving you more knowledge than she; for me it adds more layers, more nuance, more heart than found in one of her typical "whodunnits" where we traipse along with Kinsey the entire time.

Kinsey's humor was also razor sharp in this one. She sometimes comes across rather goofy; but not show more here. Laugh out loud moments interspersed with a lot of wry smiles from me. We also are learning more and more about Kinsey's family and her past which is always interesting. Your heart goes out to her and I really wonder how Grafton is going to wind things up for her. A good read for me - read it in a couple of sittings and while there was no big "reveal" the story was still satisfying and a page-turner to boot.

So for me, one of the top 5 or so in the series. The latter half or so of the alphabet has definitely not been as good, so it is gratifying to get a tightly written, funny, complex addition to make one want to continue to read. show less