Customer Reviews

H Is for Homicide

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I loved H is for Homicide and believe that it is Sue Grafton at her finest. As a Sue Grafton fan, I have read all of her books and loved them all but this one really hit the spot.

Kinsey Milhone, the main character, sets out to investigate a series of suspicious automobile insurance claims and ends up hanging out in the barrio with the perpetrators. Her entree into this secluded world was an evening spent in a very nasty bar posing as an after-hours tart whose mission is to befriend a for-real gorgeous tart who is the key to the insurance fraud ring. This is not the kind of duty that most of us would sign up for with any amount of enthusiasm. But Kinsey Milhone has guts of iron and nerves of steel. Those guts of iron allow her to swallow vast quantities of greasy restaurant food and the nerves of steel facilitate the endurance of the company of sleaze-bags for record amounts of time.

None of the miscreants, be they White or Hispanic are spared her cynical witty observations. Readers will, in all likelihood, be laughing cynically at the unvarnished truth that Kinsey uncovers time and again. She lets us know when people are negligent about washing their hands after using the public restrooms. She promptly informs us when residential bathrooms are less than clean and the housework in general has been neglected, when people don't smell or look good. The things that irritate Kinsey tell us the most about her--primarily that she has high personal standards and a great sense of boundaries.

Kinsey's level of tolerance for the creeps and oddballs that are the everyday encounters of her job is nothing short of remarkable. When she ends up hanging out with the denizens of the barrio in their apartment/headquarters, I thought that for sure she would end up dead in the apartment dumpster. Yet Kinsey's unique ability to blend in with her temporary surroundings and her skills as a private investigator combine to make a cliff-hanging suspense mystery novel.

Sue Grafton is at the top of her form in H Is For Homicide. I also highly recommend L Is For Lawless to newcomers who feel inclined to jump into the series at any point. Just grab any one of her novels, curl up, and let Kinsey Milhone take over!

From the title and the early entry of a dead body, the reader thinks that Kinsey is going to set out to solve a homicide. However, she gets tangled up in a most unusual situation, as a virtual hostage in a Latino run auto insurance fraud ring. This is the only alphabet book I have read where Kinsey is not working for a client, and I guess this is part of the reason I thought this book was sub-par, by Sue Grafton standards. There is little mention of the usual Santa Teresa characters. Even so, this book was an easy page turner, as all other alphabet books are. If this is your first Millhone mystery, don't worry. Most of them are much, much better.

I read A is for Alibi years ago and did not get pulled into the series. Years later I read S is for Silence and was hooked. I started to read the series--backwards at first and then jumped to the beginning. I have really enjoyed the books and felt a connection to the heroine (and forgiven Ms. Grafton for making her weigh 118 lbs on her 5'6" frame). However, I agree with the other readers who feel like this is not Grafton at her best. You just can't believe that Kinsey would put herself in these ridiculous positions---belting a police officer to endear herself to a woman she is investigating, remaining in an incredibly (and unbelievable) dangerous situation, to name a few. The dialogue is weak,the sexual situations seem gratutitous, and there is a fair amount of stereotyping of hispanics. But even with these issues, I did finish the book. Grafton at her low point is still a good read!

Funny, until I read some of the other reviews I thought this was one of the best Millhone book I had read. I have read A through H. Kinsey is hired to look into a claim by Bibianna Diaz. Along the way she finds Diaz is connected to the murder of her friend Parnell Perkins. I thought the way Sue Grafton weaved the characters through this book was very good. Raymond is a nut and Kinsey's experience with the pit bull is great. Does Kinsey end up working undercover for the police? Is someone else working undercover also? The answers are in the book, you will be surprised. I liked it.

I am a devoted Sue Grafton fan, but, unfortunately, I don't agree with the majority of reviewers on this effort. 'H' for Homicide is, in my humble opinion, the worst of the alphabet series. It rambles aimlessly before it comes to a frustrating and disappointing end. Readers know who the perpetrator is no less than 100 pages into the tale. This is a wasted, poorly advised writing by Miss Grafton.

H is for Homicide is another entry in the Sue Grafton alphabet murder mystery series. The heroine is Kinsey Millhone who is the novel's narrator. Kinsey is in her late 30s, twice divorced and a loner.

The Plot: Parnell Perkers is a young insurance man who is found murdered behind the California Fidelity Insurance Company. Kinsey knows him since she is employed there as an investigator. Kinsey investigates auto insurance fraud. She goes undercover tailing Bibianna Diaz. Diaz is a con artist who is adept at turning in fradulent accident claims. Bibianna is also in love with Jim Tate. Tate is an ex-LA police officer who attended grade school with Kinsey. Bibianna is also involved in a romantic relationship with Raymond Maladonado. He is her ex-fiance who still wishes to marry her. He does not know she is secretly married to Tate. Maldonado keeps Kisney and Bibianna prisoner for five days. Maldonado has Tourette's Syndrome; is a drug addict and is psychologically a mess!

H is for Homicide is the novel in which Kinsey spends a night in the Saint Teresa jail and is fired from California Fidelity Insurance by the odious Gordon Titus.

H is for Homicide is one of the shorter books of the series. The action is fast and furious but the book lacks the depth of many of the other novels in the Grafton series. The book lacks:

a. Interesting character descriptions of person interviewed by Millhone

b. The appearance of the elderly Pitts brothers and Rosie the restaurant owner.

c. Vivid descriptions of California settings.

d. Any romantic interest for Kinsey.

This one largely takes place in the Los Angeles barrio where Kinsey is (kind of) undercover investigating insurance fraud and murder for the California Indemnity Company. It's the last one in the series to have a major CIC connection.
You have to re-read this after you've finished because a final three-word sentence stands the whole plot on its head. An even better reason for re-reading is to savor Grafton's English prose style. When she gets a whole building to describe she slightly prolongs things too much, but I love descriptions like this one, of a garage "The late afternoon sun slanted onto the cracked concrete floor in tawny yellow stripes. The air smelled of oil, old tires. and hot metal."

Sue Grafton's "H" is For Homicide is a thrilling adventure right from the get-go. The tale begins on a dark drive home at three in the morning. Kinsey Millhone had just finished one of her cases and was looking for a quiet weekend at home. Unfortunately she should have stayed at the hotel but her longing for home brought her back to Santa Teresa. Upon arrival, Kinsey finds her friend and co-worker, Parnell Perkins, dead in front of their work, California Fidelity. Besides trying to get on with her life, Kinsey is asked to check out an insurance claim that raises to the surface and smells like fraud. Bibianna Diaz was the one responsible for the claim. After tracking her down, Kinsey begins to gain Bibianna's trust as a possible buyer for her home. Unfortunately though Bibianna is running from someone worse than the police. She left her fiancé Raymond Maldonado, who doesn't like to be crossed. Raymond being the hostile, mob boss and head of the whole insurance fraud scandal has the inability to take no for an answer. Soon Kinsey finds herself in the middle of the problem when Bibianna is kidnapped and Kinsey comes along for the ride. Now Kinsey needs to find a way out and uncover Raymond's insurance scam without getting caught in the middle of Bibianna and Raymond's own love- hate war and before her true identity is discovered. This is a good book for those who like adventure and know how hard it can be in the middle of a love-hate relationship. Like every love affair this book has some complications that can lead you off into many different directions which may be confusing but in the end they all string together in the final chapter. If you want high pace excitement and thrills of high rolling stakes, this is the book for you.

This is the first Kinsey Millhone book I read (due to
availability) so I still consider it the best.
While investigating for the insurance company she shares
office space with, Kinsey meets up with an old schoolmate.
The case is insurance fraud, and the story kept me interested
not only in this book, but the entire series.

Bang! This Millhone series novel starts off almost immediately with the murder. Ms. Millhone is more a hostage with the bad guys than a PI in this one. With all the cops available in the police department, they recruit her to go undercover. Oh, please.

The murder turns out to be part of a large auto insurance fraud scheme.

Not much at all is developed from the initial murder. There's also a chapter in the beginning wherein California Fidelity has a new local boss. Millhone bucks heads with him. The matter doesn't come up again until the very last sentence of the book.

The novel is boring, tedious, & ridiculous. It's easy to put down, which I almost did twice. It seems Sue Grafton tried a new avenue in this story. Unfortunately it fails terribly. I've read a good dozen in this series. I liked the series until this one came along.

Do yourselves a favor, go from "G" straight to "I". This book just fails to come together