U Is for Undertow

By:

Synopsis
Calling T Is for Trespass "taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific," USA Today went on to ask, "What does it take to write twenty novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?" It's a question worth pondering. Through twenty excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice. And so it is with this, her twenty-first. Once again, she breaks genre formulas, giving us a twisting, complex, surprise-filled, and totally satisfying thriller. It's April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. Twenty-one years earlier, a four-year-old girl disappeared. A recent reference to her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial when he was six years old. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the child's remains and finding the men who killed her. It's a long shot but he's willing to pay cash up front, and Kinsey agrees to give him one day. As her investigation unfolds, she discovers Michael Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his current story true or simply one more in a long line of fabrications? Grafton moves the narrative between the eighties and the sixties, changing points of view, building multiple subplots, and creating memorable characters. Gradually, we see how they all connect. But at the beating center of the novel is Kinsey Millhone, sharp-tongued, observant, a loner-- "a heroine," said The New York Times Book Review, "with foibles you can laugh at and faults you can forgive."
Copyright:
2009

Book Details

Book Quality:
Excellent
Book Size:
404 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780399155970
Publisher:
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Sue Grafton
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Literature and Fiction, Mystery and Thrillers
Submitted By:
Liz Halperin
Proofread By:
Liz Halperin
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

3 out of 5

By on

Published in 2009, U is for Undertow (the title has nothing to do with the story) takes place in 1988 as "present day", without explanation. I read her books when A is for Alibi first came out and kept up with her through H or I. This time around, I couldn't see how parts would come together, so I had a hard time keeping the many characters straight, especially with flashback scenes to the late 60's. Even when it all meshed, I wasn't completely clear on what had happened, the relationships, nor the timelines. In my opinion, not one of her better books and certainly not one I'd want to reread.