R Is for Ricochet

Rating:
Summary: Change is not always good
Review: First off, I always look forward to next in the series of Sue Grafton books (Kinsey Milhone, the PI is the central character in all the books) and I look forward to the next in the Alphabet series, as always. One of the reasons I like these books is because, like most long running series, they are predictable. I like the main character. I identify with Kinsey Millhorne in her personal life and her views on life, love and the pursuits of happiness. I hate it when this changes .... and change it does in this book.

Sure, the basic plot design is the same - Kinsey befriends an under dog and seeming less helpless and hopeless client - gets entangled in all sorts of dangers and legal loopholes that constantly spell impending doom and disaster for her - and as usual I learned things from the book - like how to launder money in this case. But what changed was Kinsey's "romantic" status. Sure, in the past, she has entered temporal and fleeting romantic flings that always ended up either badly or long distanced - but this time she falls head over heels - and its a pervasive element of the book. I hated it. It disrupted everything else, so please Ms. Grafton, dispense immediately of Cheney Phillips. He is disruptive, intrusive, annoying and bothersome - and its just not fair that romance should arrive for Kinsey -and not for me ! (It's that character identification thing!)

But seriously, it does change the formula, and I found it disruptive. Otherwise, a good read, and I continue to look forward to "T is for ...." as always.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre...
Review: I have been with Sue Grafton since A is for Alibi, and the best that I can say about the 18th book in the Kinsey Milhone series, R is for Ricochet, is that it is mediocre. In Ricochet, Grafton is very short on plot and very long on tedious description. It's definitely not a riveting tale.

Wealthy, retired businessman, Nord Lafferty, hires Kinsey for a different kind of job. Nord has a ne'er-do-well daughter, Reba, who is about to be released from jail. Her sentence was for embezzling money from her job. Reba also has issues with alcohol, drugs and gambling. Kinsey is hired to serve as babysitter and chauffeur. Much to Kinsey's surprise, Reba is a likable sort, and Kinsey is drawn to help her-even after her assignment is finished. Milhone figures out that the embezzlement case is more than it seems, and the deeper she digs, the murkier the situation becomes.

But what makes this book a disappointment is the heavy dose of description. It's not just enough for Grafton to tell us that there are flowers in front of a house. She also has to regale us with what they are, what they look like (including height, color, etc.), how they smell, the sound of them rustling in the wind, and even their texture. A description of a toilet seat goes on for a paragraph. Enough already! It's like taking a bite of a big sandwich and finding very little meat. The subplots were also unnecessary. Henry's love interest (Kinsey's landlord) and his feud with his brothers is totally annoying and doesn't add one thing to this book. The story finally starts moving, but not until chapter 28.

Still, I gave R is for Ricochet 3 stars because even a mediocre Grafton is much better than a good effort by many mystery writers today. There is just too much fluff out there. So when "S" comes along, I'll give it a try (but maybe I'll wait for the paperback version next time).


Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: I've read most of Grafton's work and have been, for the most part, entertained. I'm also a fan of Grisham, Balduchi, Turow, Patterson and was recently turned on to a novel called LUST OF THE FLESH by Beverly Rolyat. It was quite a different read to what I'm accustomed to, but I highly enjoyed it and look forward to the release of the sequel. It's the story about a corrupted district attorney, Nick Allapapalaus, who gets involved in scandalous situations, including possibly impregnating his ex-wife's promiscuous teenage daughter. This novel offers a variety of interesting connecting subplots and some valuable health information. There's also a variety of races and nationalities (white, black, Romanian, Greek) and religions (Christian, Jew, Islam). An interesting combination rightly defined.

Rating:
Summary: Limping toward "Z"
Review: In R IS FOR RICOCHET Kinsey is hired to babysit the daughter of a rich man who's just been released from prison. Reba Lafferty is a very needy and impulsive girl and Kinsey soon takes her under her wing. Eventually she learns that Reba had taken the rap for her money-laundering boyfriend.

We also get no fewer than three simultaneous romances. Henry, Kinsey's eighty-seven-year-old landlord, has fallen for a seventy-year-old woman whom he met on a cruise ship; Reba is still carrying a torch for Alan Beckwith, the money launderer, until she finds out he's been cheating on her with her best friend; and even usually celibate Kinsey falls into the sack with Cheney Phillips, a cop investigating the money-laundering scheme. Grafton handles the sex scenes rather well, concentrating more on what comes before and afterwards than the ex-rated details.

I've read about a half dozen of this alphabet series and if there's one thing I've learned it's that Grafton has an aversion to the jump cut. She's afraid to leave anything out, including Kinsey rearranging her underwear drawer; she should also get a promotional fee from MacDonald's, considering her love for the quarter pounder. There also comes a time in each of these mysteries where Grafton writes herself into a corner. In this one Kinsey and Reba are looking for a hidden room in Alan Beckwith's new office building. They find it but there's a keypad and they don't know the code. No sweat. Reba guesses the combination. Grafton deserves a big COME ON NOW, SUE for that one.

There's no doubt Grafton is limping toward "Z" but I'll keep on reading her just to find out what she does with "X". Xerox? X-ray? Xanadu?

Rating:
Summary: Hmmm....Okay.....
Review: Q is for Quarry was so good, probably her best...that I was kind of disappointed in this one. It did not "grip" me like most of her books and I found it easy to put it down and not pick it back up for days. Usually, I am speeding through a Sue Grafton in a day or so. Too bad...

Rating:
Summary: R is for Retire
Review: Tediously plodding book. I kept hoping that it would hit its stride but it never did. Time to hang it up.

Rating:
Summary: Last part, mostly OK
Review: The book picks up about halfway through it, but that's just a bit too late to warrant more stars than three. The first part of the novel just sort of wanders around, wasting time and paper. The long sections involving the octogenarian brothers' love affair was just plain dull (was it supposed to be cute?) and kept the reader from the central plot. Then, the soft-core sex life of our heroine may titilate a few readers, but not this one. I found myself skipping whole pages. Finally, the long section explaining money laundering accomplished nothing except tell the reader that the writer did research into the crime of money laundering. The details could have been dismissed in a paragraph or so; not all the research had to be included.

In short, this is not nearly as disciplined as some of the writer's other mysteries. "R" needed a good editor with a handful of blue pencils. Cut about 100 pages of this, and the book was interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the recent several: "R is for Ricochet"
Review: The job seems simple enough in the beginning. Kinsey Malone is to go to the California Institute for Women and pick up Reba Lafferty. Convicted of embezzlement, the daughter of wealthy Nord Lafferty is to be released early from prison on parole. Kinsey is to bring her back home, make sure she is settled in her father's house as she resumes her life, and complying with her parole instructions. Nord Lafferty has the money and is willing to pay for a job that will take just a few days.

And in the beginning, everything seems straightforward enough. Reba and Kinsey make a connection and Reba seems to be trying to adjust to being back out in the real world. Then, the man she went to prison for comes back in her life and the lies and deceit begin anew. Debts must be paid and this time, Reba has a plan and drags Kinsey willingly into the middle of it.

This latest read from Sue Grafton becomes a complex novel on many different levels. Kinsey has a dark side to her, which is quickly exploited by Reba in a way never done before. In so doing, she and the reader are pulled into a murky world of relationships and money laundering where being a good person can get you killed in more ways than one.

This is a much better novel that several of the recent ones have been. While Kinsey still seems to make bad decisions from time to time, as any of us do, there isn't the emotional waffling that we have seen from time to time in the past. And while set in the same time frame as all the other novels, mid eighties, there is a sense in this one that she has learned a few things about herself along the way. The result is an enjoyable read.

Book Facts:

R is for Ricochet
By Sue Grafton
A Marion Wood Book
Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons
www.penguin.com
2004
ISBN # 0-399-15228-8
Hardback
352 Pages
$26.95 US
$39.00 Canada

This entire review previously appeared online at the Blue Iris Journal Blog.


Kevin R. Tipple © 2004




Rating:
Summary: Tired series
Review: This was a disappointing outing about one of my favorite characters in mystery fiction. We need a new female sleuth to take Kinsey's place! For the male version of Kinsey, check out the Jimmy O'Brien character in Jeff Sherratt's new series. Six to Five Against was a hoot!

Rating:
Summary: By the letter R, you would think Kinesey more competent.
Review: What happened to Kinsey M.? I thought she was a little more competent in her previous cases. This Kinsey allowed herself to be taken for a complete ride. Perhaps "R" should have been for Ride. First of all, the story really did not get going until about halfway through the book. When the story did take off, Kinesy was a totally ineffectual participant. Throughout the whole story she was nothing more than a dupe. Even the resolution did not benefit from her actions. Apparently, this was Grafton's plan. The last line refers to Kinesey being an actor is someone elses play. Perhaps Grafton is bored with the alphabet series and wanted to try something a little different. But did she have to destroy the credibility of her detective in the process?