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Private investigator Kinsey Millhone has served Sue Grafton well through 16 letters of the alphabet in a perennially popular series that occasionally breaks new ground but more often traverses familiar territory, as is the case here. Two old, ailing cops--one retired, the other disabled--try to breathe some life into an 18-year-old mystery that haunts them both for different reasons. They enlist Kinsey's help in identifying the victim, a young woman who was murdered and left for dead in the old quarry of the title. Neither they nor Kinsey expect that reopening an old case will incite the killer to strike again--not once, but twice. And while the real case of the still-unidentified victim that inspired this fictionalized scenario continues to languish in the cold case file in the Santa Barbara sheriff's office, Grafton's solution is as plausible as any. While the unlikely trio of Millhone and her cranky geezer sidekicks offers a few chuckles, the inner reaches of Kinsey's soul remain largely inaccessible to her as well as to the reader, which will probably not bother most of Kinsey's or Grafton's many admirers.--Jane Adams
"Q" is just plain...godawful. Well, I'm glad that somebody liked this book, because otherwise, it wouldn't have sold more than a dozen copies. I thought it was Grafton's worst in the whole series. Sue Grafton has an unfortunate, ongoing yen for sleazy bad girls who make life miserable for a large number of regular folk before somebody gets cheesed enough to bump the little parasites off. "Q" is no different and what makes it worse is that this is the story of an old crime that nobody particularly WANTS solved, as they have all gone on with their own lives and are better off without the victim. I'm sure this would sound cold in real life, but in fiction, the worst thing an author can do is create a whole book full of characters that nobody gives a crap about, and Grafton has done it here. The desert townspeople are sullen, resentful and dull, the victim was disgusting, and Grafton falls back yet again on the Kinsey-in-danger-in-the-dark ending that has become more than a bit tiresome. Only her funny junk food excursions with the old cop keep this one from completely circling the bowl.
My view is a bit slanted, because I came late to Grafton's alphabet series and read them all, from A-M, back to back. This is not always good, because it makes it much easier to spot the author's little tricks and quirks that are normally spread out in batches several years apart. Still, reading N-S as they've been published, I wish that Grafton would stake out some fresh territory for Kinsey Millhone. I'll keep reading her, because I feel too invested in the series to stop now, but I hope she can make the victims a bit more palatable starting with "T". Anybody who was as annoyed as I was by "Q" is not going to like "R" or "S" much better.
Stone Deep We've cheered for Kinsey Millhone from the beginning. "Q is for Quarry" pulls Kinsey out of a drab, newly acquired office and out into the field of pure police work. She is recruited by Stacy Oliphant, a retired cancer victim and Con Dolan, who is on medical leave to help them with one of the original cold case files. This trip Kinsey does leave the little black dress at home and gets caught having to attend a funeral. Sue Grafton takes the reader on an extensive tour of the California desert country with slight clues that later take big steps from her 3x5 index file notes. Ms. Grafton has a fantastic grasp of description of the minute details which make her writing style both unique and compelling. Thanks for another great read from a loyal fan. Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers." Q is for Quarry This novel even though it is fiction is written in and around Santa Barbara County and that is home. It is great to figure out the new names for old places.
