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Q is for Quarry (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
by Sue Grafton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons (2002-10-14)
ISBN: 0399149155
EAN: 9780399149153
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Hardcover: 385 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 2002-10-14
SKU: BX020-061017019
Condition: Collectible: Very Go
Comments: Signed by Author on Title Page inside of the Q. Assumed First Edition, 1 on # line. Clean and shiny. Dj has light edge wear and small corner split, not pricecut. Pgs crisp, clean, tight, unmarked. No remainder mark.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
Private investigator Kinsey Millhone has served Sue Grafton well through 16 letters of the alphabet in a perennially popular series that occasionally breaks new ground but more often traverses familiar territory, as is the case here. Two old, ailing cops--one retired, the other disabled--try to breathe some life into an 18-year-old mystery that haunts them both for different reasons. They enlist Kinsey's help in identifying the victim, a young woman who was murdered and left for dead in the old quarry of the title. Neither they nor Kinsey expect that reopening an old case will incite the killer to strike again--not once, but twice. And while the real case of the still-unidentified victim that inspired this fictionalized scenario continues to languish in the cold case file in the Santa Barbara sheriff's office, Grafton's solution is as plausible as any. While the unlikely trio of Millhone and her cranky geezer sidekicks offers a few chuckles, the inner reaches of Kinsey's soul remain largely inaccessible to her as well as to the reader, which will probably not bother most of Kinsey's or Grafton's many admirers. --Jane Adams
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Product Description
She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the murder remained unsolved.
That was eighteen years ago. Now the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to help with their legwork and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued and agrees to the job.
But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.
Q is for Quarry is based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, and Grafton's interest in the case has generated renewed police efforts. During the past year, the body was exhumed and a nationally known forensic artist did the facial reconstruction that appears in the closing pages of Q is for Quarry. Both Grafton and the dedicated members of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department are hoping the photograph will trigger memories that may lead to a positive identification.
On the day Jane Doe was reburied, many officers were at the gravesite. "It's eerie," Grafton writes, "to think about the power this woman still has. Here we are, thirty-three years later, and she still wants to go home."
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Customer Reviews
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Cold Case
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-02
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's a cold case that Kinsey gets involved in this time. Lt. Dolan who is suffering from heart issues and is retired now takes it as his mission to help his friend, former sheriff Stacy Oliphant who could be dying of cancer solve the one case that has haunted him, a murder that happened years ago. A young woman remains unidentified and they are determined to give her a name and catch her killer. This story is based on a real life event. Though it drags at times, it is still a good book. We find out more about Kinsey's long lost relatives too.
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Not as delicious as other entries
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-08-20
While I've been enjoying Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries immensely, this was not one of my favorites. I initially found the non-fiction element to be really enticing and thought it would bring an extra element of suspense to the novel. This might have been the case, but I think the mystery that this book is based on is simply not that thrilling. Other reviewers complained about the subplot involving Kinsey's family, but I always enjoy reading about her relatives and her relationships with them. I did not particularly care for either Oliphant or Dolan's nearly constant presence as Kinsey tried to solve the murder. I would rather she had been alone and working with her wits rather than having Oliphant and Dolan along for the ride, bickering with each other most of the time. The book ends on an interesting note with the inclusion of a rendering of the Jane Doe victim that the plot surrounds, but the mystery just isn't intriguing enough for the majority of the book. Factoring in all negatives, you can't really complain too much about a Sue Grafton book since they are all pretty great, but this is just not one of the best.
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Long on details; short on plot
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-07-07
A body is found in a Quarry (Q, right), and is linked to a disappearance of a teenage girl 18 years previously. Kinsey Milhone links up with 2 retired police officers to track down the killer. The book is full of details that detracted, rather than helped, me as I read along. There are too many characters in the story, many of of them interlinked to each other in really complex ways. At one point, I almost had the urge to make a chart of them all and draw arrows, etc to make sense of who was who. In any event, when the identity of the killer is revealed, I was relieved....this book was beginning to sap my patience, and I was about to put it down and give up on it. This is the first Sue Grafton/Kinsey Milhone book I have read. I may just try one more book of hers, before I give up on her.
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Q IS FOR QUARRY
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-06-12
I think this is one of her better books.
Have read the series up to this one, and like them all.
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Q is for Quizzical (2. 5 stars)
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-06-09
This was only my second Kinsey Millhone novel, as I happened across a copy of this as well as one of the later books. I didn't find my lack of familiarity with Kinsey's previous cases (and supporting cast) to be a problem. However, I found this story dragged on too long, for very little payoff. The new information we learned about Kinsey's family was interesting as far as it went, but I can only assume it was a 'teaser' for later volumes.
I can't compare/contrast or judge Grafton's writing style too much, but I thought she overdid some of the descriptive paragraphs, as well as the repeated, mundane activities(numerous fast-food meals, for example). While there's nothing wrong with fleshing out a story this way, those little 'digressions' took over the story after a while.
'Quarry' just never really got off the ground. Too many 'shady, small-town' stereoypes, and nothing to really hook the reader, other than the murder being an 'old'(cold) case. Maybe tying the 1969 date to something more historically interesting(like the Manson or Zodiac murders) would have helped. Grafton should have spent more time coming up with fresher characters, rather than concocting clever fictional names for obscure desert towns.
I didn't mind the two 'Statler and Waldorf' detectives, though their repeated failing health and 'hospital' references were overdone.
I won't write off the 'Alphabet Mysteries' just yet...'T is for Trespass' will be my next review as soon as I finish it!
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