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"B" is for Burglar (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries)
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Product Description
Kinsey’s hunch proves true when she begins her inquiries into Elaine’s whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine’s disappearance tied in to the brutal murder several months ago of one of her bridge partners? And what happened to Elaine’s Persian cat who seems to have also vanished?
Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger vandalizes the home of one of Elaine’s neighbors and another neighbor turns up murdered. With her reputation and career on the line, Kinsey risks all to find a missing woman and a killer who’s waiting in the shadows to strike again…
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #18468 in Books
- Published on: 2005-11-29
- Released on: 2005-11-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 320 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
"'One of the best written crime novels by anybody in recent memory' New York Times; 'Kinsey Millhone [is] just about the gutsiest as well as the shrewdest of her kind' Observer; 'An unusually compelling series of novels with a notably convincing central character' Guardian"
Review
“Exceptionally entertaining…an offbeat sense of humor and a feisty sense of justice.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Millhone is an engaging detective-for-hire…P.I. Kinsey Millhone and her creator…are arguably the best of [the] distaff invaders of the hitherto sacrosanct turf of gumshoes.”
—The Buffalo News
“Once a fan reads one of Grafton’s alphabetically titled detective novels, he or she will not rest until all the others are found.”—Los Angeles Herald Examiner
“Millhone is a refreshingly strong and resourceful female private eye.”—Library Journal
“Tough but compassionate…There is no one better than Kinsey Millhone.”—Best Sellers
“A woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner.”—Newsweek
“Lord, how I like this Kinsey Millhone…The best detective fiction I have read in years.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Smart, tough, and thorough…Kinsey Millhone is a pleasure.”—The Bloomsbury Review
“Kinsey is one of the most persuasive of the new female operatives…She’s refreshingly free of gender clichés. Grafton, who is a very witty writer, has also given her sleuth a nice sense of humor—and a set of Wonder Woman sheets to prove it.”—Boston Herald
“What grandpa used to call a class act.”—Stanley Ellin
“Smart, sexual, likable and a very modern operator.”—Dorothy Salisbury Davis
“Kinsey’s got brains and a sense of humor.”—Kirkus Reviews
From the Publisher
Finding wealthy Elaine Boldt seems like a quickie case to Kinsey Millhone. The flashy widow was last seen wearing a $12,000 lynx coat, leaving her condo in Santa Teresa for her condo in Boca Raton. But somewhere in between, she vanished. Kinsey's case goes from puzzling to sinister when a house is torched, an apartment is burgled of worthless papers, the lynx coat comes back without Elaine, and her bridge partner is found dead. Soon Kinsey's clues begin to form a capital M -- not for missing, but for murder: And plenty of it.
Winner Of The 1985 Private Eye Writers Of America Shamus Award And The 1985 Anthony Award For Best Novel.
Customer Reviews
This is what a mystery is all about!
This series is wonderful. I just started it, going from A up. I really enjoyed this one as I happen to live in Boca Raton and know right where the Jacobsons is :) .
Kinsey was hired to find wealthy Elaine Boldt, the flashy widow was last seen wearing a lynx coat, leaving her condo in Santa Teresa for her condo in Boca Raton. But somewhere in between, she simply vanished in thin air. Kinsey's case goes from puzzling to baleful when a house is torched, an apartment is burglarized of nothing but worthless papers, the lynx coat comes back in the picture without it's owner Elaine. Then Elaine's bridge partner is found dead.
What you have is murder and plenty of it in this novel. It was a very fast read and I am really growing fond of Kinsey. She is a very believable character and one you got to love.
B is for Brilliant
For years my friends have been telling me I should read Sue Grafton's 'Kinsey Millhone' series of Alphabet mysteries. I am not a great fan of mysteries, and I have to admit that the 'alphabet' thing, with each book starting with a new letter of the alphabet just all seemed far too twee for me. And then finally I read B is for Burglar - and loved it - adored it is closer to the word really - and read every other book of hers I could get my hands on. The mystery was satisfyingly complex, and Kinsey Millhone is a gem. The series is now up to O, and I am waiting (eagerly, anxiously, expectantly) for the release of the new P mystery in 2001.
This book is set in June 1982 - and if you haven't read the first book in the series, you don't have to worry too much. The narration by Kinsey herself will quickly bring you up to date with the essentials of her life. Kinsey Millhone is a private detective, 32 years old, single. Gloriously, she doesn't smoke, or drink heavily, or do drugs. She isn't a goody-two-shoes either, she really is quite ordinary, with a few of the usual hang-ups we all have. I liked that, because the focus is more on her mysteries than Kinsey coming to angst-stricken grips with her own failings (as often seems to happen in mysteries).
Kinsey Millhone has been hired by Beverley Danziger to find her missing sister - Elaine Boldt. It seems like a pretty straightforward case. But as Kinsey delves deeper there seems to be something sinister below the surface. There have been sightings of her since she left her California apartment to head for Florida but nothing that seems to add up. - Elaine was last seen driving a car - but she had no licence - her beloved cat is missing without trace, and she has gone to stay with friends - un-named At the centre of the confusion is a woman, Pat Usher, living illegally in Elaine's Florida apartment.
As Kinsey digs deeper she discovers the discord between Beverley and her sister Elaine and then there is the brutal murder of her neighbour and friend, Marty Grice just before Elaine's own disappearance. Somehow Kinsey must sort through the facts, red-herrings and lies - and in the process discovers that beneath the disappearance of Elaine there lies a much darker crime.
I really enjoyed the book (it bustled along), enjoyed the mystery, loved the characters - both new and repeated, but most of all I love Kinsey. She is quite ordinary and she has a wonderful sense of humour - which I think develops more as the Alphabet series of books continue. You don't necessarily have to read this series in order, by the way - I didn't. Each book has enough background detail in it to be read on its own.
simply the best
So far, I've read up to "D is for Deadbeat" in this series of mystery novels, and as far as the the early books go, I think this is the best one. Grafton's writing style is so matter of fact that the filler parts kind of get boring in her other books, but this one is filled with plot twists and enthralling characters that keep the pages moving fast. A lady turns up missing and Kinsey Millhone is hired to find her. But what starts off as a missing persons case ends up a lot more bloody and viscious. The characters that pop up and drop dead in this book are just great. There's the missing lady's alcoholic sister and her husband; a punk rock teenage boy and his uncle who's recovering from the death of his wife; a retired woman in her 80s who wants to be a PI; a neurotic subletter; a quirky landlady; and a cute old couple. The mystery is just great but in this one, the characters are better. If you haven't read any of Grafton's books yet, start with this one-- you won't be sorry.
