"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars, points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason, for anything."

~ Edward Cullen

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Review: A is for Alibi

Title:  A is for Alibi
Author: Sue Grafton
Listening Time: 7 Hours and 43 Minutes
Challenges: None
Rating: 3/5

Summary from Goodreads:

A IS FOR AVENGERA tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

A IS FOR ACCUSED
That's why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she's out on parole and needs Kinsey's help to find the real killer. But after all this time, clearing Nikki's bad name won't be easy.

A IS FOR ALIBI
If there's one thing that makes Kinsey Millhone feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer--and sharper--than she imagined.

This one has been sitting on my shelf with numerous others in the series for years.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I bought them in a box lot off of Ebay when that was the cool thing to do.  When I found this one in the audio section of the library, I thought I'd give it a try and see if I liked the series since they are taking up some valuable shelf space. 

I'm not sure if this one was enough to cement my love of the series.  I'm only giving it three stars because I thought some of the writing was a little weak, and I really didn't have a great feeling about Kinsey Millhone.  Sometimes I thought she was a big crass and it bothered me.  I don't know if its because I've been reading a lot of cozy mysteries but she was a just a little too "tough" for my liking.  Plus, I had an inkling who the murderer was after about a third of the audio, so I grew bored quickly.

I am curious though to see what Grafton does with this character, enough so that I'm going to continue with the second book.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do the audio though.  I think the narrator may have been part of the issue.  Sometimes readers give a voice to the charcters taht doesn't seem right.  This one made Kinsey a little too "manish."  I just couldn't connect with her.

Looking into this one on Goodreads, it hasn't gotten a ton of great reviews either.  I'm keeping in  mind that this is the first in a series and they aren't always the strongest.  Here's hoping for a better read on the second try!

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