A is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series Book 1)

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Detectiva accepta cazul si rascolind in trecutul avocatului agita un intreg stup de viespi scotand la iveala o gramada de lucruri socante si incomode pentru care merita sa ucizi. Mildly paced with other mediocre tension, the book mainly wins through the point of view of the detective. She's a down-to-earth, relatable protagonist. Divorced and eager to help solve crimes for the underdog, even if she doesn't go to those cases intentionally, her thorough skills show a mystery where the clues are solved by actual logical work and not just nifty clue falling into her lap like most mysteries do. We get to go through random phone calls, ponderings of a next step, legwork, and misleading interviews. Good old detective classics. The first book in the Kinsey Millhone series. Though I love the series, the first book did have some issues. I think at times the book's flow got a bit rough. And the characters are not very developed yet. Grafton gives a short description of Kinsey. It takes a lot of books to find out about her last, how she came to live with her aunt, and her past marriages. Getting the build up to all of that is wonderful though. Bestselling Mystery Writer Sue Grafton To Speak at Annual Literary Voices Event". The Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County. 2007. Archived from the original on July 11, 2007 . Retrieved February 8, 2007. I had thought her eyes were dark but I could see now that they were a metallic gray. Her look was level, flattened-out, as though some interior light were growing dim. She seemed to be a lady without much hope. I had never believed she was guilty myself but I couldn't remember what had made me so sure. She seemed passionless and I couldn’t imagine her caring enough about anything to kill.

Exclusive rights to the late Sue Grafton’s popular alphabet book series featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone— A is for Alibi and so on—have sold to A+E Studios. Now, the studio can develop the entirety of the series for television. Steve Humphrey, Grafton’s husband, will serve as executive producer. Grafton was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, the Ross Macdonald Literary Award, three Shamus Awards, and many other honors and awards. Eight years later and out on parole, Nikki Fife hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed her late husband. Her father was a municipal bond lawyer who also wrote mystery novels and her mother was a former high school chemistry teacher. [3] Her father enlisted in the Army during World War II when she was three and returned when she was five, after which her home life started falling apart. Both parents became alcoholics and Grafton said "From the age of five onward, I was left to raise myself". [4] [5]And, despite this reading a little bit like an old Murder She Wrote episode, I liked Kinsey. She was very human and easy to understand. She wasn't a special snowflake. She wasn't so beautiful that every guy wanted her. She wasn't even the smartest person in the room most of the time. But, I found her likable because of all of that. The plot felt a bit nebulous to me, instead of being compact and fully-formed. Sure, there’s a murder—well, multiple ones actually—and there’s a case of insurance fraud that Kinsey investigates, but it all proved a bit simpler than I would have liked. Maybe it was the climax and ending that whipped me completely out of alignment, with their rifle-like resolutions where my ears were still ringing from the blasts. I'll still work on continuing this series. The first books aren't always the best, so here's hoping the books go up. Enter Nikki Fife, recently released after an eight-year stint in prison for murdering her husband. One might wonder why Nikki got only eight years for a premeditated murder, but this is never explained. Nikki continues to insist that she was innocent and she hires Kinsey to find the Real Killer.

Kinsey Millhone is a single female working as a private investigator in Santa Theresa, California. She is hired by Nikki Fife, the convicted murdered of Lawrence Fife (her husband), to find out who really killed him. Her investigation leads her into a series of other murders that seem to be connected. In 2019, an award in Grafton's memory was established by G.P. Putnam's Sons and is under the aegis of the Mystery Writers of America. [39] Works [ edit ] At the beginning of the book, I was delighted that the story seemed dialogue driven, with everything the reader needed to know being said by the characters, but soon parts of excessive wordiness crept in, particularly descriptions of people and houses. I had thought her eyes were dark but I could see now that they were a metallic gray. Her look was level, flattened-out, as though some interior light were growing dim. She seemed to be a lady without much hope. I had never believed she was guilty myself but I couldn’t remember what had made me so sure. She seemed passionless and I couldn’t imagine her caring enough about anything to kill.Maybe you’ve heard this one before,” she went on, “but I didn’t kill Laurence and I want you to find out who did.”

a b c d "The Anthony Awards: A Literary Award for Crime Fiction". Crime Fiction Awards . Retrieved July 31, 2022. If there's one thing that makes Kinsey Millhone feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer—and sharper—than she imagined.

A+E Studios announced this week that it had acquired rights to Grafton’s alphabet series, with such titles as A Is for Alibi and E Is for Evidence. Grafton completed 25 Millhone books, through Y Is for Yesterday, but died in 2017 before she could write a story for Z. Shanklin, Sherlene (December 29, 2017). "Hometown Hero, local author Sue Grafton dies at 77". WHAS-TV. Archived from the original on December 29, 2017 . Retrieved December 30, 2017. I went through an interesting series of feelings about this book. My overall impression which did not change even as I finished is the mirror reflection of a typical PI murder mystery, with gender reversed. I don't know if her style evolved as her writing continued, as this is the first I've read. I’m interested enough to continue on with the series, especially since Ms. Grafton is a three-time Anthony and Shamus Award winner and is a recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. But I won’t rush right to my Kindle and pop open the next book.

Grafton first married in 1959, aged 18, to James L. Flood, with whom she had a son and a daughter. The two divorced by the time Grafton graduated from college in 1961. Her second marriage was with Al Schmidt in 1962 but it ended with protracted divorce and custody proceedings over their daughter. [34] Kim, Victoria (December 29, 2017). "Famed Mystery writer Sue Grafton loses battle against cancer". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 16, 2018.A" Is for Alibi is the first mystery novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series, and was published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1982. Featuring sleuth Kinsey Millhone, it is set in the southern California city of Santa Teresa, the nom de plume for Santa Barbara. She wrote the book during a divorce and admits about her husband that she "would lie in bed at night thinking of ways to kill him". [1] The New York Times gave the book a lukewarm review.