Q is for Quarry

Rating:
Summary: My least favorite "letter" so far
Review: Sue Grafton can usually be counted on for a good read, but in this 17th. book of the series, she stumbles a bit. She uses a true story as the basis of her book, and while this sounds like a good idea, somehow it just doesn't work. Kinsey is asked by her friend Lieutenant Dolan to help solve an old murder in which he and his friend Stacey Oliphant discovered a body which had never been identified by any name other than Jane Doe. Stacey is having health problems and Dolan figures that a little police work is all it will take to pull him out of the doldrums. (Where's the reasoning there?) Grafton throws in a few scenes with the estranged members of Kinsey's family, but nothing seems to work in this slow-moving book. The characters are shallow and I never really cared whether Jane Doe or her murderer was ever revealed. I live in hope that Grafton will do better on "R".

Rating:
Summary: Mildly Entertaining
Review: The story is nice, keeps you guessing until the end. But getting there takes forever, too there are too many spots where it takes ridiculous leaps. I read it to the end because I wanted to find out who did it, but man it was a drudgery. The book is very slow and takes forever to get started. I won't be reading anymore of her work.

Rating:
Summary: Q at long last.
Review: The 17th letter of the alphabet finally gets its due with the arrival of Sue Grafton's latest in her alphabetical mystery series, "Q is for Quarry."

Alibi, burglar, corpse, deadbeat, evidence, fugitive, gumshoe, homicide, innocent, judgment, killer, lawless, malice, noose, outlaw, peril ... These are what the previous letters have stood for for Grafton's quintessential private investigator, Kinsey Millhone.

It's all counting down to her final, 26th book in the series, already titled "Z is for Zero."

A long time ago, I sat down to read all of the books in the Kinsey series. I started with "A is for Alibi" and got all the way up to "L is for Lawless" or "M is for Malice" before overdosing, and swore not to check back in on Grafton or Millhone until an interesting letter came along.

In reading "Quarry," I haven't exactly been made to regret my decision.

Not that there's anything wrong with the series. It's quaint and cozy, comprised of good mysteries to snuggle down with. However, it feels as though Grafton might be holding back on the stuff that's really going to knock our socks off for the even later books, rather than taking steps to guarantee readers remain at attention at all times.

"Quarry" has some of these issues. With the exception of several too-brief scenes where Kinsey hangs out with friends at a restaurant, or finally gets hold of a photo of her deceased mother, whom she has never met, we never really get inside her head.

She is too consumed with the current mystery at hand, a (according to Grafton in her afterword) based-on-real life case in which an unknown girl mysteriously turned up dead years ago in a rock quarry, but could never be identified.

Now, the retired cop in charge of the case is doing poorly health-wise, and a co-worker hires Kinsey to do some of her own investigating to put some spring back into his step.

This puts her in the circle of some interesting characters, especially entertaining jailhouse snitch Pudgie Clifton. The Pudgie and Kinsey scenes hint at something that could have made for an even more interesting read; they crackle with tension and humor. More of this would have meant more fun for the reader.

There is also a crucial case witness who admits that she lied to the officer on duty about the whole thing so that she could ask him out (the officer is now her husband).

I think, at this point, people are either going to read Grafton because they've hung on this long and want to see the series through to the end, or for the sheer audacity of writing a 26-part series. There's very little to offer those who just want to read a compelling story. "Q" is decent; it just never quite makes it to "good."

So I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about checking out again until the next interesting letter comes along.

"X is for Xenophobe," anyone?

Rating:
Summary: Slow moving favorite character
Review: Maybe it's just me with a preference for made up stories, but it seemed to me that this book moved more slowly and was less entertaining that all of the previous alphabet soup. I loved the idea of basing the book on a true story, and even spent some time staring at the reconstruction of the victim. But the whole story seemed to drag a bit and didn't engage my interest. I didn't find myself skipping pages or skimming ahead, but for me, the book wasn't that good.

Rating:
Summary: Very possibly the best in the series, (so far!)
Review: I have been a major Sue Grafton/Kinsey Milhone fan since ``A is For Alibi.``I did not think that Ms. Grafton could have topped ``P is For Peril,`` but she has.``Q is For Quarry.`` has the wit, and heart I`ve come to expect. Kinsey is enlisted to help clear a very cold case, and she shows us what can happen when the right questions are asked.Henry, Rosie, and William are here too. Dietz isn`t around, but, thankfully, neither is Jonah.In the second story line, she learns more about her family, and her late mother. It is clear that Ms. Grafton is moving to an examination of some of Kinsey`s deepest self concepts. Kinsey has always become more interesting with each book, and this one is no exception.

Rating:
Summary: Q is for questionable: this series is fading
Review: While "Q" doesn't have the blatant inconsistencies, dangling plot lines, and poor writing of "P," the writing in this book simply isn't up to the previous standard of this series. This story could have been well-told in roughly half its 380 pages. While I don't object to scene-setting and description, Grafton's style here is too predictable: EVERY time Kinsey meets someone, there will immediately follow one or two paragraphs on what the person is wearing. The repeated health problems of her police buddies -- and the junk food ecstasies -- get old with constant repetition.
Virtually every time Kinsey knocks on a door, or makes a phone call, she gets solid information from someone willing to talk with her. In real life, investigators -- much less non-police investigators -- much more frequently knock on doors and make phone calls when folks aren't home, or won't talk.
This book is a pass.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: In Sue Grafton's "Q", Kinsey Millhone joins forces with two retired cops to solve a twenty-year-old murder. While Kinsey works through old clues she serves as peace maker for her partners. With Millhone on the job, new leads emerge from the old. Bit by bit, a picture of the "Jane Doe" materializes, and new information comes to light. "Q" is another winner for the talented alphabet series author.

Rating:
Summary: "Q" is for "What a lousy ending!"
Review: Okay, it's a terrible title, but then so is the ending to Sue Grafton's latest. The killer is...pretty much who you think the killer might be. So the surprise is...nonexistent. In fact, in most ways Grafton seems to have lost the ability to surprise. Kinsey Milhone, her PI heroine may be learning new things about her family background (all of which, by the way, strain credulity) but we readers are getting nothing new in this series. There are 9 more books to go, so I'm not sure that Grafton has time to reinvent herself (and Milhone), and honestly I'm not sure that I would want her to do so. After all, the Patricia Cromwell books took a serious dive when Scarpetta went from being a local medical examiner to trying to save the world single-handedly. But some imagination and invention is clearly needed. There is still good writing and humor here (hence the 3 stars), but continuing with a beloved series should be a pleasure, not a tedious obligation.

Rating:
Summary: Sue Grafton has lost her touch
Review: I've read and enjoyed all of Sue Grafton's alphabet series until now, but this one has broken the string. It's just plain poorly written. The plot and characters strike a totally false note, and the story never gets going. This book is simply unreadable.

Rating:
Summary: A very boring book.
Review: This is a very boring book. Nothing happened druing the first half of the book and even it started moving the story was flat. The plot was so sketchy that a lot of pages were filled with talks of visiting fast food and main character's love of fast food. This is terrible.