Book #3: U is for Undertow

This the 21st Sue Grafton novel I've read; I've been faithful through the whole Kinsey Millhone alphabet mystery series.  I'm not a maniacal mystery reader...many of them are too grisly for me (like in the Patricia Cornwell novels) or too thematic (like in the horse mysteries) or too incredibly awfully written (like in the increasingly disappointing Diane Mott Davidson catering mysteries, and the really depressingly horrible Rita Mae Brown mysteries).

But these alphabet mysteries are great.  Grafton is amazing at maintaining Kinsey's timeline:  it's only 1988 in U is for Undertow.  Despite the fact that all these technological advances have arrived to (ostensibly) ease a detective's life by 2012, Grafton has stayed true to the library visits, criss-cross directories, and other paper/people-based research.

Really, the most shocking thing is that this ISN'T Grafton's newest novel.  V is for Vengeance is her newest (and I have that on the kindle as well...).  I missed U for a variety of reasons:  often my family & friends & I will share hardcover novels, to amortize the cost, and when it was my turn for U, I heard that it was about child abduction, and I wasn't mentally prepared for it, so I gave up my place in line, and never reclaimed it.

Nonetheless, glad to have read it!  Will read V very soon!