Q Is for Quarry: A Kinsey Millhone Novel

by Sue Grafton

Book Overview

Sue Grafton delivers an intensely gripping mystery based on an actual unsolved murder in this #1 New York Times bestseller featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone. She was a "Jane Doe," an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399149155
• ISBN13: 9780399149153
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Marian Wood Books/Putnam
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Beautiful writing and interesting characters so realistic

I never read non fiction but but have read all of Sue Grafton's books and loved most of them. I have them all and save them to give to people.. They're very real. You really fall in love with her character. I've actually only read one other non fiction writer and that was Tony Hillerman, another Superb writer.

sue grafton's Q

started this about three years ago. i finall git ti finish it. good book.all her books are great

New Dimensions of Kinsey's Family in a Reality-Based Mystery

This book is essential reading for all Kinsey Millhone fans!Ms. Grafton has outdone her usual brilliance. She has taken a marvelous series and made it better by adding two new elements to her well-honed heroine and typical plot. The first new element is that you will learn a lot more about what was going on in Kinsey's family before, during and after she was born. This new information will provide the basis for many satisfying plot complications in future to expand your enjoyment. If you skip this book, the next books in the series probably won't work as well for you. The second new element is basing her mystery on an actual unsolved homicide in Santa Barbara County, California in August 1969. As a result, we can all speculate along with Ms. Grafton about what really happened. If the real case is ever solved, we can also see how close she and we came to the right answer. By including four forensic reconstructions of the real victim, readers can also potentially help identify the victim. It's one thing to make up one's own neat little mysteries. It's a much grander and exciting thing to take on the real thing. I hope that Ms. Grafton will create other reality-based mysteries in the future.As the book opens, Kinsey is about to turn 37 in four weeks . . . and is in a little more reflective mood than usual. Soon some of that's dispelled when she takes on a new role as leg woman for Lieutenant Dolan and Stacey Oliphant, who originally investigated killing of the stabbed and dumped young female victim in 1969 at Grayson Quarry on Highway 1 in Lompoc. Stacey had retired from the Sheriff's Department eight years earlier, but is back working part time on cold cases. This one?s lack of closure has always bothered him. He's suffering from a bad case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma from which the odds against recovery are long. Dolan and Oliphant have known each other for forty years, and Dolan wants to help his friend regain his zest for life. As you can imagine, Kinsey doesn't like direction from anyone and working for men of retirement age who are more than old enough to be her father is a challenge. Oliphant is 73 and Dolan is 63. To that, you can add the complications of illness and lack of physical vigor. It's a whole new set of challenges for Kinsey.There were several aspects of the story that especially appealed to me. First, Kinsey's disconnection from her family has seemed somewhat artificial to me over the prior books. How many people do you know who are so distant from most of their living relatives? By beginning to make some connections, Kinsey will become a more interesting character. For instance, what would Stephanie Plum's appeal be without her family? Second, some writers overdo family connections over time. The Amelia Peabody series seems to be bordering on that problem now. The books then become more about the family than about the story. Ms. Grafton has wisely avoided that. Third, Kinsey is working with people whom

Q is a Winner.....

It was eighteen years ago that officers Stacey Oliphant and Con Dolan, out on a morning hunting trip, found the decomposing body near the quarry. She was young, white, bound, and stabbed multiple times, and then her throat was slashed. She'd never been identified, her murderer never brought to justice, and the unsolved case has haunted Oliphant and Dolan all these many years. Now, old and sick, and at the end of their respective careers, they want one more shot at solving this Jane Doe homicide, and decide to enlist the help of Santa Teresa private detective, Kinsey Millhone. After hearing the whole story, and reading over the old murder book, Kinsey has to admit she's hooked, packs her duffle, and joins this "odd couple" on what turns out to be quite an intriguing and ultimately dangerous adventure in search of the truth..... Inspired by a still unsolved murder in Santa Barbara County over thirty years ago, Sue Grafton weaves a compelling and suspenseful story. Her well paced plot is filled with clever twists and turns, vivid, laugh-out-loud scenes, and witty and irreverent dialogue. But it's Ms Grafton's brilliant characterizations and delicious descriptions that really make this novel stand out and sparkle, and no one does it better. Q Is For Quarry is the seventeenth mystery in this marvelous alphabet series, and definitely one of the strongest entries. If you're new to Kinsey and company, begin at the beginning with A Is For Alibi and read them all. If you're already a fan, Q is a very satisfying and engaging read that should find itself at the top of your "must read" list.

One of the best in the series

She was found on Sunday August 3rd, 1969, Grayson Quarry off California's Highway 1. The woman was young, her wrists were bound, she had multiple stab wounds and her killer had slashed her throat. After months of investigation, the case remains as stone-cold as it was on the day her body was found. The police didn't even find out her name.It is 18 years later, and the two officers who found the body are now both ill and close to retirement. However, desiring one last crack at the case, if only just to give the poor woman a name, they turn to Kinsey Millhone for help. She is curious, and agrees to work with them. But what starts out as an investigation trying to find the identity of a dead woman, soon becomes a dangerous hunt for her killer. Some fans who may have been disappointed by her last effort, "P is for Peril", will feel much warmer feelings towards this novel, which is one of the best books in the entire "alphabet" series. It's complex, intriguing, written in sharp, efficient prose, with a great cast of characters. Kinsey is on fine form once again, and there are some real treats in store for constant-readers of Grafton, in the shape of more insights into Kinsey's family and background. She's a likeable, resourceful hero, and I am incredibly impressed that Grafton is still able to develop her main character with each new book, whilst lesser writers tend to burn out at around the five book mark. Grafton is adept at creating casts of likeable, essentially very normal, well-developed characters who keep her books moving and her plots flowing smoothly. The California she evokes is one of a mostly pleasant place full of people going about their usual business, but in all her books there is a subtle sense of darkness and evil lying beneath the genial façade, which often adds a good chill. Sue Grafton is one of the most reliable authors working today. She can always be counted upon to produce an enjoyable, compelling mystery, which is exactly what she has done here. "Q is for Quarry" is a high-class book with a rock-solid plot, and almost certainly one of her very best.