U is for Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel

I have been a fan of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series ever since "A Is for Alibi." Unfortunately, I did not discover this first volume of the series until it hit my local bookstore in paperback format. If I had been able to afford the price of a hardcover book back in 1982, today I might be the proud owner of a little book that sells to collectors for about $1200 in the right condition and edition. Now, with "U Is for Undertow," I have come full cycle - this one I read in e-book format. It is 1988 and 39-year-old Kinsey Millhone, survivor of two failed marriages, is still living alone and running her one-woman detective agency in Santa Teresa, California when a young man walks into her office one afternoon looking for help. Michael Sutton is haunted by something he saw twenty years earlier, when he was six, and he wants Kinsey to find out exactly what he witnessed on the day he wandered away by himself from his neighbor's yard. Did he, as he now believes, actually see two men in the process of burying the little girl they had kidnapped several days earlier? Kinsey might doubt Michael's story but she has bills to pay - and Michael's $500 for one day's work is not something she can afford to pass up. Thus begins a complicated investigation so intriguing to Kinsey Millhone that she finds herself working on it for many more hours than the ones for which she has been paid. Little Mary Claire Fitzhugh was kidnapped in July 1967 and, when her parents went to the police despite being warned by the kidnappers not to do so, she disappeared forever. Despite the best efforts of the Santa Teresa police and the FBI, no one was ever arrested for the crime and the little girl's body was never found. Kinsey, who was in high school when the little girl was snatched, begins to believe that Michael really might have stumbled upon the killers that long ago day - and the chase is on. "U Is for Undertow" is a fun reminder of just how primitive 1988 technology was when compared to all the gadgets available to us today. Kinsey does not own a fax machine or a cell phone; when she is in the field, she really is out there on her own. When she needs to research old addresses, business locations, or phone numbers she heads to her local library to use the cross-references and old phone books housed there. The microfilm reader is her friend and she uses index cards to capture her thoughts in a portable format. The reader will wonder if Kinsey, who is now 61 years old in 2009, much misses those old days. Longtime Kinsey Millhone fans will be pleased, too, to find that "U Is for Undertow" opens a treasure trove full of details about her childhood and the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins Kinsey never learned of after the death of her parents. The chapters dealing with Kinsey's family and the flashbacks to 1967 and its "Summer of Love" give the book a depth it would otherwise not have had. This is another fine addition to the series and it is hard t

This time private detective Kinsey Milhone's case is different from all the previous ones because, as she notes on page 1, "this was the first case I ever managed to resolve without crossing paths with the bad guys. Except at the end, of course." But for veteran author Sue Grafton (who has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America) this situation presents no problem: she intersperses chapters telling other characters' stories with Kinsey's, both in our heroine's present 1988 and back in the 1960's. A young man walks into Kinsey's office and spills a story about a recaptured memory: in 1967, as a six-year-old being looked after by a schoolmate's mother, he saw two men bury something about the time a little girl named Mary Claire was kidnapped in an upscale community called Horton's Ravine. He can't remember where the home was, so now, twenty-one years later, he wants to enlist Kinsey's services to find it. This fellow, Michael Sutton, is reluctant to tell Kinsey too much about himself or get too involved, but no matter -- she will rely on her tested abilities as an investigator to see what, if anything, can be dug up. The early chapters situated in the 1960's tell of the experience of one Deborah Unruh, also a resident of Horton's Ravine. Her son, Greg, his girlfriend, Shelly, and Shelly's son drive up in an old school bus for a visit in 1963. Deborah and her husband despair because Greg -- under Shelly's vegan, druggie influence -- has gone hippie. When they depart in the dead of night, the young people leave behind a little bundle of their own. The Unruh story is affecting, and one roots for Shelly's neglected boy, Shawn, just as Deborah does. But the question becomes: what will happen when Greg and Shelly's hippie bus is again parked in the Unruh driveway in 1967. Could the little girl in the Unruhs' care be in danger? And how does this all fit in with the unsolved kidnapping that happened the same year? For that matter, how will the past rise up into 1988? Will it be through murder? This is arguably Sue Grafton's most polished, perceptive and interesting recent installment in her abecedarian series. Kinsey may not cross paths with the perpetrators until late in the game, but that doesn't stop the reader from doing so. Yet, despite our fairly early introduction to probable culprits, the suspense of hows and whys don't abate, and the full scope of criminality won't, of course, be unraveled and confronted until the end of the novel. As usual, Kinsey's supporting cast, including the irrepressible Henry, play their parts impeccably. Plus, Kinsey gets another invitation to a family gathering and does her usual will-I-or-won't-I-go song and dance; don't miss how that particular pickle resolves itself. U is for Undertow (Kinsey Millhone Mystery) is a winner.

U is for the ubiquitous queen of Alphabet Soup titled mysteries. Any Sue Grafton novel reads like a welcomed but long-overdue letter from iconic private eye, Kinsey Millhone, bringing readers up to speed with her latest escapade. Following "T is for Trespass" Grafton (who earned the title of Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America) has made a quantum leap by taking on social issues in the last few of her 21 too-realistic-to-be-fiction works. Set in 1988, with flashbacks to social unrest of the `60s, Michael Sutton hires Kinsey to investigate what he thinks was the backyard burial of a kidnapped young girl in 1967, when he was six. From a wealthy family, Sutton was a wolf-crying boy at elite Climping Academy and now financially exiled from his family, loses credibility with police and Kinsey. And Kinsey learns a painful truth about preconceptions regarding her own family she discovered existed only four years previously. Predictably, characters face death during the investigation, and Sutton is pulled into the vortex. ["Vortex" would be an excellent instalment name, following "Undertow".] With perpetrators identified early on, this is not so much a whodunit as a whydunit, validating Grafton's title of Grand Master bestowed by her peers. While Kinsey--an average Jo--has learned to leap hurdles in her career, Sue Grafton has become an Olympic-class pole vaulter in hers. Impeccable plot, prose as rich as Warren Buffet, and everyone's favorite investigator make this a sure-fire bestseller. Instead of Undertow, this should be Under The Christmas Tree, a great gift idea. Book quote: "Recently I'd been making an effort to upgrade my diet, which meant cutting down on the french fries and Quarter Pounders with Cheese that had been my mainstays. A peanut butter and pickle sandwich was never going to qualify as the pinnacle on the food pyramid, but it was the best I could do." [Pages 224-225]

This is my first experience reading a Sue Grafton mystery. What a treat! From the time I first started the book, she had me entranced. The story revolves around Kinsey Millhone, a 37 year old private investigator, who is hired to investigate an unsolved kidnapping of a little girl, Mary Claire Fitzhugh who disappeared twenty years before. Her probing, which at first seems to lead to a dead end, actually unleashes a tangle of complicated stories that provides insight to the twenty year mystery. The setting splits between 1988, the "current" time of Kinsey's investigation, and 1967, the year of the child's kidnapping. The narration forks between Kinsey Millhone as she unfolds some inconsistencies in what appears to be nothing on the surface, Deborah Unruh, the grandmother turned mother to a little girl who experienced a similar episode as the missing girl, and other characters who unfold and show the sometimes undignified side of human nature. Each of the character's stories are enthralling, told in a voice that mirrors reality and captures the intricate details that shows how events can mold the character and direction of a life. At first, the stories may seem independent of each other, but as events from the past collide with the present, it becomes evident that their stories are intertwined and come together to portray the truth of the past, bit by bit. Additionally, another subplot unfolds regarding Kinsey's personal life--her reconciling resentment regarding her family. An orphan, Kinsey was raised by her aunt who alienated her from the rest of her family. This subplot of Kinsey discovering the truth about her past was touching, and added an intimate flair to an already moving narrative. I'm glad that I stumbled upon Grafton's novel. She has a gift with storytelling, and her mystery was not only engaging but written masterfully. I may not have the background with the Kinsey Millhone mystery series, but with her narrating abilities, my lack of history with the Kinsey Millhone mysteries did not hinder my understanding of the book. This is great reading, the kind of story that rallies all of your emotions--from sympathy, to anger, to triumph. For those who enjoy mysteries and a well-written book, I give this novel my highest recommendation.

Sue Grafton's "U is for Undertow" takes place in 1988, with flashbacks to 1967, the "Summer of Love." Kinsey Millhone, thirty-seven, is the veteran of two failed marriages. Most of her time is devoted to her work as a private investigator, and she occasionally socializes with a small group of friends, including her eighty-eight year old landlord, Henry Pitts. Kinsey's latest case involves Michael Sutton, who claims that he recently recalled an event that occurred when he was just six years old. In July of 1967, four-year-old Mary Claire Fitzhugh was abducted from her home in Horton Ravine, California. Although her parents agreed to pay the ransom demanded by Mary Claire's kidnappers, the money was not picked up and the child was never seen again. Sutton remembers playing in the woods when he saw two men digging a hole and burying a bundle in the ground, and he cannot help but wonder if the pair was burying the corpse of little Mary Claire. Michael hires Kinsey to reconstruct the past and find out if his memories are accurate. Although Millhone is far from physically imposing, she has resources that may be more effective than brute force: Kinsey is smart, intensely curious, and reluctant to give up once she starts an investigation. When Kinsey is stymied, she shuffles the index cards on which she records her notes and tries to see matters from a different perspective. Sooner or later, she usually connects the dots. This mystery has many familiar elements, including long buried secrets, dysfunctional families, greed, stupidity, and selfishness. In addition, Grafton provides the reader with a poignant glimpse into Kinsey's early life that helps explain why she is a loner who is reluctant to trust anyone. In Grafton's world, the conflicts between relatives can sometimes resemble a mini-Civil War, with mutilated bodies littering the battlefield. Grafton is a gifted storyteller whose solid descriptive writing, crisp dialogue, and well-constructed plot keep "U is for Undertow" moving along swiftly and satisfyingly. The author's flashbacks are not merely gimmicks to pad the story. They are essential elements that bring clarity to a tragic series of events whose roots lie in the past. Since Kinsey's inquiries pre-date the technological revolution, she does her research in the library, consulting yearbooks, telephone directories, and microfilms of old newspaper articles. Being a PI was much tougher in those days. "U is for Undertow" is another winner from an extremely talented author. It has memorable characters and thought-provoking psychological and historical themes that will resonate with Grafton's many devoted fans.