Customer Reviews

L Is for Lawless

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Other reviewers have compared this one to "H." They're right. This is an "on the road with the bad guys" adventure. No real mystery here, and other than a few interesting scenes, not much worthy of note.

The supporting cast that has been weaved through the other novels is noticably absent from this book. Maybe they were working on other projects. The book suffers from this, mainly because the replacement players are not nearly as compelling or, frankly, fun.

By the time Kinsey ends up in Kentucky, you will find yourself saying "Who cares? Get back to Santa Teresa."

All in all, it was a disappointing read, annoying so because my prior experience with these books means that you cannot skip the bad ones.

Of the Sue Grafton's series, this one didn't have the same impact as her earlier books. I was disappointed! The plot developed slowly, and at times reminded me of a bad 'made for T.V. movie'and the characters (other than the familiar aquaintances) lacked "character". After I began reading "L", over a year ago, I put the book down and didn't have the desire to read it until recently. I enjoyed her first books and hope that "M" is a better read.

This book's a lot like "H is for Homocide" in that Kinsey finds herself unexpectedly on the road again, away from her apartment and creature comforts. The book takes her from sunny California to Texas to Louisville, Kentucky. As a Kentucky native who worked in Louisville and southern Indiana for nearly twelve years, I found the descriptions of Interstate 65 from Nashville through west central Kentucky and particularly the Portland neighborhood in Louisville made me homesick to be back down south! As usual, Kinsey's wry humor and knack for lying her way into crazy predicaments adds to the fun. Her long-lost extended family wasn't talked about much in this book--probably because they couldn't figure out where she was once she hit the road--but she gets a taste of what it would be like to be part of a family group, and we may very well see her heading to Lompoc for a visit with "Grand" and the clan in a future book. Fun reading

This is a tedious story with lame and improbable plot twists. I listened to this as an audio book and, despite the valiant efforts of an excellent actor doing the reading, I regret almost every minute I wasted.

This is another good story in the line of alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton. Her few "detours" from great writing in previous "letters" seem to have been a minor bump in the road and she now returns to a good plot and strong characters.

I have to admit that one of my favorite characters in this series is Henry Pitt, Kinsey Millhone's landlord and friend. I enjoyed the Henry who wrote crossword puzzles and tried them out on Kinsey before he sent them in for publication. I enjoyed the Henry who always had something baking in his kitchen. And many times I have wondered why some sexy senior citizen hasn't snagged this wonderful catch of a man!

This story gives us a little more insight into Henry than we've seen in the past. Henry convinces Kinsey to help a friend of his on a simple matter - she needs to show that Henry's friend served in the military during World War II so he can be buried as a veteran. Such a simple request and it should have a simple solution, but as we've seen with Kinsey in the past, nothing is an easy task, so the plot thickens...

The family of the deceased is too busy fighting among themselves to be much help to Kinsey. Then an old friend shows up and gets attacked at the dead guy's apartment. Once again we're on a race to see what's around the next corner for Kinsey and to find out why the government has no record of this veteran serving his country.

There's a little bit of mystery, but more suspense in this book. And more laughs than we've seen in the past with Grafton's other books. I'd recommend this easy read to anyone wanting a few hours of enjoyment as it's definitely one of Sue Grafton's better books in this series. I only hope she will continue with this quality and not hit any more bumps that throw her off to only mediocre writing!

Kinsey Millhone is the a hardboiled Santa Teresa private investigator. Miss Millhone is the creation of Sue Grafton. Kinsey is in her 30s, fond of her elderly landlord Henry Pitts and an intrepid crime solver. This installment of the crime series takes Kinsey on a rollercoaster ride across America from California to Louisville, Ky.

The Plot: Henry Pitts asks Kinsey to help the Lee family to find where Johnny Lee (recently deceased) served in World War II. The purpose is to receive a burial plot from the Veterans Administration. No records are found setting Kinsey on a wild odyssey. She travels by a 737 jet from Santa Teresa through Dallas, Arkansas and Western Ky ending up in an exciting finish in Louisville Ky. (the birthplace of Sue Grafton and the hometown of your humble reviewer!).

This novel is filled with tension as Kinsey spies on a pregnant woman thought to be carrying a duffel bag of cash hidden away by Johhny Lee. Her exploits in the Dallas hotel are exciting! Along the way we meet colorful characters such as Ray Rawson who knew Lee back in the day; his daughter Laura and a cruel criminal eager to find the hidden treasure by the name of Gilbert Hays. Readers will be quite suprised to learn why the novel is titled "Lawless."! Tne novel is narrated in the first person by Kinsey.

This is not a procedural crime novel as is per usual for Grafton. Instead, it is a tour de force of a frantic odyssey across America by Kinsey and her creative author Sue Grafton. A delight for fans of a good light read to while away a few hours in reading enjoyment!

Books in the Alphabet series go one of two ways. Either they are completely about the mystery or the mystery is in the background somewhere. L is for Lawless is one of the books that is more criminal joyride than mystery.

Kinsey is wrapped up in a pro-bono case for a friend of a friend. Unfortunately, she doesn't use many detecting skills while investigating this case. More often than not, secondary characters give her whatever information she needs without her even asking. She's lied to a lot, but she doesn't seem to even figure that out on her own. The liars eventually confess each lie when the correct information is necessary.

I love this series, but L is for Lawless isn't nearly the best of the bunch. The highlight of the entire book was Henry's brothers and sister visiting for Rosie and William's wedding, but we only got to see a lot of them in the first few chapters. L is for Lawless isn't a book I would recommend to anyone other than a series completist. It's not a bad book, but there are far better ones in the series if you're only going to read a few.

Kinsey Millhone seems doomed whenever she agrees to a favor. As a private invetigator, it may seem expected, but in this installment of the alphabet mysteries, she agrees to be in a wedding and ends up having to wear a flowered muumuu. She agrees to help an acquaintance of her landlord and ends up in another state posing as a hotel maid in order to retrieve a stolen duffel bag. She agrees to go as far as Nashville, TN, and is faced with the business end of a gun. What's a girl to do when someone says, "please"?

I always enjoy an afternoon with Kinsey, though this book struck me as a little more humorous than some of the others I've read recently. Her odd crush on her landlord is mildly weird and yet endearing, and it's always entertaining to see her thinking on her feet. The ending kind of sucked considering everything she'd been through, but maybe karma will be kind to her in the future.

This story isn't as much of a mystery as some of her other stories, but I enjoyed Grafton's humor and the the "puzzling" nature of some aspects.

I recently read "I", "K", and "L" in succession. Compared to "Innocent" and "Killer", I found Lawless to be slow paced (even though this edition finds Kinsey spontaneously traveling across the country) and the plot twists less surprising. With others I've read in the series, I am usually hooked relatively early in the story line. I was 1/3 of the way through this iteration before becoming mildly interested in the outcome. Even the subplots were not overly attention grabbing (Kinsey has little contact with immediate family, ergo she substitutes others in her life--Henry, Rosie, Pitt family, the criminal elements in this book--as her family...). I also found it hard to believe that some of the characters that appear in "L" could be so dim-witted on one page, and great possessors of vast knowledge with incredible powers of deduction on the next. Anyway, there are others in this series I would recommend more highly ("M" being one of them).

Oh I don't know. The "L" just didn't do it for me. When the characters are talking she often fails to add any environment to it. I grew bored thinking the characters were smily in a room, talking. Gone is the sarcasm and comic undertones that the PI has had in the past.

Also, this Ray guy, well he says he has no money,and yet he hopped a two points in the story he does have some.