Sue Grafton 3 Complete Novels D E & F

The Sue Grafton alphabet series is a great set of detective novels from A to S (so far!). While some are better than others, they are all entertaining reads. What makes this particular book worth purchasing (as well as the two other compilation hardcovers) is that you are getting three books for the price of one! This even beats the paperback prices. The three separate hardcovers would run you about $54 and the paperbacks would be about $24. You do the math. I definitely recommend getting the books in the version.

Kinsey Milhone is funny and real. I love the way Sue Grafton shows her sense of humor through her heroine. Kinsey's no nonsense approach to life and her thoughts about the way things are and the way they should be are often so true that I find myself laughing out loud. Her haphazard lifestyle makes me both admire her and want to mother her. I agree with other reviewers who said that it isn't so much the mysteries that attract me to Grafton's books, but the people in them. I find myself caring about them as much as Kinsey does. I enjoy reading these books on weekends when I just want to relax with something entertaining and uncomplicated. They don't rival Ludlum for suspense and intrigue, but I love 'em--bring 'em on Sue!

This is a hardcover with three complete novels for less than... It's intriguing to read them consecutively and piece together the Milhone story - rather like reading Proust or Anthony Powell. All the alphabet stories are set within quite a short time-spand. The action in D is for Deadbeat begins in October of the year of C is for Corpse. E is for Evidence, in which her apartment is destroyed, takes place over Christmas of that year, and she moves to another coastal town in F is for Fugitive, while the apartment is fixed. E is for Evidence has a lot of her back story. Her second husband turns up in it. (Husband number one will turn up, sort of, in O is for Outlaw - I can't remember which is the one where she meets cousins). The California Fidelity connection is strong in E is for Evidence and the relationship with Henry Pitt intensifies poignantly at the end of F is for Fugitive.

I first picked up "A is for Alibi" because I had previously heard Sue Grafton's name and I was desperately searching for a new book. I thought that the idea of a female P.I. was overplayed, but I read it anyway. I have been hooked on Sue Grafton since, and the D, E, F collection was the answer to my cravings for more. The story grabs you and doesn't let go until you are finished with the book. The suspense was so intense that I read the book for hours on end just to see how it would end. Kinsey Millhone is a very real character, you really relate to her, and eventually come to care about her, that is probably what I enjoyed most about the books. I'm up to "O is for Outlaw" now and have no intention of stopping.