Customer Reviews:
 Suited me to a "T" June 8, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
In this, her 20th Kinsey Milhone novel, the author serves notice that she intends to do more in finishing her alphabet challenge than just publish by rote. I was a little afraid, when the series hit its "P's & Q's", that the lukewarm plotlines and supporting characters would carry on ad infinitum.
"S" helped restore my faith, and in "T", her newest, Grafton gives Kinsey a villain in the neighborhood. She lets the reader discover Solana Rojas' true name and background long before Kinsey snoops it out, and tells a portion of the tale from Rojas' point of view. This duality is not a signature move on Grafton's part, and enhances this particular story.
Rojas is really a grifter with an obese, developmentally challenged son named Tomasso. She's stolen the identity of the true Solana Rojas, a nurse she used to work with. She preys on elderly patients, who meet untimely deaths after she's looted their homes for anything of value. Gus Vronsky is a neighbor of Kinsey's and she's none too fond of the curmudgeon. When Gus falls, his niece Melanie hires a caregiver, the aforementioned Rojas. Kinsey actually helps Melanie by doing a background check of Rojas, never dreaming that the background she researches (a solid one) is of the woman whose identity was stolen, not the person who moves in with Gus, and begins to brutalize him. Melanie's convinced that Kinsey is a straight shooter, and puts her trust in Kinsey's assessment to hire "Rojas".
It doesn't take long for Kinsey to smell a rat, but the story becomes a lot more compelling when the faux Rojas begins to set Kinsey up for trouble of all sorts, when Kinsey begins to "snoop". Tomasso/Rojas is a true sociopath, who is brilliant enough to realize there are people in this world who will quickly become "on" to her act, and who sets about to destroy the credibility of those people. Like a forest fire, Tomasso doesn't target any one soul to bring down..she chars the earth around her targets. There's a clever twist to the tale involving service of process, where Kinsey is both giver and recipient.
Part of the charm of Grafton's novels (although Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone started out being a loner, long before Grafton wrote "A is for Alibi"), is the constant theme of Kinsey being such a loner. She's had some brief loves, she's surrounded and befriended primarily by people who are a generation older than she is, she lives alone, travels alone, wards off the attempts of family to include her, and is uniquely one of the more solitary long term heroines in today's fiction.
Even when Grafton is keeping things light, and there is a love interest, or some lightheartedness in Kinsey's work, in the backdrop there's always the solitude, and, from time to time, a truly life-threatening situation that Kinsey gets involved in, to break up her cycle of process serving and non-criminal investigations.
Elder abuse is no laughing matter, and the darkness and menace with which Rojas pursues her need to take over every part of Vronsky's life and wealth is compelling. In keeping the two narrative voices, Grafton manages to keep Kinsey's in character, and tell the tale as Tomasso/Rojas sees it as a true narcissistic storyteller. She also keeps the story true to its timeframe ('87-'88) The story comes crashing to a halt, and you are somewhat dismayed to find it is over...in keeping with some of the early alphabet mysteries, from the hand of a very fine author.
5 stars... a long time since I gave that to a Grafton novel!
 T is for Trespass June 6, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I always enjoy Sue Grafton's characters, maybe especially the elderly Henry. Grafton seems to be one of the few series writers who depict old people as vital characters and without condescension. Kinsey herself is a fun gal, and Grafton has kept her character fresh and interesting while keeping in place her ideosyncrasies.
One quibble here---and it has to do with a phrase I doubt was contemporary in the late '80s. A couple of times a chracter uses the phrase "a ton of", which we use nowadays, obviously, to mean a great many of something or other. For instance, I heard a designer on one of the TV home shows the other day refer to their client having a room with "a ton of space". There was other dialog in T is for Trespass that seemed too contemporary for the 1980s, but "a ton of" grabbed my attention twice.
HOME HEALTH CARE CAN BE HAZARDOUS June 5, 2008
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Sue Graftons alphabet is progressing nicely. She has 20 letters down and 6 to go. With T is for Trespass she presents us with a guided tour into a world where identity theft is as simple as purchasing an ice cream cone, thinly disguised sociopathic behaviour goes unnoticed by most observers, defrauding insurance companies is the order of the day and agencies created for the protection of the elderly and infirm are understaffed and for the most part ineffective.
In this latest offering Kinsey is confronted by a wily and resourceful adversary named Solana Rojas, a caregiver to the elderly who understands the system and knows how to manipulate it and the situation to her advantage. Written from the alternating points of view of Kinsey and Solana, this battle of wits is both engrossing and at times frustrating for the reader as Kinsey's attempts to navigate the waters of government bureaucracy in an attempt to save the life of an elderly neighbor. You will find yourself as irritated as our heroine as Solana's Maciavellian machinations result in a restraining order being issued against Kinsey.
This is by far one of the best books in the Kinsey Milhone series and an entertaining companion to take along on your summer vacation.
 Good but Not Great June 3, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read all of Grafton's Alphabet series novels and eagerly awaited the publication of "T". I had been disappointed in "P", but "Q, R, and S" seemed to get back on track with good plotlines and character development. Right off the bat, I was a bit disconcerted as the book "S" ended in August 1988 in the epilogue and here in book "T", we begin the story in December, 1987, so we know that unless this storyline is going to be taking place over many, many months, Kinsey is going to be okay, because there she was in August, 1988, giving us her thoughts back in book "S".
There were too many sub-plots and seemed to wander all over the place with no real explanation as to why they were there. She is back doing investigation for CFI (where she formerly worked) with no mention of any of the characters that we came to know - especially that obnoxious person that fired her and sent her on her way. I know she had been involved with them during that car theft operation, but that didn't resolve her issues with CFI and here she is working for them again without any explanation.
Lots of coincidences in this book that probably aren't going to happen in real-life and some of the premises just don't make much sense. Why would a woman take another's identity and remain in the same town as the woman whose identity she has stolen? Especially in a down of only about 85,000 as Santa Teresa (read Santa Barbara) supposedly has (remember it is taking place in 1987). How many bus drivers would know the name of their passengers, much less the exact house they live in? What are the odds of serving papers on no-pay tenants (in another town no less) who just happen to live next to the antagonist in this storyline and the landlord being one and the same as the person who has hired Kinsey to do his dirty work. Like I said, a few too many coincidences to make it real.
Another thing I was disappointed in was the fact that Kinsey's family (up in Lompoc) was not mentioned one time in the book and I was really hoping for a little more family drama. Kinsey even talks about being an orphan and all alone to one of the characters and there wasn't even a sidebar mention that she has a grandmother, aunts and cousins just an hour or so away. It's like they disappeared from the radar screen.
Maybe "U" will be better. I really hope it is. I have grown to love Kinsey Millhone over the years. I am approximately the same age she would be and I have aged over the years and it is really fun that she hasn't. I love being able to relate to "1987" and the scenarios and problems that we would have faced back then (no cell-phones, no PC's, etc.) Bring back a love conflict for Kinsey. Bring back some family issues. Don't let her be so one-dimensional as she seemed to be in this book.
Too much real life drama and not enough Kinsey June 1, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read fiction to escape from the real world and many of the things that are in this book and on the evening news daily. If Grafton wanted to further a cause or in this instance several causes I think she would have done well to do it in another stand alone book or new series. I had been eagerly awaiting this book to once again enjoy Kinsey and her friends and family and whatever mystery there was.......the only mystery was where were most of the friends and family! This book was depressing...please Ms. Grafton bring back the Kinsey and friends and family you have made us grow to love.
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