J Is for Judgment (Kinsey Millhone, #10)

by Sue Grafton

While investigating the reappearance of the long-presumed-dead Wendell Jaffe, Kinsey Millhone uncovers some unpleasant truths about her own family in the process. By the author of "G is for Gumshoe."

• ISBN10: 0449000656
• ISBN13: 9780449000656
• Publish Date: 23 June 1997 (first published 15 May 1993)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Ballantine Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Language: English

Reviews

I love Kinsey Millhone. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. I started reading the Alphabet series a few years ago - I think at the time it was up to O is for Outlaw. The idea of a mystery series each title beginning with a new letter amused me. I don't know why. I don't think it's particularly original. At least - I've seen a few others since. At the time though it was new to me and it just struck me as perfect. I flew through the series. Kinsey is riveting. She's brash and harsh and charming. She's fierce and flawed. She gets scared. She holds her own. She pushes herself to run often and tackles cases without judgement and with an open mind. Rosie and Henry are brilliant and I love the little family she builds around her.

But Kinsey Millhone isn't Jack Reacher - her speed is more Tracy Crosswhite. [b:My Sister's Grave|22341263|My Sister's Grave (Tracy Crosswhite, #1)|Robert Dugoni|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405267054l/22341263._SY75_.jpg|41739579] Her cases aren't full of action and high speed chases - they're slowly nitpicking away until something clicks into place. She writes down all her thoughts and places her facts and ideas on 3x5 index cards - which she often shuffles and rearranges to help her solve her case. And I love it. Kinsey Millhone is great - but she's not for everyone.

For some reason I've seen reviewers compare this to Stephanie Plum - I don't know why - this is absolutely NOTHING like that. Stephanie Plum is a very different character and an extremely different type of book. That's more fluff. Kinsey Millhone is more procedural mysteries. And this series isn't current - it was first published in the 80's - there's not really technology. Messages were relayed by calling the landlines. Paper files were still the main form of storage. Not everyone will enjoy reading this. But if you like your mysteries to be more like procedurals with a determined and fierce character - Kinsey Millhone is for you.




Solid mystery. Lots of twists and turns. This is also the book in which Kinsey finds she has living family. A woman she meets while canvassing asks if she's a Kinsey from Lompoc. Kinsey is pretty anxious and unsure about being part of a family but she steels herself to at least do some research to find out. In the meantime though, her cousins get in touch with her. The whole story isn't revealed yet but the initial contact has been made. William and Rosie get engaged - or at least William proposes - not sure if Rosie says yes or not yet. Kinsey is her usual badass self. Struggling with her good angel/bad devil personality - hmm should I break in? Well...I've been so lawful up until my earlier break-in, so what's one more for the night? Lol.



3 stars.

[readingwithwrin]

"The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same."

During Blogmas 2017 I decided to challenge myself to read 5 books from the year I was born (1993). J is for Judgment was one of the books I choose.

Going into this book, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew Sue Grafton is an extremely popular author which is partially why I choose one of her books for this challenge, but besides that, I don't know anything about her writing style or this series in particular.

I was really looking forward to this book, not only was it a book written in the 90's but it also has a women P.I. who also seemed to be well respected in what she was doing!

J is for Judgment followed Kinsey who is working for California Fidelity as a Private Investigator and is supposed to find out if a man is really dead or not. Kinsey learns all about the crimes he committed and how it affected everyone in his life. This part I found really interesting and I wish there had been more of this in the book. I wanted to know how his wife had managed to make things work with raising two sons, a husband who is now missing/dead, and a ton of people angry at them for what he did. Instead, we got a lot of side stories, and a lot of just filler it seemed.

Kinsey is one of those characters that I truly did try and want to like, but the more we got to know her the less I really cared for her. I'm not exactly sure why either. She was smart and well respected, but for some reason, I just couldn't ever fully like her. (Does anyone else feel this way?)

Truthfully this book just wasn't for me. Normally I like all the little side stories in books, but with this one I just found myself getting annoyed with them. I was never able to really care about any of the characters, and truthfully half of them I couldn't stand by the end of the book. As of right now, I don't plan on continuing on with this series, but I am glad I did give it a try.

While this book wasn't for me, I can see why at the time a lot of people liked it. But I'm not sure it's going to be one that continues to age well as even more time goes on.

[ibeforem]

Not bad. I wish she’d gone a little further into the family stuff, however. I was expecting a little more closure on that before the end of this book.