Sue Grafton: Q is for Quarry

[chiangmaifalcon]

Just finished Sue Grafton novel Q is for Quarry and I enjoyed it immensely. have not read any of her books in many years. I think perhaps I only read first one A is for Alibi but since they have several of these books at library I work as volunteer I will definitely check out some of the others.

 

[pontalba]

I've read and enjoyed all except the last two, S and T. I'd started S, and somehow it didn't jive.

Reading them in order gave me a more thorough understanding of how Kinsey's mind worked. I'd previously read one in the middle somewhere, and didn't like it until I reread it in order. Just me.

 

[chiangmaifalcon]

Today at library I picked up Fis for Fugitive, which is the first one in series they had there. They do have about 8 of the series however, and I figure I will read them in order from this point.

 

[Scove]

ooo this sounds intresting... might have to hunt these books down!

 

[Occlith]

This novel is based on an actual unsolved crime.

From the author's site -

Q is for Quarry is based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, and Grafton's interest in the case has generated renewed police efforts. During the past year, the body was exhumed and a nationally known forensic artist did the facial reconstruction that appears in the closing pages of Q is for Quarry. Both Grafton and the dedicated members of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department are hoping the photograph will trigger memories that may lead to a positive identification.
On the day Jane Doe was reburied, many officers were at the gravesite. "It's eerie," Grafton writes, "to think about the power this woman still has. Here we are, thirty-three years later, and she still wants to go home."

 

[Hugh]

From the Author's Note at the end of the book: "Whatever the personality and nature of the 'real' Jane Doe, my assertions are the figment of my imagination and in no way are purported to be real, true, or represetative of heer. I emphasize this point out of respect for her and out of consideration for those who must have loved her and wondered about her silence as the years have passed."

How unbelievably sad that someone could die like that and go unnoticed all this time. In her novel, Grafton writes about how law enforcement was duped about the missing persons report for the fictional Jane Doe, but could something like that really have happened in the case of the real Jane Doe? I just don't think so, even though as the author mentions, "those who MUST have loved...." It's open ended enough to make you wonder if there really was no one who gave a damn enough to ask. However, she surely crossed the minds of those who knew her all those years ago.

Anyway, Sue Grafton's description is gripping, she really brings you into the scene she is writing about, although it goes on a little to long sometimes. The most enjoyable characteristics of the protagonists in this book are their frailties. When the murder suspect wants to talk to private detective Kinsy Millhone, she refuses to go meet him and in fact will only talk to him through a window crack. The two cops she works with are old timers who can barely walk around. There comes a sequence of events where Kinsey needs a gun for protection, and she gets the one in the trunk of the car she's using, and it's only there because one of the old geezers forgot about it and left it there. Did she use the gun, and if so how did it turn out? That would be a spoiler, so I ain't saying.