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Summary and Reviews of P Is For Peril by Sue Grafton

P Is For Peril by Sue Grafton

P Is For Peril

by Sue Grafton
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (13):
  • First Published:
  • Jun 1, 2001, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2002, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Enter the world of noir - a world cast in shades of black amid shafts of steel and silver, a shadow land in which the mysterious disappearance of a prominent physician leads Kinsey into a danger-filled maze of duplicity and double-dealing.

She's every lover's feisty girlfriend. She's every father's courageous daughter.

She's every woman's tough, vulnerable, and spirited alter ego.

She's Kinsey Millhone, familiar to millions of readers around the globe, and she's back in full stride in P is for Peril, her latest venture into the darker side of the human soul. Mordant, mocking, and deceptively low-key, hers is a voice we know we can trust, from a character we've come to love.

Through fifteen novels, Sue Grafton has gone from strength to strength, never writing the same book twice. So it's no surprise that she has taken on new territory in her sixteenth, this time entering the world of noir. It's a world cast in shades of black amid shafts of steel and silver, a shadow land in which the mysterious disappearance of a prominent physician leads Kinsey into a danger-filled maze of duplicity and double-dealing as she taps into the intricacies of a cunning Medicare fraud.

P is for Peril: the novel in which Millhone stakes her life on a thin thread of intuition because the facts glint elusively out of reach and only guesses offer any shot at the truth.

"Unlike many detective series, Grafton's seems only to get better each time out," wrote Entertainment Weekly, and P is for Peril is a case in point. Pushing herself, reaching further with each new book, Sue Grafton delivers every time.

CHAPTER 1

The house on Old Reservoir Road appeared to be in the final phases of construction. I spotted the site as I rounded the curve, recognizing the unfinished structure from Fiona Purcell's description. To my right, I could see a portion of the reservoir for which the road was named. Brunswick Lake fills the bottom of a geological bowl, a spring-fed body that supplied the town with drinking water for many years. In 1953 a second, larger catch basin was established, and now Brunswick is little more than an irregular blue splotchlet on maps of the area. Swimming and boating are forbidden, but seasonally the migrating water birds rest on the placid surface as they make their way south. The surrounding hills are austere, gentle swells rising to the mountains that mark the northernmost boundary of the Santa Teresa city limits.

I parked my VW on the gravel berm and crossed the two-lane road. The steeply pitched lot was still bare of landscaping and consisted entirely of ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Booklist
As always, Grafton gives us a truly complex heroine, marvelous depictions of Southern California architecture and interiors, and a writing style that can make a weed path interesting.

Kirkus Reviews
After twenty years updating the private-eye tradition, Grafton shows she can spin a classic yarn with all the breadth of her masters, and a sharper eye for detail than any of them.

Library Journal
In her 15th alphabetical mystery, Grafton deserves an A for maintaining her series's high standard of excellence.... As usual, Grafton mixes an intriguing plot, well-developed characters, and humor into an entertaining summer read.

Reader Reviews

J K

Great til the end
I enjoyed the book very much until I reached the (end)? I just drops like someone in mid sentence, no closure, as if missing the last chapter - very very upsetting - couldn't believe it - that was just mean.
Yanique

whose is the murderer?
It is the best Kinsey Millhone series yet...but... what happened to the end? Wierd...but it was a good book!!
Shawn B

I also thought this was a great book up until the end. It was missing the usual commentary given by Kinsey at the end. I actually went to a couple of bookstores and looked up the book to make sure my copy wasn't missing any pages.
Azhar

I didn't get the ending! I also felt like something was missing. Seems like everyone else in here felt the same way. Does anyone have any idea? I think it was L or P . Someone explain!!!

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Read-Alikes

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    'Reed presents sex, money, power, and violence in an irresistibly melancholy noir package, readers who value intelligence, fine writing and action will find it all in this outstanding novel.'

  • Flashback jacket

    Flashback

    by Nevada Barr

    Published 2004

    About this book

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    When it comes to a vibrant sense of place Barr has few equals, as demonstrated in her 11th Anna Pigeon novel, set in little-known Dry Tortugas National Park, a small group of islands 70 miles off Key West.

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