N is for Noose by
Sue Grafton
hbk out Aug 98
Published by Macmillan
at £16.99
The mystery of a successful detective series is how the writer keeps it
fresh. It's easy to write the same book again and again, but readers soon
become as bored as the writer must be. Sue Grafton has revealed many tricks
in the course of her alphabet series, but probably none so effective as the
change of environment. In K, she set Kinsey Millhone's investigation
against the background of night; in the latest, N, we are removed from the
sun-soaked Pacific coast to the miserable cold of the California Sierras.
Dealing with the ice and snow of an unglamorous mountain landscape proves
to be almost as much of a challenge for the uncompromising private eye as
uncovering the secret her client wants unearthed. Small town cop Tom
Newquist has died of a heart attack in unsuspicious circumstances. But his
widow thinks he was worried into an early grave and hires Kinsey to find
out what was eating him for the last few weeks of his upstanding life.
Soon, Kinsey finds herself embroiled in small town nastiness, not to
mention a double murder investigation where the victims were five years and
a day's drive apart. As always, Grafton supplies wit and intelligence in
equal measure, producing a cast of characters and scenarios all too
depressingly believeable. But after fourteen outings, it's not surprising
that she takes her eye off the ball towards the end of the book. The
denouement is sloppy, leaving too many questions unanswered, and making
Kinsey herself seem less than smart. Even so, it's still a better read than
most of the opposition.
(
Val McDermid
- 1995 Gold Dagger winner and creator of the highly acclaimed Kate Brannigan, Lindsay Gordon and Tony Hill series. Val's reviews originally appear in the Manchester Evening News)
N is for Noose by
Sue Grafton