E is for Evidence (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sue Grafton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 2005

Being a twice-divorced, happily independent loner has worked like a charm for P.I. Kinsey Millhone--until holiday weekends like this one roll around. What she needs is a little diversion to ward off the blues. She gets her much-needed distraction with a case that places her career on the line. And if that isn't enough to keep her busy, her ex-husband, who walked out on her eight years ago, pops back on the radar...

It all begins with a $5,000 deposit made into Kinsey's bank account. Problem is she's not the one who deposited the money. But when she's accused of being on the take in an industrial arson case, Kinsey realizes someone is framing her…

Now Kinsey's working for herself. But with new evidence--and corpses--surfacing around her, she's going to have to act quickly to clear her name before she loses her career, her reputation--and quite possibly her life…

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While private detective and former cop Kinsey Millhone ("D" Is for Deadbeat) is investigating a possible case of industrial arson involving a company owned by the family of a former schoolmate, someone tries to make it look as if she's on the take. A mysterious $5000 appears in her bank account. She sets out to clear herself, while two or possibly more cases of murder occur, including one by bombing. A Christmas spent alone and the reappearance of her second ex-husband, Daniel, who had deserted her, add to Kinsey's depression. Grafton has an accurate, wicked eye for California lifestyle and wise-cracking Kinsey is an appealing, nonhackneyed female detective. Particularly illuminating are the descriptions of document searches, which make up much of real detective work today. This fifth entry in the series, however, is not quite up to the standards of its predecessors because the motivation for the crimes seems weak. That caveat notwithstanding, readers will be glad that further letters of the alphabet await Grafton's imagination.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Exceptionally entertaining…an offbeat sense of humor and a feisty sense of justice."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Millhone is an engaging detective-for-hire…P.I. Kinsey Millhone and her creator…are arguably the best of [the] distaff invaders of the hitherto sacrosanct turf of gumshoes."
--The Buffalo News

"Once a fan reads one of Grafton's alphabetically titled detective novels, he or she will not rest until all the others are found."--Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"Millhone is a refreshingly strong and resourceful female private eye."--Library Journal

"Tough but compassionate…There is no one better than Kinsey Millhone."--Best Sellers

"A woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner."--Newsweek

"Lord, how I like this Kinsey Millhone…The best detective fiction I have read in years."--The New York Times Book Review

"Smart, tough, and thorough…Kinsey Millhone is a pleasure."--The Bloomsbury Review

"Kinsey is one of the most persuasive of the new female operatives…She's refreshingly free of gender clichés. Grafton, who is a very witty writer, has also given her sleuth a nice sense of humor--and a set of Wonder Woman sheets to prove it."--Boston Herald

"What grandpa used to call a class act."--Stanley Ellin

"Smart, sexual, likable and a very modern operator."--Dorothy Salisbury Davis

"Kinsey's got brains and a sense of humor."--Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (November 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312939035
• ISBN-13: 978-0312939038
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Hard-Boiled
  • #61 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Women Sleuths

More About the Author

New York Times-bestselling author Sue Grafton is published in twenty-eight countries and twenty-six languages--including Estonian, Bulgarian, and Indonesian. Books in her alphabet series, begun in 1982, are international bestsellers with readership in the millions. And like Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, Grafton has earned new respect for the mystery form. Readers appreciate her buoyant style, her eye for detail, her deft hand with character, her acute social observances, and her abundant storytelling prowess. She has been named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America (2009) and is a recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award (2004).

Sue Grafton has been married to Steve Humphrey for more than thirty years, and they divide their time between Montecito, California, and Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. Grafton, who has three children and four grandchildren, loves cats, gardens, and good cuisine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Creme' de la Creme' of Grafton's libretto!, April 18, 1999

By 

Brooke Cale - See all my reviews

This review is from: E Is for Evidence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

As a Kinsey Millhone fan, I must say that the "E" installment of the series, is the richest and most suspenseful, (with "K" is for Killer, being right behind it). The book begins almost slowly, but picks up at a frightening (literally) pace. The middle of this novel is one of the most surprising I have found in a Grafton novel to date. We are allowed to glimpse into Kinsey's past marraige to Daniel and find the reason out behind his abandonment of her. I read through these books the day i receive them. All I can say, is that when Grafton hits Z, She had better pick up with 1, 2, 3 etc. because we all would miss Kinsey too much!! Bravo!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic mystery of twists and turns to keep you guessing, May 29, 2001

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: E Is for Evidence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I didn't read Kinsey Milhone in order of the alphabet - I started at about M and went backwards and forwards as I bought the books. I have been gradually piecing her life together as I go and E is for Evidence was the last one I've turned up (P isn't due out for another couple of weeks) and my goodness this is good - I think it must go to the top of the pile as the best of her books so far. The mystery is complex, Kinsey's personal life so intertwined with the mystery that it is hard to pick your way between the two, and it is written in classic Grafton style without pathos and self-pity.

After having finished I was thinking over the themes which underlie this book, Kinsey's aloneness, her fear of betrayal, her past betrayals and lack of family - they are all cast into stark reality with the coming of Christmas and New Year - a time when family is the most important. Yet the telling of the story left me without feeling sorry for Kinsey (I tend to be the sort of person who cries at television ads) because Grafton produces such a strong, sympathetic and real character in Kinsey. It is hard to feel sorry for her as she rejects sympathy - even from her readers. I think it shows Grafton's incredible skill as a writer.

As a story this book just knocked my socks off - it has layers like you wouldn't believe, and kept me guessing until almost the very last page as to what was going on and what was going to happen. Kinsey Millhone is given a file to check out an insurance claim on what seems to be a straightforward fire at a company Wood/Warren. The Wood family are old friends of Kinsey's from way back and all seems in order when she checks things out. Unfortunately she has been set up - the fire was arson, a factor which doesn't come to light until after she has investigated the fire - papers were left out of the original claim file which would have pointed in that direction. Now she is on suspension and being investigated herself for corruption. All around she is looking for answers and people aren't telling her the truth. She is forced to ask favours from people she has never much liked - and it isn't helped that her beautiful and dissolute ex-husband Daniel has turned up on her doorstep to complicate things. All this is set against the worst possible Christmas and New Year on record.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "E" IS FOR ENIGMA, May 22, 2003

By 

Nancy Martin (Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: E Is for Evidence (Sue Grafton) (Audio CD)

I think that all of Grafton's fans will agree that picking up one of her books is like sitting down with a good friend to have a chat and a cup of coffee. I don't think anyone who reads these books doesn't feel some kind of kinship with Kinsey Milhone. When I first settle in and begin my read, by the third chapter or so I want to jump into the book, get her a bigger apartment, replace that black dress she keeps in the trunk of her car and help her find some kind of love life.

But before any of this can happen, Kinsey has to yet, once again, untangle a mess. This time, however, it's her own mess because she's being framed. A mysterious five thousand dollar deposit appears in her checking account and, while we all know Kinsey could use the money, there's no way she can sit still until she finds out where it came from. This will lead her on a search for insurance fraud after a thorough investigation of a fire site. Kinsey is familiar with the owners of this company as she went to high school with one of the girls in the family. As she's rekindling old acquaintances, things are heating up in her investigation. Fires are sizzling, bombs are exploding and things aren't what they seem to be -- what else is new?

So why only three stars you ask? I was really enjoying this book until I got to the end. By missing one sentence in a previous chapter, I didn't understand the ending when I got to it. Consequently, I had to go back and reread the last twenty or so pages just so it would make sense (which it did). I just don't like having to do that. When I read a book, especially one as simple as this alphabet series, the ending should all come together more easily than this one did. It shouldn't just hinge on one sentence. And, that's why "E" was an enigma to me. After I finished it the first time, I was still puzzled.

Now it's on to "F" with hopes that the ending will be more to my liking and that "F" will stand for "Fantastic."