P Is for Peril [Paperback]

Sue Grafton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449007332
• ISBN-13: 978-0449007334
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (269 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #539,399 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."