Amazon.com ReviewWise-cracking, staunchly independent, and chronically curious, Grafton's gritty gumshoe Kinsey Millhone is back. This time, the alphabet series star will take on the toughest case to date: her past. What begins as a random phone call from a "storage space scavenger" (someone who buys the contents of defaulted storage units) leads Kinsey to a box of old papers and personal effects that her ex-husband, Mickey Magruder, left behind. Inside, she finds a 15-year-old unsent letter from a bartender that, among other things, reveals her former hubby was having an affair. The letter also contains details about the murder of a transient-a crime for which Mickey was blamed. Although never convicted, Mickey was ruined-losing his job, wife, and friends. But 15 years later, Kinsey realizes that foul play may have been involved in the murder, a deadly temptation for her.Die-hard fans will especially enjoy Kinsey's self-disclosure-something she's infamous for not doing-about her childhood, the fate of her parents, and the randy details of her first marriage. A very vulnerable and interesting side to Kinsey's character is also revealed when her obsessive-compulsive fact-finding bent is mixed up with matters of the heart.A fast, fun read, O Is for Outlaw is packed with Grafton's clear, colorful imagery and signature metaphors: "Our recollection of the past is not simply distorted by our faulty perception of events remembered, but skewed by those forgotten. The memory is like orbiting twin stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed."

From Publishers WeeklyPI Kinsey Millhone's trademark dry sense of humor is largely absent in the first half of the 15th book in this justifiably popular series, though it resurfaces as the suspense finally begins to build in the second half. In the bleak November of 1986, Kinsey looks into the disappearance of Dr. Dowan Purcell, who's been missing for nine weeks. Dr. Purcell is an elderly physician who runs a nursing home that's being investigated for Medicare fraud. His ex-wife, Fiona, hires Kinsey when it seems as though the police have given up on the search. Fiona thinks that he could be simply hiding out somewhere, especially since he's pulled a disappearance stunt twice before. However, Purcell's current wife, Crystal, believes that he may be dead. Kinsey is dubious about finding any new leads after so much time has elapsed. She's also worried about having to move out of the office space she now occupies in the suite owned by her lawyer, and between her interviews with suspects she tries to rent a new office from a pair of brothers whose mysterious background begins to make her suspicious. Grafton's Santa Teresa seems more like Ross Macdonald's town of the same name than ever before, with dysfunctional families everywhere jostling for the private eye's attention. The novel has a hard-edged, wintry ambience, echoed in Fiona Purcell's obsession with angular art deco furniture and architecture. Unfortunately, Grafton's evocation of the noir crime novels and styles of the 1940s, although atmospheric, doesn't make up for a lack of suspense and lackluster characters. (June 4)Forecast: With a 600,000-copy first printing and a national author tour, this Literary Guild Main Selection is sure to shoot well up the bestseller lists.

Kinsey bada tajemnicę zniknięcia szanowanego lekarza Dowana Purcella, który od tygodni nie daje znaku życia. O dziwo, do znanej ze skuteczności detektyw zwraca się Fiona, eks-żona zaginionego, a nie obecna pani Purcell. Instynkt podpowiada Kinsey, by przyjrzeć się bliżej życiu osobistemu doktora. Okazuje się, że Fiona wyraźnie ostrzy sobie zęby na majątek byłego męża, zaś na nowym małżeństwie cieniem kładą się konflikty z przybraną córką. Do tego przyjaciele podejrzewają zaginionego o malwersację. Kinsey ani o krok nie zbliża się do rozwiązania zagadki. Kiedy przypadek pchnie ją w słusznym kierunku, sama znajdzie się w tarapatach. I jakby mało miała kłopotów, w głowie zamąci jej pewien czarujący facet. Cała Kinsey!

Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, Abandoned by her rebellious mother when she was an infant, she was the only child of a rich man already in his mid-fifties when she was born, and her adoring father thoroughly spoiled her. Now, at thirty-two, having had many scrapes with the law, she is about to be released on probation from the California Institution for Women, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence for embezzlement. Though Nord Lafferty could deny his daughter nothing, he wasn't there for her when she was brought up on this charge. Now he wants to be sure she stays straight, stays at home and away from drugs, the booze, the gamblers.It seems a straightforward assignment for Kinsey: babysit Reba until she settles in, make sure she follows all the niceties of her parole. May a week's work. Nothing untoward – the woman seems remorseful and friendly. And the money is good.But life is never that simple, and Reba is out of prison less than twenty-four hours when one of her old crowd comes circling around.

Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again.In the small California town of Serena Station, tongues wagged. Some said she'd run off with a lover. Some said she was murdered by her husband.But for the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter Daisy she left behind, Violet's absence has never been explained or forgotten.Now, thirty-four years later, she wants the solace of closure.In S is for Silence, Kinsey Millhone's nineteenth excursion into the world of suspense and misadventure, S is for surprises as Sue Grafton takes a whole new approach to telling the tale. And S is for superb: Kinsey and Grafton at their best.

Es el mes de diciembre, y Kinsey Millhone atraviesa una época de calma. Tiene entre manos un caso rutinario: una colisión entre dos vehículos, que ha de investigar para el abogado Lowell Effinger. Sin embargo, a medida que avanza en sus pesquisas, empieza a sospechar que la mayoría de los implicados, incluidos los testigos, no son lo que parecen. Además, la tranquilidad de Kinsey se ve perturbada cuando Gus Vronsky, un vecino que no se distingue precisamente por su amabilidad ni su buen humor, sufre una caída y no puede valerse por sí mismo; contrata entonces a Solana Rojas, una enfermera que habrá de cuidarlo y tras cuya aparición Gus parece ir de mal en peor. Para colmo, Henry, el octogenario casero de Kinsey, se echa novia e insiste en que la detective le dé su opinión. Inmersa de pronto en todos estos asuntos que no le dan respiro, Kinsey se ve obligada a agudizar su olfato de investigadora, pues tendrá que lidiar con peligrosos psicópatas, con desaprensivos inquilinos y caseros y con ciudadanos aparentemente honestos que, de una manera u otra, hacen trampa y ocultan una identidad irredenta.

From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. The 20th Kinsey Millhone crime novel (after 2005's S Is for Silence), a gripping, if depressing, tale of identify theft and elder abuse, displays bestseller Grafton's storytelling gifts. By default, Millhone, a private investigator in the small Southern California town of Santa Teresa, assumes responsibility for the well-being of an old neighbor, Gus Vronsky, injured in a fall. After Vronsky's great-niece arranges to hire a home aide, Solana Rojas, Millhone begins to suspect that Rojas is not all that she seems. Since the reader knows from the start that an unscrupulous master manipulator has stolen the Rojas persona, the plot focuses not on whodunit but on the battle of wits Millhone wages with an unconventional and formidable adversary. Grafton's mastery of dialogue and her portrayal of the limits of good intentions make this one of the series' high points, even if two violent scenes near the end tidy up the pieces a little too neatly.

Hillerman, author of the Joe Leaphorn mysteries, and Herbert, editor of The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing, trace this short-story genre from its beginnings in the hands of Edgar Allen Poe through its development by the likes of Erle Stanley Gardner, Mary Roberts Rinehart and Anthony Boucher to its current practice by such masters as Marcia Muller. Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which established a great many of the whodunit conventions, is indispensable to such an overview. Raymond Chandler's "I'll be Waiting" emits a doom-laden atmosphere right from the first line; William Faulkner shows unexpected economy of language?and a transparent plot?in "An Error in Chemistry." Ed McBain scores high marks in "Small Homicide," in which the tiny details of a baby's untimely death resonate uncomfortably. As represented in this competent, unstartling collection, Linda Barnes ("Lucky Penny") easily outsasses Sue Grafton ("The Parker Shotgun"). Hillerman makes a solid appearance with "Chee's Witch," and in "Benny's Space" Muller captures the full subtle force of her novel-length vision.

It's April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the child's remains and finding the men who killed her. It's a long shot but he's willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?Grafton moves the narrative between the eighties and the sixties, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp-tongued, observant, a loner – 'a heroine,' said The New York Times Book Review, 'with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive.'

A spiderweb of dangerous relationships is at the heart of this daring new novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.Kinsey on Kinsey: "I know there are people who believe you should forgive and forget. For the record, I'd like to say I'm a big fan of forgiveness as long as I'm given the opportunity to get even first."– from V is for VengeanceA woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A dying old man cared for by the son he pummeled mercilessly. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring racking up millions in stolen goods. A brutal and unscrupulous gangster. A wandering husband, rich and powerful. A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt thinking he can beat the system. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers that may be worse than the pain of his loss. An elegant but ruthless businessman whose dealings are definitely outside the law: the spider at the center of the web.And Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.

Kinsey Millhone, trzydziestodwuletnia mieszkanka Kalifornii posiadająca licencję prywatnego detektywa, zostaje wynajęta przez młodego chłopaka, poznanego podczas ćwiczeń rehabilitacyjnych w miejscowej siłowni. Z wypadku, w którym jego porsche został staranowany przez nieznane auto i zepchnięty do kanionu, Bobby Callahan ledwo wyszedł z życiem, straszliwie okaleczony; jadący z nim kolega zginął na miejscu. Choć ani rodzina, ani policja w to nie wierzą, Bobby jest przekonany, że usiłowano go zabić, ponieważ dowiedział się czegoś, co stanowi bezpośrednie zagrożenie dla mordercy. Dotknięty po wypadku częściową utratą pamięci, nie potrafi odtworzyć informacji, będącej kluczem do zagadki. Zanim sobie przypomni, zginie. Kinsey Millhone zawsze wywiązuje się z umowy. Nie udało się zapobiec zbrodni – ale teraz uczyni wszystko, by odnaleźć jej sprawcę.