Book Review: Q Is for Quarry

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

Q Is for Quarry     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Sue Grafton
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator   Woman Main Character
Series: Kinsey Milhone # 17
Putnam, Oct 2002, $26.95, 400 pp.

Grafton continues her alphabetically named series featuring private detective Kinsey Milhone. I have been less than enraptured with the three books preceding this entry, and was pleased to enjoy this book more than a little bit.

Milhone is approached by two retired policemen, each dealing with boredom and bad health, who request her help in determining the identity of a young woman found stabbed and dumped in an abandoned rock quarry some 18 years earlier. The investigation takes the three away from the California coast, into the chill of the early spring California desert, retracing old leads and reopening prior investigations.

There is a nice interplay between Milhone and the two old cops, and following a thread Grafton has used in the last few novels, we learn a few more details about Milhone's own family, most of whom have been strangers to her for her entire life.

Grafton also seems to be responding to comments that her books seem to be "lost in time." She makes it clear where we are in the recent past - these events take place in 1987 - before the days of the Internet and computer assisted research. And she even lets us in on Kinsey's age - I'll let other readers learn that for themselves!

Readers who have wished to pick up a book which repeats the quality of earlier entries in this series are in for a treat.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM