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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:Sue Grafton ups the ante for private investigator Kinsey Millhone like never before in this �taut, terrifying, transfixing�* #1 New York Times bestselling mystery in the Alphabet series. Kinsey Millhone's elderly neighbor, Gus Vronsky, may have been the original inspiration for the term �Grumpy Gus.� A miser and a hoarder, Gus is so crotchety that after he takes a bad fall, his only living relative is anxious to find someone to take care of him and get back home as soon as she can. To help, Kinsey runs a check on the applicant, Solana Rojas. Social security, driver's license, nursing certification: It all checks out. And it sounds like she did a good job for her former employers. So Kinsey gives her the thumbs-up, figuring Gus will be the ideal assignment for this diligent, experienced caregiver. And the real Solana Rojas was indeed an excellent caregiver. But the woman who has stolen her identity is not, and for her, Gus will be the ideal victim... �The best and strongest book in the series...Solana is one of the most evil, calculating characters Grafton has created.��*USA Today.… (more)
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There's no rampant violence in this book. Just quiet cunning and elder abuse that is more horrific than a psychopath. Solana Rojas is the nurse who has stolen someone's identity and makes a habit of caring for elderly people and stealing from them and disposing of them when she's done. She's crazy, yes. But able to do all her evil deeds right under everyone's nose. Very scary when you think how vunerable the elderly can be, especially when they have no relatives left.
I wonder what Grafton is going to do when she runs out of letters?
I encountered a strange deja-vu throughout most of the book. Not believing for a second that I had already read it, nor that Ms. Grafton was using a previous
Now about the book . . .
As usual, Kinsey MillHone handles multiple cases for varied clients during the course of the novel. I have fallen in love with her small group of friends that she has surrounded herself with. I sometimes root for her to get more friends her own age, but she so loves these elderly folks and they are entertaining to the reader.
I love the idea of this spunky female PI with a very conspicuous blue Mustang. It's a great addition to the character. I laughed at many of the comments relating to the new car.
Overall, an enjoyable read, as are all of Ms. Grafton's Millhone books. I look forward to U. U is for ??
The story is not taut. In fact, someone could have cut 30 pages out of the first 100 and the book would not be the worse for wear. The story about Henry's girlfriend is unnecessary and tiresome. Hang in there dear reader, it picks up smartly around page 90 or so and then proceeds with the typical Grafton pace of events. The ending is no let down from the typical thrilling finish. Overall a solid contribution to the series, although the slow beginning--and Grafton's new attempt to write third person narrative in addition to Kinsey-speak--makes one wonder if there's some fraying at the edges here.
But Grafton's taking too
Unfortunately, she's slipped again here in T is for Trespass. The setup is good -- Kinsey's tracking an identity-thief and elder-exploiter who's a real piece of work -- but the book is too long, and too often waylaid by Grafton's insistence on padding out the storyline with insipid little vignettes from the lives of Henry, Kinsey's elderly landlord, and his even more ancient siblings. Henry's involvement in investigating the story's crimes would have been enough for Grafton to illustrate that old people need not be written off as derelict; she doesn't need to embroil them in junior-high-level romances.
This is two interweaving though totally distant plots that alternate interspersed with some random
All the interaction with Solana was fine and would have made a typical Kinsey novel. The random jobs bits were unnecessary and just dull page fillers, although an attempt was made to link them around the edges into the Solana plot it was very contrived and not worthwhile. There are several other very contrived and unlikely co-incidences too, all of which spoil the readers enjoyment of a mystery.
The excerts from Solana's POV like the historical exerts in the last book came across as experiments in varying writing style, and like most experiments needed much further refining. There was a brief mention of the beginning of the computer age (this is set in '89) but from the sound of it Kinsey will still be type writing her reports for some time to come.
readable, but hardly enthralling.
Random Subplot
Henry is dating a pushy real estate saleswomen.
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This book felt different from the others she has written - of course it has been some time since I read the S book so that could be a part of it.
However, this book had a twist
I was a bit disappointed in the ending though. It felt rushed. As if a) she ran out of time to put it all in or b) they gave her a maximum number of pages and she was almost out of room. I think it was good and interesting and I enjoyed it, but I would have loved if there was more writing, a more drawn out ending for us to really enjoy and relish and try to figure out what was coming next!