Review: G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton

Review: G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton
G is for Gumshoe
Book Info

Released: April 1 1991
Series: Kinsey Millhone #7
 

Recommended Read!

“G IS FOR GUMSHOE is possibly my favorite one yet.”
~ Under the Covers

G IS FOR GUMSHOE is the seventh book in the Kinsey Millhone series and it’s possibly my favorite one yet. I’ve enjoyed all the books so far in this series but there’s something about this book that just gripped me from the very first page.
First of all, Kinsey continues to elate me. I love that she isn’t too fussed about a lot of things. She’s a straight-laced girl who doesn’t moan over dumb things. Her practicality makes her very endearing to me and it makes for great pacing in the book because the narrative is never bogged down by any external distractions. It’s all about the case, but Grafton still makes it fun.

The case in this one is unique because it involves a missing person. Kinsey is asked to hunt down an elderly woman whom her daughter hasn’t heard from in a while. What she finds is a complex and loony woman who could either be deranged or just suffering from old age. Kinsey isn’t quite sure but things start to get even more deadly for her when she learns that someone put a hit on her. This is the part of the book that kills me. Not only was I terrified for Kinsey, but there’s a character named Dietz that I really liked in this book. There’s tension there and I was thrilled to see this play out in the story. I know Kinsey isn’t a woman who needs a man to survive, but she is still a woman. I like that Grafton gives readers enough to tantalize and tease but not give us the whole bone. It keeps things interesting.

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About Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton is published in 28 countries and 26 languages—including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. She's an international bestseller with a readership in the millions. She's a writer who believes in the form that she has chosen to mine: "The mystery novel offers a world in which justice is served. Maybe not in a court of law," she has said, "but people do get their just desserts." And like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Robert Parker and the John D. MacDonald—the best of her breed—she has earned new respect for that form. Her readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling talents.

But who is the real Sue Grafton? Many of her readers think she is simply a version of her character and alter ego Kinsey Millhone. Here are Kinsey's own words in the early pages of N Is for Noose:

"So there I was barreling down the highway in search of employment and not at all fussy about what kind of work I'd take. I wanted distraction. I wanted some money, escape, anything to keep my mind off the subject of Robert Deitz. I'm not good at good-byes. I've suffered way too many in my day and I don't like the sensation. On the other hand, I'm not that good at relationships. Get close to someone and the next thing you know, you've given them the power to wound, betray, irritate, abandon you, or bore you senseless. My general policy is to keep my distance, thus avoiding a lot of unruly emotion. In psychiatric circles, there are names for people like me."

Those are sentiments that hit home for Grafton's readers. And she has said that Kinsey is herself, only younger, smarter, and thinner. But are they an apt description of Kinsey's creator? Well, she's been married to Steve Humphrey for more than twenty years. She has three kids and four grandkids. She loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine—not quite the nature-hating, fast-food loving Millhone. So: readers and reviewers beware. Never assume the author is the character in the book. Sue, who has a home in Montecito, California ("Santa Theresa") and another in Louisville, the city in which she was born and raised, is only in her imagination Kinsey Millhone—but what a splendid imagination it is.

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