A second copy that I bought for the Kris Kringle at the Melbourne BC meetup in December 2006.

A great book for a leasurly Christman read,

Thank you!

CAUGHT IN MELBOURNE VICTORIA AUSTRALIA

In Frank's words, "snaffled" from meet-up last night! I think I've only read one book (K is for Killer) from the Kinsey Millhone mystery series and I definitely wouldn't mind reading another. I can never resist a mystery-thriller!

From Amazon.com:
Kinsey Millhone has kept her appeal by being distinctive and sympathetic without craving center stage. While some mysteries that provide the PI's shoe size or most despised food create a forced and intrusive intimacy, a master like Grafton makes the relationship relaxed and reassuring. Millhone's life is modest and familiar, though her love life, now featuring police detective Cheney Phillips, tends to be oddly remote. This 19th entry (after 2004's R Is for Ricochet) adopts a new convention: Millhone's customary intelligent and occasionally self-deprecating first-person reportage is interrupted by vignettes from the days surrounding the Fourth of July, 34 years earlier, when a hot-blooded young woman named Violet Sullivan disappeared. Violet's daughter, Daisy, who was seven at the time, hires Millhone to discover her mother's true fate. Violet had toyed with every man in town at one time or another, so there's no shortage of scandalous secrets and possible suspects. Constant revelations concerning several absorbing characters allow a terrific tension to build. However, the utterly illogical and oddly abrupt ending undermines what is otherwise one of the stronger offerings in this iconic series.

This was surprisingly engaging and I found myself drawn into the story, wanting to know more. Considering that Kinsey was following up on such an old case, I thought it would be a book that I would ditch pretty quickly as I didn't think much would happen. This turned out to be the case -- apart from slashed tyres and a bar fight -- but I was proven wrong. The author did a great job in builing the tension and I enjoyed the flashback chapters as Kinsey investigated the case, and her "interviews" with the various characters gave greater insight into the bigger picture. What was disappointing though was the abrupt ending, which didn't make much sense either. Apart from the obvious that the killer was after Violet's money, but still, there didn't seem to be much else of a motive. I know that money is as good as any other motive, but throw in the clue highlighted by the author about the dog being significant, it just didn't make sense in the overall scheme of things. It almost felt like Sue Grafton got tired of writing the book and decided to wrap things up and just picked a character out of a hat to be the perp. An otherwise good read marred by an unsatisfactory ending, which is most unfortunate.

Reserved for Hawkette for the Sue Grafton bookrays.

RELEASE NOTES:

Handing this over to Hawkette at brunch meet-up tomorrow!

Passed to me from Tramgirl over brunch this morning, allowing me and her to read these in order!

I enjoyed this dip into Kinsey's world again, she feels like an old friend by now.
The flashback chapters made this book compelling, with bits and pieces you - the reader - could put together and wonder, and then see how such clues would unravel.

Setting a pile of books free - travel well!