Rating: Summary: Enjoyable book Review: I enjoyed the book. It takes place outside of Kinsey's hometown of Santa Teresa, for a change of geography and townfolk. Grafton masterfully weaves the bits of the plot slowly together, in a very readable style. It's surprising how even best-selling novels let factual errors in. On hardback page 123, Kinsey thinks, "Who wants to [travel to] an area where smallpox and cholera still run rampant....?" Yet smallpox was eradicated world-wide in the 1970's. Kinsey also worries about carrying a concealed weapon in the new town (same state) without permit; yet I believe a concealed-carry permit issued anywhere in a state is good everywhere in the state.
Rating: Summary: Not one of her best Review: I was excited when I found a paperback copy of this book at the library. What luck! Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the contents. This one was really predicatable and smacked of someone who has gone through the routine too many times. I fervently hope that this is not the case. Sue Grafton has too much potential to waste.
Rating: Summary: No Spark Review: The premise of this story was a good one, but the telling of it was lackluster. I was disappointed in M Is For Malice as well. I think I'll forgo O Is For Outlaw unless the reviews are very, very good.
Rating: Summary: Boring Review: This is definitely not one of Grafton's best efforts. Usually I find it hard to put her books down. Through the first half of the book, I was finding it hard to pick it up. Hopefully 'O' will be better.
Rating: Summary: Yawn Review: I picked up this book while I was traveling, hoping to find something nice and easy that would occupy me while the plane zoomed through the air towards home. Big bummer. I finished it only because I was stuck on the plane without anything else (I even read the in-flight magazine, yikes!). I can't beleive that this is a "best selling" mystery! Pallid, forgettable characters that even the author seems bored of. Cheesy scenes that felt like they were straight from a made for TV movie. And the ending! Please! Maybe Ms. Grafton should take a break for a while and get the juices flowing again.
Rating: Summary: A slow, disappointing read with a contrived ending. Review: I was very disappointed in this slow moving book. I am a big fan of Kinsey and was looking forward to reading of her latest adventure. It took FOREVER for the story to get moving. The characters were described in great and often tedious detail but somehow seemed one-dimensional. The premise was uninteresting, a woman's husband dies of a heart attack but was upset about something before he died...???!!! It took will power and curiosity to keep going. I kept thinking that it would get better, that I would be intrigued, that I was wrong about the person I suspected. Unfortunately when I got to the let's throw all the answers and action into one unbelievable chapter ending, I slammed the book closed in disgust. I hope that 'O' will make me want to bother with 'P'...
Rating: Summary: Not up to par Review: This book is okay, but not up to Grafton's usual work. I wondered if she was having trouble meeting her deadline; the book didn't really hold my attention any more than the case seemed to hold Kinsey's. There were passages that were really well-done--the part where Kinsey is being followed by a threatening driver is quite suspenseful. Over all, though, the book wasn't of the quality I had expected based on her previous works. Better luck next time, to Grafton and her readers.
Rating: Summary: The plot was uninteresting and the final scene absurd. Review: I found myself very bored from before the middle of the book, but plugged along. Thus, the final scene was particularly infuriating as it made no sense, insult to injury. How did the mind-altering drug get in the brownies? If Brant put it there, how does one account for the plate he supposedly ate off? Would his mother have done this? Really the last chapter is a slap together, hodge-podge.
Rating: Summary: loose as a goose Review: "N" is a middling, mediocre sort of letter (very like "m", in fact). No, I much preferred Ms. Grafton's aggressive "a". I can hardly wait for her "s". Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
Rating: Summary: Sue Grafton's N Is for Noose is not one of her better works. Review: Sue Grafton's book N Is for Noose is not one of her better works. The villain is too easy to detect. The reader finds himself/herself wondering when Kinsey Millhone will finally get around to figuring it out, too. Millhone's boyfriend is only mentioned and her landlord barely takes a bow in the book. These two characters are interesting and should be in every book.
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