Rating: 
Summary: The Whole Town Is Against Me
Review: One of my favorite detective story lines is the one where the whole community turns against the protagonist. Despite this, the detective solves the crime. N Is for Noose follows that plot, and is well done. In fact, the book borders on the genre of the Western in many ways. Read it that way, and you'll like it better. The book has one uncharacteristic quality for this series, Kinsey is quite slow to solve the mystery. I found that intriguing. Most problem-solving is slow and ineffective. To me, it made the story more realistic and interesting to follow. Others will call it slow plot development. The resolution in the end is extremely unusual. It combines elements that are found in many other stories, but never in combination. It literally took my breath away. I could not read it fast enough, even though it is over quickly. Such a powerful coda after so many lento sections is an astonishing surprise, and one that worked well for me. Although this is certainly not the best book in the series, it is a very fine one. I urge you to read it, and appreciate its strengths.
Rating: 
Summary: Kinsey Just Keeps Stepping into the Thick of Things
Review: Private eye Kinsey Milhone is a thirty-something, twice divorced, tomboy of a woman, who has been having an on-and-off romance with a fellow detective named Dietz for a while now. She lives and works in fictional, Santa Teresa, California and, though trained as a police officer, she seems to have a knack for making cops of all strips see red. At the beginning of the story Kinsey is with Dietz, who is recovering from knee surgery. He sends her on to a case involving a former client. It seems a police officer in a northern California town has died of a heart attack. His social climber wife says he was troubled about something before he kicked the bucket, something he wouldn't talk about, and she hires Kinsey to find out. Of course some bodies start to pile up and Kinsey is in the thick of things and even though I figured out who the killer was well before our intrepid heroine did, it didn't spoil the story for me one bit. I'm a big Sue Grafton fan and as far as I'm concerned, this one is another winner. The book zipped along, the characters, as usual, were great, the plot solid, an outstanding, well written, witty book.
Rating:
Summary: The alphabet won't be long enough!
Review: Sue Grafton is absolutely the best. If you haven't read a Kinsey Millhone book, PLEASE do yourself a favor and pick one up. They don't have to be read in order, but starting with A IS FOR ALIBI and proceeding through will make sure you don't miss one. N IS FOR NOOSE is an almost-perfect book. The mystery -- well, wow! -- I don't want to give anything away. The thing is, it doesn't matter to me whom she's chasing or who's chasing her. Grafton is so skilled at her craft that I found myself holding my breath, literally on the edge of my chair. And how she puts the reader "in place" while reading made me so homesick for California! Here she creates a community away from her hometown of Santa Teresa (based on Santa Barbara). It's so REAL! I can still see the town in my head, along with the realistic characters. There are no cardboard cutouts here -- these characters breathe. There aren't enough words of praise for Sue Grafton -- Excellent!! Kinsey has become the definitive female detective -- and with good reason. I hope Sue keeps writing books until she's 120 years old. But by then we'll run out of letters of the alphabet -- so then what?!
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