P Is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Sue Grafton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

It is now nine weeks since Dr Dowan Purcell vanished without trace. The sixty-nine-year-old doctor had said goodnight to his colleagues at the Pacific Meadows nursing home, had climbed into his car and driven away never to be seen again. His embittered first wife Fiona is convinced he is still alive. His second wife, Crystal a former stripper forty years his junior is just as sure he is dead. Enter private investigator Kinsey Malone, hired by Fiona to find out just what has happened to the man they loved. Enter also Tommy Hevener, an attractive flame-haired twenty-something who has set his romantic sights on Kinsey. And Tommy is a man with a very interesting past ...'Grafton is a delight to read, her books being highly literatre, with believable plots and three-dimensionally drawn characters' Irish Times

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When Dowan Purcell, a respected physician who operates a nursing home, disappears, his ex-wife hires Santa Teresa PI Kinsey Millhone to look into it. Fiona Purcell is still seething over Dow's affair and subsequent marriage to Crystal, a former stripper, yet they're still friends, and she seems worried. But when his body is discovered, she's among the suspects. Both of Dow's wives, at least one of his business partners, and perhaps even Crystal's teenage daughter had motives to kill.

While in her most recent adventures (N Is for Noose, O Is for Outlaw) Kinsey has acquired new digs, an extended family, and a few more gray hairs, in this one (which takes place some time in the mid-'80s), she's 36, still living in the remodeled garage that was blown up in an earlier novel. Easier than a facelift, and while Sue Grafton is a solid enough writer to pull it off, dedicated Kinsey fans will miss the more complex and multidimensional character who aged so ruefully and interestingly in the '90s. This isn't Grafton's strongest case; it's hard to care about any of Purcell's women or his associates. More exciting is the secondary plot, which involves a handsome landlord who offers Kinsey the new office space she's been seeking and turns out to be a lot more trouble than she bargained for. Despite its somewhat plodding pace and the echo of a more evolved heroine that rings through its pages, Grafton's many fans will probably shoot P Is for Peril right to the top of the bestseller list. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

PI Kinsey Millhone's trademark dry sense of humor is largely absent in the first half of the 15th book in this justifiably popular series, though it resurfaces as the suspense finally begins to build in the second half. In the bleak November of 1986, Kinsey looks into the disappearance of Dr. Dowan Purcell, who's been missing for nine weeks. Dr. Purcell is an elderly physician who runs a nursing home that's being investigated for Medicare fraud. His ex-wife, Fiona, hires Kinsey when it seems as though the police have given up on the search. Fiona thinks that he could be simply hiding out somewhere, especially since he's pulled a disappearance stunt twice before. However, Purcell's current wife, Crystal, believes that he may be dead. Kinsey is dubious about finding any new leads after so much time has elapsed. She's also worried about having to move out of the office space she now occupies in the suite owned by her lawyer, and between her interviews with suspects she tries to rent a new office from a pair of brothers whose mysterious background begins to make her suspicious. Grafton's Santa Teresa seems more like Ross Macdonald's town of the same name than ever before, with dysfunctional families everywhere jostling for the private eye's attention. The novel has a hard-edged, wintry ambience, echoed in Fiona Purcell's obsession with angular art deco furniture and architecture. Unfortunately, Grafton's evocation of the noir crime novels and styles of the 1940s, although atmospheric, doesn't make up for a lack of suspense and lackluster characters. (June 4)Forecast: With a 600,000-copy first printing and a national author tour, this Literary Guild Main Selection is sure to shoot well up the bestseller lists.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399147195
• ASIN: B00008MNUT
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (269 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #843,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Did Kinsey get lost somewhere?, August 2, 2001

By 

Mary Ann Hofmann (Stow, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: P Is for Peril: A Kinsey Milhone Mystery (Sue Grafton) (Audio Cassette)

I am an avid Kinsey Millhone fan, and was anxious to get my hands on this lastest installment to the series. However, I found this one very disappointing. The plot was an overly used one with characters that weren't developed or explained thoroughly enough. Throughout the book, I kept waiting to find out why things that had been emphasized were key to the story, but it just never happened.

I thought the subplot with the two brothers had much more potential. Developing that storyline would have been far more interesting.

The old Kinsey just didn't quite come through here. She didn't have that edge that makes her so interesting. I've always enjoyed the way she thinks and operates. This seemed to be just a shadow of her former self.

I was willing to forgive all of this just because I do adore the series, but I was left cold with the ending. Grafton has always been a master at pulling it together in a way that even if she hadn't thoroughly spelled out the way things were, there wasn't any confusion as to what happened. That was not the case here. I read the last 25 pages twice to see if I missed something, but I have more questions than is comfortable for a mystery novel. There was just too much left unsaid and unexplained which I found extremely frustrating.

By far, my least favorite.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where's the Epilogue?, June 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: P Is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I've read every one of Sue Grafton's alphabet series. P is for Peril is up to her standards in every way but one - the ending. Each book in the series ends with an epilogue that wraps up the loose ends - each book but this one. When I finished, I looked for the epilogue to clarify the central question: Who did it and why? I then re-read parts of the story looking for additional clues. The problem is, I can come up with a number of different answers to the central question. Did Ms. Grafton want to keep us guessing? Am I missing something? What's up?

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An unfinished work?, June 14, 2001

By 

Mark M. Thomase (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: P Is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) (Hardcover)

While Sue Grafton's writing style sparkles, as usual, with wit and vivid description, I couldn't help but think that the author should have kept on writing until she actually finished the book. The book contains a plot and a major subplot, and neither one is brought to a satisfactory resolution. Questions remain unanswered, loose ends are not entirely tied up. In fact it occured to me, some time after I read the final page, that heroine Kinsey Millhone had not actually told us the identity of the killer or the motive! Perhaps Grafton is being avant-garde; like many of her other fans, though, I would have appreciated a closing note "Respectfully submitted."