Rating: 
Summary: Unexpected ending!
Review: Private Investigator Kinsey Millhone is hired by an ex-wife to investigate the disappearance of her former husband. The investigation into this disappearance pits past and current wives against one another, as well as the extended families involved. Dow Purcell, the missing man, has no known enemies and was generally well liked ,particularly by those at his office where he oversaw a very nice nursing care home. While this mystery begins the story, the most interesting part of the novel involves the two brothers Kinsey meets when she decides to rent office space from them in a nearby location. Who are these brothers? Where are they from? Who is investigating them? These questions form the fast paced second mystery in this Kinsey Millhone story. This is a great diversion novel, reads quickly and holds your attention easily. The ending is unexpected!!
Rating: 
Summary: Sue Grafton Does It With Again With P
Review: Sue Grafton learned the alphabet well, and she also writes terrific mysteries. With P IS FOR PERIL, Ms. Grafton takes some chances. While the book seems on the surface to be a typical Kinsey Millhone story, Sue Grafton writes this book in peril. She tells a solid story about Kinsey being hired by a doctor's ex-wife, recommended to her by a long-ago client to find a missing person, the prominent doctor who has vanished without a trace. The story also involves a potentially dangerous near-romance for Kinsey, but Ms. Grafton's greatest risk of peril comes with her final plot twist. P IS FOR PERIL is an amazing mystery and that final twist is impressive.
Rating: 
Summary: Puny Plots Pummel Potential Pleasure
Review: Readers of the Alphabet Sleuth series, regardless of how much they loved the previous books, might think that at some point Sue Grafton would eventually exhaust all ideas for the premise. Of course, having started reading the series just a year ago and devouring each installment, I didn't think Grafton would let that happen--she's too talented, right?Wrong. "P is for Peril" is, simply, a weak book. Even the anemic premise of Kinset Millhone looking for a man who's close to seventy years old is hard to swallow. Perhaps Grafton was hoping readers would take an interest in the aged, but the main plot of this story--an elderly man who's disappeared, leaving behinda young tart of a wife--is lame. There are characters who come into play, then inexplicably vanish, only to resurface with even less explanation. The secondary plot of Millhone's myserious love interest, Tommy, is just as boring, and grates the reader as Deitz is often mentioned, but never heard from. The resolution of both plot threads feels like a knot that was hastily tied, but won't hold together. In fact, even more questions are raised. For one, why did the killer (whose name I won't mention for those of you planning to read the book) kill Dr. Purcell in the first place? How did Purcell's stepdaughter get a hold of his ATM card, and what did she do with all the money? Who is this Paulie chick--who is quite interesting, by the way--and why didn't Grafton develop her more? In fact, almost all of the characters seem one-dimensional, which makes it very difficult for the writer to care much about them at all. I'm not writing nearly as much as I usually do when reviewing a book, because there simply isn't a whole lot that can be said about "P is for Peril". The book is by far the weakest link in the alphabet series...and perhaps Grafton would be wise to make the next book a sequel to "P" in order to properly tie some loose ends: "Q is for Questions Answered"!
Rating: 
Summary: P is for Pointless
Review: I am a dedicated Sue Grafton fan having read all of her alphabet mysteries. After what I thought was an excellent rebound back into gripping engaging murder stories starring Kinsey Millhone with "N" and "O", I bought "P" thinking Grafton would continue her success. I was wrong.
I think I started to read this book and then put it down from boredom about five times. The case and the characters simply were not interesting. Grafton does not seem to be fully invested or committed to the passions and motivations of the characters, the plot, or the story. There is no life in either of the two plots. Kinsey is searching for Dr. Purcell who has been missing for nine weeks. The police have already done some investigating, but the doctor's ex hires Kinsey. Kinsey seems to be following the same trail of the police, which is now cold, and not turning up anything new in the investigation to keep the reader engaged. It's only after page 200, and after numerous sighs of impatience, that something breaks in the case and the reader has something interesting to read.
In the other plot, Kinsey finds a new office space and a new potential love interest, but those events seem half-heartedly written by Grafton. It's only around page 150 that the second plot becomes somewhat interesting, although right from the start it smells fishy (as other reviewers have pointed out) but not to Kinsey Millhone, P.I.
The ending was a bit of a shock. You have 15 novels ending with "Respectfully Submitted", and all the plot threads resolved and explained, you expect the 16th to end the same way. The final clue that led Kinsey to the murderer was grotesque. After Kinsey more or less stumbled on this clue, I immediately balked at the thought that the police were so incompetent that they had not found this clue in their investigation themselves. However, finally all the threads are more or less explained, although I didn't quite understand the final thread about why Dr. Purcell was murdered. I intended to read the final chapter again to work it out, but then I realized that I didn't care! I didn't care about Fiona and Crystal and their squabbles. I didn't care about Dr. Purcell's problems with his nursing home. I didn't care about Crystal's daughter Leila and her adolescent tantrums. I didn't really care about Kinsey or her romantic infatuations. And, to be honest, I don't think Grafton really cared too much about this book either. There doesn't seem to be the same gusto and love for the cases and the Millhone character that readers enjoyed early in the series. Perhaps Grafton's departure from her usual endings was an attempt to bring some life into the series. I think all it did was leave a lot of her readers alienated and confused. If you are going to try something different, at least do it well. Perhaps Grafton should try Kinsey investigating a crime outside of Santa Teresa, or try a new series altogether, perhaps starring Dietz. In any case, "P is for Peril", the worst of the series so far, has provoked me to wait for the reviews and the paperback version of "Q" to decide whether I should continue reading the series.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book...LISTEN TO MY EXPLANATION
Review: A lot of people are giving this book a lot of heat because of the ending, but these people aren't seeing the ending for what it really is: a small, but good sales atempt for Q. The ending leaves you hanging, I can tell you that much, and it will most certainly be settled in the next book of the series. But the ending isn't that bad, because it kinda DOES tell you what happened. My Mom is a fan of these books, so she ordered it, and I (like with every book I read) checked a bit on it on Amazon.com. People were giving this book a bad review because the the ending was bad and left you with a lot of questions unaswered. The truth isn't that bad, SO DON"T WORRY! THis is a great book to read, and as I found out, you don't have to have read the rest of hte series, cause this was my first book in the series. It is a good mystery, which never gets boring, and leaves you hanging until the last moment. So anyone who is thinking of continuing their reading of the alphabet series, or anyone who's thinking of getting a good mystery to read, P is for Peril is a good place to start.
Rating:
Summary: P is for Plenty Good!
Review: I don't understand why everyone is so confused about the ending of the book. Duh, it's as plain as day! I stayed up all night reading, and am eagerly awaiting Q.....
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best Grafton I've read
Review: I'm in agreement with some of the others. This book just does not do it for me either. I'm a great Kinsey fan and usually Ms. Grafton's story are fast-paced and exciting. This one just isn't I figured out the stuff about one of Purcell's wives right from the beginning, so that probably didn't help. I found the stuff about double-dealing in the Health Care industry intersting, and that is why I gave this book a 3 instead of a 2. I also liked the chrasimatic landlords that Kinsey was involved with, but again, all that transpired there was pretty predictable as well. I will contine to read the series, but I hope Ms. Grafton gets her drive back again before "Q". I'm finding the series is losing momentum.
Rating:
Summary: P is for Poop
Review: I have enjoyed most of Sue Grafton's books, but this one totally disapointed me. Where was the epilogue? I know all books don't wrap up in a nice little package, but hers usually do. I felt I was missing an entire chapter. It was a nice rollercoaster ride that ended in poop.
Rating:
Summary: P is for Not Bad
Review: Kinsey Milhone is hired to find missing doctor Dowan Purcell. In fact he's been missing for nine weeks but since there was no evidence of foul play the police have been treating it as a simple "man who took off" case. However Dr. Purcell's ex-wife isn't convinced and his current wife seems indifferent. But as Kinsey keeps digging she runs afoul of the brothers from hell. Unlike some other reviewers I didn't think this book differed too much from other Kinsey Milhone novels. They are always pretty light and breezy. They never tax you terribly. I persoanlly thought the sub-plot with the two brothers that Kinsey rents office space from might have been more interesting than the main plot, but that's just me. I have to admit that the book kind of ran out of steam the finish and the ending wasn't as satisfying as some. It was clever though. If you like Grafton you'll like this book.
Rating:
Summary: P is for Phantom Ending
Review: I love Sue Grafton, although in her last 3 or 4 books I have figured out who the killer is by the middle of the book, Ms. Grafton seems to have taken this complaint to heart and decided she would not tell us how this one ended at all. Considering she left everyone of her readers hanging on an abrupt assumption leaving us no choice to make up our own ending. This reader feels that makes all of us co-authors and entitles us to partial proceeds of the sale of this book. It's a good thing I am not Kinsey Millhone, because if I was, I would use my normally exceptional detective skills, hunt down Ms. Grafton and beat her with this book. Kinsey and the readers that love her deserved much better. I tried to call Kinsey to get her take on this, but her answering machine said she was busy on a new case...out looking for the ENDING TO THIS BOOK
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