S is for Silence and Secrets

I am a big fan of the Kinsey Millhone, Alphabet Mystery Novels by Sue Grafton. So I couldn’t wait for the latest book staring my favorite female PI. As soon as S is for Silence was released I had to have a copy.

S is for Silence – The Plot

Violet Sullivan was a desirable woman, and just about every one of the men in the small little town that she lived in desired her. But Violet was troubled, she was married to the town drunk, and depended on a teenage girl to baby sit her daughter while she herself spent most evenings at the local bar.

One day the vivacious Violet didn’t return home. For several years the town’s people thought that her husband had murdered her. He himself thought that she had run off with another man. All any of them knew for sure is that they had an argument shortly before she disappeared. There was never any real evidence that he had killed his wife. He was certainly never convicted, but the town’s people had treated him like a murderer for most of the years after his wife disappeared. All anyone knows is that there was not a trace left behind of Violet, her little dog, or the new car; a beautiful 53 Chevrolet that she had just gotten a couple of days before she disappeared. There was also a good sum of money that Violet had claimed to have had from an insurance settlement, but there was no hint of that either.

Violet certainly could have left town willingly with that kind of money, but the odd thing was that there was not a trace of her existence ever found after the day that she disappeared.

34 years later Violet’s daughter hires Private Investigator, Kinsey Millhone to find out what happened to her mother so many years ago. The daughter needs some answers, so that she can get closure. She needs to know if her mom had left her and her father, and had never tried to get in contact with them after all these years, or if something truly terrible had happened to her.

Kinsey has her doubts that she will come up with anything since the case is so old. But it turns out there is a chain of events that several of the town’s people can recall, and a few things that some of them are not saying. There is however, plenty of information for Kinsey to follow since the town folk had never really forgotten about Violet Sullivan and her mysterious disappearance.

So did Violet leave her husband and daughter behind, or did someone end Violets life? If you want to find out you will have to read S is for Silence by Sue Grafton.

Miscellaneous Information

For those of you who are regular readers of the alphabet mysteries you will find that this book is written a little bit differently than the others. Most of the Kinsey Millhone books are more of a story about Kinsey and how she goes about her day to day tasks of investigating different mysteries. You learn bits and pieces about the key players in these mysteries but usually the story is about Kinsey herself and what she finds out about them.

In this book the story is more about Violet’s life and all of the things that led up to her disappearance. The story centers around the people who knew her and what transpired between Violet and those people shortly before she disappeared. Each character provides more details to the story of Violet’s life and how her life intermingled with their own lives. However, a couple of them may be holding back a few details.

Kinsey is of course doing her thing, investigating the story, and of course her life and her investigation comes in to play in and out throughout the book, but the main focus of the book is more on Violet.

The change up of the way the book is written is not bad just different; although I did miss the little details of Kinsey’s day to day life that I have become accustomed to. As I said you get glimpses of what Kinsey is going through out the book, but it is mostly her going from person to person and hearing their stories. The end of the book is delightfully a typical Kinsey ending. For those of you who are not regular readers of the series that means that the ending is all Kinsey and is exiting. Grafton always seems to cap off her books with exiting endings.

Final Thoughts

Though I wouldn’t really say this was my favorite Sue Grafton book I did think it was pretty good. I would have liked a little more Kinsey but perhaps Grafton feels that we all know Kinsey well enough by now and I think she was trying to spare the reader more of the rut of a life that Kinsey has on a personal level.

This book lacked some of the humor that most of the books have in the series. Not that this series is a barrel of laughs but Kinsey does usually throw in some funny lines here and there, however there was not a lot of that in this book.

I think most mystery fans weather they are a regular reader of the series or not would enjoy this book. This book is pure mystery as you try to figure out what happened to Vivian by listening to the stories of all of the town’s people who were somehow involved with her (and there were a lot of men involved with her), while piecing some physical clues together as well.

If we could give half stars I would give it 3 ½ stars. It does not quite reach that 4 star status for me, but it comes close. S is for Silence provides a nice change of pace to the regular Kinsey Millhone mystery, but gives us just enough of the Kinsey that fans love. Will the next book in the series take us back to Santa Teresa, CA and Kinsey’s normal life? Only Sue Grafton knows for sure.

Other books from the Alphabet Series

D is for Dead Beat

http://www.epinions.com/content_176868200068

M is for Malice
http://www.epinions.com/content_108192763524

T is for Trespass
http://www.epinions.com/content_418614644356