β Scribed by Sue Grafton
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Starred Review. The 20th Kinsey Millhone crime novel (after 2005's S Is for Silence), a gripping, if depressing, tale of identify theft and elder abuse, displays bestseller Grafton's storytelling gifts. By default, Millhone, a private investigator in the small Southern California town of Santa Teresa, assumes responsibility for the well-being of an old neighbor, Gus Vronsky, injured in a fall. After Vronsky's great-niece arranges to hire a home aide, Solana Rojas, Millhone begins to suspect that Rojas is not all that she seems. Since the reader knows from the start that an unscrupulous master manipulator has stolen the Rojas persona, the plot focuses not on whodunit but on the battle of wits Millhone wages with an unconventional and formidable adversary. Grafton's mastery of dialogue and her portrayal of the limits of good intentions make this one of the series' high points, even if two violent scenes near the end tidy up the pieces a little too neatly. Author tour. (Dec.)
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Although Kinsey Millhone has been around for 25 years, critics agree that T Is for Trespass is one of Sue Graftons finest works to date. About elder abuse and identity theft, among other crimes, the novel devotes pages to both Kinseys and the villains perspectives and thus becomes more of a battle of wits between the two women than a real mystery. As Kinsey decides when and how far to get involved in Guss horrific plight, her other cases (a child molester is on the loose, for example) kept critics turning the pages. Reviewers also appreciated that Kinsey ages blissfully slowlysince 1982, when A Is for Alibi was published, she has only gained five yearsand thus remains in the Internet-free 1980s, where interpersonal relationships triumph. The ending put off a few critics, but otherwise this 20th installment thoroughly engrosses.
Copyright 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
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EDITORIAL REVIEW: tresΒ₯pass \'trespes\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin \*-Webster's New International Dictionary\*, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, S
EDITORIAL REVIEW: tresΒ₯pass \'trespes\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin \*-Webster's New International Dictionary\*, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Su
EDITORIAL REVIEW: tresΒ₯pass \'trespes\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin \*-Webster's New International Dictionary\*, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, S
EDITORIAL REVIEW: tresΒ₯pass \'trespes\ n: a transgression of law involving one's obligations to God or to one's neighbor; a violation of moral law; an offense; a sin \*-Webster's New International Dictionary\*, Second Edition, Unabridged In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, S
A miser and a hoarder, Gus Vronsky is so crotchety that after he takes a bad fall, his only living relative is anxious to find him some hired help and get back home as soon as she can. In an effort to help, Gus's neighbor, private investigator Kinsey Millhone, runs a check on an applicant for the j