Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0-399-15297-0

I had forgotten that Sue Grafton is great at what she does. I haven’t read a book of hers in a while – but that is my fault. I read a lot of books, and I often forget which ones I have read. So when I bought N is for Noose for the third time, my husband started making fun of me. You know how this happens, right? You are in an airport and you start to wonder if two books are enough for a cross-country flight. So at the last minute, you dash into the bookstore and grab what you think is the most recent book by one of your favorite authors. Only you discover this isn’t the most recent book and your husband chortles to himself all the way to Denver.

So I skipped a few letters of the alphabet and was pleased to discover that Grafton hadn’t lost her touch during my absence. In S is for Silence, Kinsey Millhone is referred by a mutual friend to a woman named Daisy, whose mother disappeared 34 years ago. Kinsey isn’t optimistic, but tells Daisy she will work on it for a week and see what she can find. We follow Kinsey as she interviews people who knew Daisy’s mother, Violet, and see what happened in the days leading up to Violet’s disappearance 34 years ago from their perspectives.

I love the very organic way a Kinsey Millhone investigation unfolds. You start with her at the beginning, you follow leads, one thing leads logically to another, and eventually you arrive at the ending. Lots of shuffling through note cards, frustration, dead ends. Grafton’s ability to create a “workmanlike” mystery sounds unglamorous, but is her true genius. This realism, the interesting plots and characters, and the overall high quality of the writing allow the reader to slip right into the mystery and stay there until the very end.

Favorite character? Kinsey Millhone. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Yes, I have decided to brave the laughter and get those missing letters!

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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