N Is for Noose: A Kinsey Millhone Novel: 14 (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries) - Softcover

Grafton, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 125000649X ISBN 13: 9781250006493

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2011

Synopsis

"SMART AND SASSY" (New York Times) P.I. Kinsey Millhone is at it again in yet another thrilling adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton

Tom Newquist has died. A detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office, Tom was tough, honest, and respected by all. He was also a heavy drinker and a workaholic, much to his wife Selma's distress. And now that Tom is gone, Selma can't help but wonder what it really was that was troubling him....

What made Tom so restless during the last six weeks of his life? Why was he up all night and brooding all day long? What--or who--was at the heart of his dark moods? With the coroner's report in hand, Selma decides to enlist the help of Kinsey Millhone to find the truth about what happened to her husband.

But the residents of Nota Lake keep their secrets close--and their enemies closer. And the deeper Kinsey's investigation goes, the closer she comes to confronting the most dangerous outcome of all: the truth...

"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

About this title

Review:

"Suppose we could peer through a tiny peephole in time and chance upon a flash of what was coming up in the years ahead?" The questioner is Kinsey Millhone, middle-aged, two-time divorcee detective and junk food junkie star of Sue Grafton's popular "alphabet" mysteries; the book is 'N' Is for Noose. If Kinsey had had just a smidgen of foresight, she would never have taken her current case, handed down to her from her on-again, off-again flame and comrade in arms, Robert Dietz. We encounter the two this time out after Deitz's knee surgery, as Kinsey drives his "snazzy little red Porsche" back to Carson City, where she checks out his digs for the first time. To her surprise, he lives in a palatial penthouse, which-- under the unspoken bylaws of investigative etiquette--she qualmlessly snoops through. They sit around for a fortnight playing gin rummy and eating peanut butter and pickle sandwiches together, but perennially single Kinsey grows wary: "It was time to hit the road before our togetherness began to chafe."

She heads off to meet Dietz's former client, Mrs Selma Newquist, a devastated widow whose make-up tips seem to come from Tammy Faye Baker. Her husband Tom Newquist, a detective himself, had been working on a mysterious case when he abruptly died of a heart attack. Selma suspects foul play, but bless her, she isn't the brightest star in the sky and can't figure out what Tom was working on even though he's left behind enough paper to fill a recycling truck. Kinsey digs right in and roams the sleepy, one-horse town of Nota Lake for clues, interviewing a colourful cast of in-laws and locals. Beneath the quaint, quiet, country veneer, she unearths a bubbling hotbed of internal strife and familial double-dealing. Was Tom covering up for his partner? Is Selma protecting someone? Grafton's knack for gritty details and realistic characters, coupled with the fast-paced, believable story line, makes for another delightfully entertaining read. --Rebekah Warren

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

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 125000649X
• ISBN 13: 9781250006493
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 352