“A” is for Alibi (A Kinsey Millhone Mystery)
By Sue Grafton
274 pages
Published: April 15, 1982 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
Laurence Fife was a slick divorce lawyer and slippery ladies' man. Until someone killed him. The jury believed that it was his pretty young wife Nikki, so they sent her to prison for eight years. Now, Nikki's out on parole and Kinsey Millhone's in for trouble. Nikki hires Kinsey to discover who really killed her husband. But the trail is eight years cold, and at the end is a chilling twist even Kinsey doesn't suspect: a second eight-year-old murder and a brand new corpse
This was my first mystery novel, and I have to say that this series was okay. I mean it didn’t wow me but it sure raised my heart rate to a dangerous level.
The beginning of this book opens up with Kinsey Millhone saying that she has killed someone and basically letting you know that she is this kick-ass private eye, who takes crap from no one. I could really relate to Kinsey as well by the fact that she doesn’t let a lot of people in and has a hard time trusting people (which is no wonder given her profession). Basically, I developed a girl crush on her.
The only down side to her is that she runs…a lot! And it’s insane how much of this book revolves around those runs. Maybe if she actually thought about the case on these runs or things going on in her personal life, I would have been okay with it. But mostly they were just descriptions like “the sea mist hit my face.” That’s nice and everything but what does that really have to do with the actual scheme of things? As for the case, it was amazing! Some parts were pretty predictable but other things were so twisted from what you would think that you just had to say, “WHAT?!?” Plus there is a side job that she is doing about a person trying to cheat on insurance that adds a bit of comedy to the whole book as well as her kooky, old landlord and everyone else that is a mainstay in her daily life.
All in all it was a decent read. I was a little apprehensive about it being written in the 80’s, expecting some interesting descriptions of characters, but nothing seemed to date this book other than a reference to Barry Manilow and Olivia Newton John. Both of which I smiled for when I saw their names.
My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 checkers:
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