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"N" Is For Noose

"N" Is For Noose

List Price: $25.00
Your Price: $17.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good first half
Review: I actually like the slow and frustrating investigation by Kinsey. The plot pulled me right in - all the agonizing twists and turns. Some new facets of Kinseys charatcter were exposed, I thought. The ending is - ummm - below average. I agree with some reviewers that is it perhaps too surprising - the final explanation adds up - but only just - not good enough, really.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: wha???
Review: (audio version)That about sums up my reaction to most of this book. It was slow, overly descriptive (I fastforwarded through large sections without missing plot details...), and schizophrenic in plot. Like many other reviewers, I also was disappointed in the ending...the killer is just suddenly identified and then nothing explained, just stated. The "plot" was much too random to follow and Kinsey was presented as a complete idiot. This is the only Sue Grafton book I have read and I hope her others are better because this one was a waste of time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "N" is for "No-No" in the ending
Review: "N" maroons Kinsey in a fictional town on the east side of the Sierra Nevada (note to Grafton: it's "Sierra," not "Sierras"). Instantly a fish out of water, Kinsey learns about small towns at their gossipy worst while realizing (as usual in a Grafton mystery) that even the nice people might be nasty at heart. We don't lack for suspects--although in the first half of the book, we do lack for a crime--and there's a scene midway through that is definitely NOT for the squeamish.

I generally love Grafton's sly observations, but this book is a little too hard on small-town folk. A bigger problem is the ending. Kinsey is uncharacteristically slow at narrowing the suspect list; I was way ahead of her. But worse, the solution comes down to a convoluted code written by someone who had no reason to leave a coded message. You only do that with things like safe combinations or computer passwords that you don't dare write plainly, but are afraid of forgetting. Here, there was no risk that the code-writer would forget the information: and therefore no reason to write it down. Instead, the code exists only so Grafton can tantalize Kinsey (and the reader) with it: a serious plotting error.

I'd give "N" 2 1/2 stars if that were an option. Because it's Kinsey, it gets three.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chilly
Review: In this one she dumps the decrepit Dietz in Nevada and holds up her return to sunny Santa Theresa to solve a mystery in a hick town in the Sierra Nevada.
Any Sue Grafton is five stars but I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to the series. Grafton is so good at building up atmosphere and setting scenes that her insistence on the cold and gloom in the mountains got to me and was even a shade depressing. I lit a fire in my library. It's not one of the funnier one in the series, although Mrs Newquist is a great comic creation (L is for Lawless is funniest). On the plus side it's one of the bettter plotted (B is for Burglar is best plotted). The solution has you flipping back pages and saying "why didn't I think of that." The suspense buildup is good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The alphabet won't be long enough!
Review: Sue Grafton is absolutely the best. If you haven't read a Kinsey Millhone book, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pick one up. They don't have to be read in order, but starting with A IS FOR ALIBI and proceeding through will make sure you don't miss one. N IS FOR NOOSE is an almost-perfect book. The mystery -- well, wow! -- I don't want to give anything away. The thing is, it doesn't matter to me whom she's chasing or who's chasing her. Grafton is so skilled at her craft that I found myself holding my breath, literally on the edge of my chair. And how she puts the reader "in place" while reading made me so homesick for California! Here she creates a community away from her hometown of Santa Teresa (based on Santa Barbara). It's so REAL! I can still see the town in my head, along with the realistic characters. There are no cardboard cutouts here -- these characters breathe. There aren't enough words of praise for Sue Grafton -- Excellent!! Kinsey has become the definitive female detective -- and with good reason. I hope Sue keeps writing books until she's 120 years old. But by then we'll run out of letters of the alphabet -- so then what?!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: N is for "Not the best way to start the series"
Review: This was my first Grafton read, and it did not live up to the accolades for the series I've heard from devotees. Our protagonist isn't investigating a crime, she's trying to find out what was bothering a small-town Sheriff's investigator in the weeks before he died of a heart attack. Of course, crime comes looking for her, but the wind-up at the end left me wondering what the big deal was all about?

Perhaps this is more like what PIs encounter in real life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Is Why Sue Grafton Is The Top Selling Female PI Writer!
Review: I have read many of the reviews of Sue Grafton's books that you people have put here. I know many of you share a hate-like relationship of her books, but whoever reviews Patricia Cornwell better bear in mind that in my opinion Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky beat her out any day. The main plot of "N" is For Noose centers in Nota Lake, Kinsey has been hired by Selma Newquist to find out how her husband Tom Newquist died. Sue Grafton always writes her novels with lots of description and I mean lots, hilarious dialogue, action, and smart-mouthed Kinsey Millhone who keeps getting better by the book, In Stephen King's On Writing he says that Grafton, although she writes real fast, seems to produce great books, He's right. Her best novel is probably O is for Outlaw, Her weakest would be L is for Lawless, since there wasn't a real mystery in this. If you are a fan of Grafton (Like I Am) I suggest you get this one, if you have read all of Grafton's books and need something to read that's like her style I recommend Sara Paretsky, Janet Evanovich and Marcia Muller. If you want Alternatives to other mystery writers, read Kathy Reichs, she's like Patricia Cornwell except much, much better. If you like British Mystery like P.D. James read Elizabeth George. As for N is for Noose it is excellent, exciting and fun. Grade: A-

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Grafton spins a winner!
Review: This is the 14th Millhone book I've read, and it ranks as one of the top 3 or 4. I don't understand all these other reviewers who downplayed it, but for me, this one had it all - great character development, a twisted but believable plotline, danger and action. We know Kinsey is close to the killer from the start, but with so many suspects, who can she trust? I loved the coded message, and the connections between Nota Lake and Santa Teresa/Perdido, etc. Nota Lake sort of reminded me of the town from the TV series, Twin Peaks. How can Kinsey sleep with after being attacked? Many detectives would walk away, but thankfully, Kinsey hangs in to see it through. Alas, only two more books and I'll catch up with Sue Grafton.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What's all the hype about Grafton?
Review: This is the first of the "alphabet series" I've read, and if it's an indication of the quality (or lack thereof) of Grafton's writing, it will be the last. The story meanders and she seems to revel in leaving loose ends (and these sloppy loose ends are not to be confused with intentional misdirection which some authors use). You can tell high quality authors when the action slows and you get character development and scene exposition. Grafton shows her ineptitude during these periods. I felt I was reading a travelogue when she described driving from city to city.

The action scenes are extremely lacking as well, certainly no where near the quality of a DeMille (which I had the fortune - maybe misfortune for Grafton - to read immediately after this book). As I understand that this is a series of books with the same main character, I wonder if they were better in the early A,B,C's and Grafton has simply run out of new material to write.

I was looking forward to reading a clever book with a resourceful and interesting woman protagonist. I was very disappointed - and unless you're a Grafton groupie you will be too.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boring, very boring
Review: I have read in order the alphabet series from A-N and have enjoyed ALL the books EXCEPT for "N is for Noose"! Yipes, I could barely stomach it. The only reason I read the whole thing is that I really really like Sue Grafton but this particular book was hideously boring. Hopefully "O" will be more entertaining!


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