Sue Grafton

Start Free Trial

Review of “Q” Is for Quarry

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

SOURCE: Review of “Q” Is for Quarry, by Sue Grafton. Kirkus Reviews 70, no. 16 (15 August 2002): 1177.

[In the following review, the critic criticizes the plot of “Q” Is for Quarry, calling it “tangled and routine.”]

Back in 1969, Det. Stacey Oliphant of the county sheriff's office and Lt. Con Dolan of Santa Teresa Homicide discovered the body of a young woman in Grayson Quarry who was never identified. Now that Stacey's been diagnosed with lymphoma, Con, himself sidelined by his heart condition, asks Kinsey Millhone (“P” Is for Peril,) to do the legwork for the aging buddies as they struggle one last time to close the case. It's an impossible job. Whatever legal or medical records might have helped are long gone (though Kinsey's hopeful that Jane Doe's distinctive teeth may still tell a story); potential witnesses' memories have faded or been addled by repeating the same story too many times; and the two lead investigators are at serious risk, not from the perp, but from death of natural causes. The convoluted, fact-based tale [in “Q” Is for Quarry]—studded with masterful portraits of the dying detectives, a couple of dead-alive ex-cons, and the might-as-well-be-dead suspects—has run half its course before the victim is identified as a wild high-school girl who slept around so indiscriminately and exhaustively that half the population of little Quorum, California, seems to think her violent death was no more than she deserved.

Despite a bumper crop of Q's, the late-arriving whodunit is tangled and routine, and Kinsey's latest inconclusive flirtation with her own past—the owner of Grayson Quarry turns out to be the grandmother she's never spoken to—awaits resolution, perhaps in R Is for Relatives.

Get Ahead with eNotes

Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Previous

“P” Is for Peril

Loading...