N Is For Noose

"When I first wrote Alibi, Grafton is quoted as saying, "I was just trying to get it done. I certainly wasn't thinking about a series." With that profound statement hovering somewhere in her past, Sue Grafton now offers her fourteenth novel in the popular Alphabet Mystery series. "N" Is for Noose finds Kinsey investigating the mysterious death of Nota Lake sheriff Tom Newquist. But when it becomes clear that the strange town has some very dark secrets, Kinsey realizes that if she's not careful, she could be the victim of the town's next crime.

Publishers Weekly

The noose of the title implies a tight knot, but the twists and turns of Grafton's latest plot are pretty loose. Not that the fans of self-reliant PI Kinsey Millhone's 13 previous alphabet appearances (from 1982's A Is for Alibi through 1996's M Is for Malice) are likely to object. This story takes Kinsey away from her Southern California coastal town of Santa Teresa to the small mountain community of Nota Lake in the Sierras. There, Selma Newquist hires Kinsey to ferret out the problem that had been seriously bothering her cop husband, Tom, before his recent death from a heart attack. Kinsey's efforts are soon stonewalled as the residents of Nota Lake unite, suggesting that the widow is being troublesome while the good-guy cop should be left to rest in peace. Kinsey wonders whether the townspeople might be right until she is seriously beaten up in her Nota Lake motel room. Focusing on finding the dead man's missing notebook, she follows his trail to a seedy hotel not far from Santa Teresa that he visited a few weeks before his death. While keeping a suspicious eye on the dead man's police partner and a few other local figures, Kinsey determines that Tom Newquist had been investigating an old murder near Nota Lake, which may have had ties to a similar, recent murder. Lots of coincidences, some over-the top characters, including a hyper-raunchy older woman, and some unprepared-for elements contribute to the rather chaotic climax. But Grafton's easy-reading, intelligent prose and her heroine's sharp humor, served up dark and wry, make up for a slew of plot weaknesses. Mystery Guild main selection; Literary Guild selection. (May)

Author : Sue Grafton

Publisher : Henry Holt

Published Year : 1998-05-15

Edition : 1

Format : Hardcover, 289 pages

ISBN : 0805036504

ISBN13 : 9780805036503