Customer Reviews

R is for Ricochet

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have been with Sue Grafton since A is for Alibi, and the best that I can say about the 18th book in the Kinsey Milhone series, R is for Ricochet, is that it is mediocre. In Ricochet, Grafton is very short on plot and very long on tedious description. It's definitely not a riveting tale.

Wealthy, retired businessman, Nord Lafferty, hires Kinsey for a different kind of job. Nord has a ne'er-do-well daughter, Reba, who is about to be released from jail. Her sentence was for embezzling money from her job. Reba also has issues with alcohol, drugs and gambling. Kinsey is hired to serve as babysitter and chauffeur. Much to Kinsey's surprise, Reba is a likable sort, and Kinsey is drawn to help her-even after her assignment is finished. Milhone figures out that the embezzlement case is more than it seems, and the deeper she digs, the murkier the situation becomes.

But what makes this book a disappointment is the heavy dose of description. It's not just enough for Grafton to tell us that there are flowers in front of a house. She also has to regale us with what they are, what they look like (including height, color, etc.), how they smell, the sound of them rustling in the wind, and even their texture. A description of a toilet seat goes on for a paragraph. Enough already! It's like taking a bite of a big sandwich and finding very little meat. The subplots were also unnecessary. Henry's love interest (Kinsey's landlord) and his feud with his brothers is totally annoying and doesn't add one thing to this book. The story finally starts moving, but not until chapter 28.

Still, I gave R is for Ricochet 3 stars because even a mediocre Grafton is much better than a good effort by many mystery writers today. There is just too much fluff out there. So when "S" comes along, I'll give it a try (but maybe I'll wait for the paperback version next time).

My Iraq-bound son shelled out his hard-earned cash to buy this as a book-on-CD for us to "enjoy" on the ride home when we visited him prior to his deployment.I wish there was a way to get his money back!

"R is for Ricochet", is a truly abysmal addition to the alphabet series. I realize that some of my criticism might have more to do with the delivery by Judy Kaye ... but after reading many of the other reviews, I doubt it.

If you think that endless filler (think high school student with a 3,000 word essay to write) is tedious while reading it ... try having it read aloud to you. *groan* I can't tell you how many times we made the hands rolling "GET ON WITH IT!" motion.

What on earth happened to the feisty, risk-taking, down-to-earth, no-frills, take-it-on-the-chin heroine we know and grew to love? Kinsey Millhone is utterly unrecognizable in this story. Here, she is wimpy, gullible, tentative, and full of teenage angst, a regular worrywart. In fact, she is downright stupid in many scenes.

Her alleged "friendship" with the ex-con Reba, was laughably contrived. They have zero in common and Kinsey is ten years her senior. Reba was a totally unbelievable character ... one minute a train wreck, the next ... brilliant star detective.

As for Kinsey's new romance ... oh puh-leeze! Sue Grafton was so obviously trying to imitate Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli. Why on earth would clothing-challenged Kinsey fall for a snappy Italian dresser in expensive designer clothes? So NOT her type. How would she even recognize these designer clothes for what they are? The Kinsey I know would have commented that the guy looked "good", period! And don't even get me started on the girlie clothes shopping scene. Kinsey ... you used to have a backbone, what happened?

Finally, I totally concur with those who wondered where on earth the title "R is for Ricochet" fitted in!? A cut-and-paste "mystery" that Sue Grafton should have been ashamed to put her name on.

Skip this one for sure ... I was so disappointed with "R is for Ricochet" I doubt I will ever pick up another Grafton.

Ah, wonderful as always. A new best friend for Kinsey, some boring survelliance, a little bit of seediness- oh, but then the pain of loss and the despair of knowing she couldn't change someone.

Kinsey is hired to "babysit" Reba who is getting out of prison after serving almost 2 years for embezzlement- simple, huh? Luckily for Kinsey, Reba, her new best friend also has great taste in clothing and manages to do some fashion re-education for Kinsey. More surprisingly, Kinsey gets a great new haircut- imagine how stylish she's looking! All this happens before the danger picks up and Kinsey is in the middle of breaking and entry and even scarier elements around the edges of crime. No great surprise, these lead to actual danger for Kinsey and fears for
Reba's life.

R doesn't bring in any members of Kinsey's trying-to-get-closer family, but Kinsey learns some lessons about intimacy from a long term friend. She observes as Henry's family interferes in his possibilities for romance and she supports Henry in standing up to his brothers. Rosie is off the offal cooking stint- although I'm googling Hungarian recipes right now to see if some of those sound appealing- and is now serving cheap wine to compensate for better cooking.

All in all, R is a good adventure to add to the rest of the alphabet and it would stand on it's own just fine too. I'm already eager for "S" and wondering if Sue Grafton will write a cookbook from the Kinsey Millhone novels. I'd buy it. But I wouldn't make peanut butter and pickle sandwiches- yuck. I hate sandwiches.

It took me forever to finish the latest book in Sue Grafton's series, and I've read them all. She's an excellent writer, but this book was really disappointing. The series is a mystery series, but there was no mystery here. It was just a long, drawn out story with the main character (Kinsey) taking a back seat and leaving me wondering if Ms. Grafton has become a little bored with this series. I think that if she's looking for a change in writing style or wanting to develop a new main character, she should just write a book outside of this series like so many other authors (i.e. Sara Paretsky, Laura Lippman) have done. She's still a fantastic writer, however. I just wouldn't recommend this particular book to someone who has never before read Grafton.

I have read, and enjoyed, all of Sue Grafton's novels and "R is for Ricochet" is no exception. I liked Reba in spite of her foolishness, but I kept waiting for Kinsey to take control of the situation. It was out of character for Kinsey to do some of the dumb things she did, such as telling Nord where Reba was over a telephone line that surely was tapped; not arranging for protection nor carrying a weapon when meeting thugs in a parking lot; letting (the slippery)Reba out of her sight so often, etc. Kinsey acted much too naive considering her age and experience, and contrary to the savy she exhibted in past cases. Grafton seemed to be holding back--almost like she was trying not to offend any readers, however you can't write a good thriller when you're trying too hard to be politically correct.

Kinsey Millhone's personal life is so dreary that even her octogenarian pal and landlord, Henry, is a social butterfly by comparison. At least Henry has a girlfriend. Kinsey's doldrums are lifted when she accepts what appears to be an easy-money assignment from a wealthy local resident. Pick up his errant daughter, Reba Lafferty, from prison. Make sure she registers with the parole board and stays away from booze, drugs and bad company for a few days until she gets back on her feet. A piece of cake, right?

Fans of Grafton's popular alphabet series will be nodding knowingly that the simplest assignment can turn from cake to hash in less time than it takes to open the box. Reba Lafferty turns out to be a handful. She has been spoiled rotten by an indulgent, elderly father who blames her downfall on bad choices in life and friends. These include not only alcohol and drugs but also embezzlement from her employer. Also, she has picked up some pretty interesting pals in prison, to no small concern of her father.

As Kinsey soon discovers, after peering through a hedge and observing a steamy reunion between Reba and her ex-employer within hours of her release from imprisonment for stealing money from his company, there's a whole lot more going on than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, Kinsey keeps running into an old flame, Cheney, from the FBI. Is it personal, business, or a little of both? She discovers that not only is the FBI trying to reel him in, but the IRS is hot on his tail. When details start to emerge on how big a fish Reba's former boss really is, it's all business --- at least until late hours keep Cheney and Kinsey working together and old embers start to rekindle.

Once Reba is convinced that her former boss has been using her --- and cheating on her to boot --- she's ready to help trip him up. Kinsey discovers that Reba has all the right instincts of a perfect private investigator: guts, brains, energy, the ability to lie to get what she wants, and motivation. In fact, she has Kinsey cowering in several exciting scenes of breaking and entering, chase and capture, which lead Kinsey into the line of fire. Reba would make a perfect sidekick for Kinsey in future books, except for one tiny thing --- she's a convicted felon.

Reba may be one of Grafton's more endearing creations. She has blown life into a secondary character, which often takes a back seat in a crime novel. But in R IS FOR RICOCHET, Reba outshines Kinsey and you're pulling for her all the way. You can almost feel Grafton's excitement when Reba comes on the scene.

Now if she could just jumpstart this novel with less meandering and lackluster descriptions, from highway directions and dull wardrobes to menus, R IS FOR RICOCHET would be right up there. Once it gets going, though, it's a page-turner.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

The book picks up about halfway through it, but that's just a bit too late to warrant more stars than three. The first part of the novel just sort of wanders around, wasting time and paper. The long sections involving the octogenarian brothers' love affair was just plain dull (was it supposed to be cute?) and kept the reader from the central plot. Then, the soft-core sex life of our heroine may titilate a few readers, but not this one. I found myself skipping whole pages. Finally, the long section explaining money laundering accomplished nothing except tell the reader that the writer did research into the crime of money laundering. The details could have been dismissed in a paragraph or so; not all the research had to be included.

In short, this is not nearly as disciplined as some of the writer's other mysteries. "R" needed a good editor with a handful of blue pencils. Cut about 100 pages of this, and the book was interesting.

In R IS FOR RICOCHET Kinsey is hired to babysit the daughter of a rich man who's just been released from prison. Reba Lafferty is a very needy and impulsive girl and Kinsey soon takes her under her wing. Eventually she learns that Reba had taken the rap for her money-laundering boyfriend.

We also get no fewer than three simultaneous romances. Henry, Kinsey's eighty-seven-year-old landlord, has fallen for a seventy-year-old woman whom he met on a cruise ship; Reba is still carrying a torch for Alan Beckwith, the money launderer, until she finds out he's been cheating on her with her best friend; and even usually celibate Kinsey falls into the sack with Cheney Phillips, a cop investigating the money-laundering scheme. Grafton handles the sex scenes rather well, concentrating more on what comes before and afterwards than the ex-rated details.

I've read about a half dozen of this alphabet series and if there's one thing I've learned it's that Grafton has an aversion to the jump cut. She's afraid to leave anything out, including Kinsey rearranging her underwear drawer; she should also get a promotional fee from MacDonald's, considering her love for the quarter pounder. There also comes a time in each of these mysteries where Grafton writes herself into a corner. In this one Kinsey and Reba are looking for a hidden room in Alan Beckwith's new office building. They find it but there's a keypad and they don't know the code. No sweat. Reba guesses the combination. Grafton deserves a big COME ON NOW, SUE for that one.

There's no doubt Grafton is limping toward "Z" but I'll keep on reading her just to find out what she does with "X". Xerox? X-ray? Xanadu?

I finally made it through the hold list at the library for Sue Grafton's latest - R is for Ricochet. This is a nice rebound from the disappointment of her last novel.

Kinsey Millhone is hired for what appears to be a babysitting job: pick up a woman being released from a California prison and make sure she gets settled in and adjusted. But of course, nothing is ever quite that simple. The lady, Reba Lafferty, did 22 months for embezzlement from the company she worked for. She was in love with the owner, and still holds a flame for him. But she quickly finds out that her best friend who took over her job while she was in prison is also sleeping with the boss, and it also appears that the entire company is set up to launder drug money. The feds want her to spill her guts, and they want Kinsey to talk her into it. But things go wrong, Reba disappears in violation of her parole terms, and Kinsey has to find her before she gets killed. In terms of subplots, Kinsey is getting romantically involved with the lead cop on the case. Also, her landlord's brothers (in their 80's) are messing up Henry's chance to get some female companionship...

In her last book, Grafton tried to weave a story around a true-life cold case. It just didn't work. It was the only one of Grafton's novels I really didn't like. This latest installment in the alphabet returns to her former roots of good plot, funny writing, and varying levels of success at romance. I had a fun time reading through this one, and I'm looking forward to "S".

I am struggling to get through this book. The author has substituted story for page after page of filler. As an example, on one page she gives a description of the heroine looking in the mirror, deciding whether to put on makeup, then the kind of makeup, then putting on her shoes, then going down the stairs, then meeting a person at the door, then describing the person at the door, the car he drives. This isn't writing. Who in their right mind finds this interesting? This is an author under contract to turn out a certain number of pages in order to meet a contractual obligation, and is doing it in the easiest way possible, by filling pages with nothing. And it isn't isolated. It is continuous. She meets a person, and then gives us paragrahs describing what the person is wearing, his facial expression, how he responds to the drink he has ordered, what he orders for dinner, chit-chat with the waitress. She can't go down a street without describing the street, the history of the street, the buildings on the street, the weather on the day she goes down the street -- Please!

Ms Grafton, either get back to writing mystery novels, or just stop your alphabet series at R. This is plain boring.