A is for Alibi

A Kinsey Millhone Mystery

By: Sue Grafton

Narrated by: Mary Peiffer

Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

When Laurence Fife was murdered, few mourned his passing. Plenty of people had reason to want him dead. But the police thought his wife Nikki , with motive, access and opportunity, was the #1 suspect. The jury thought so too.

Eight years later and out on parole, Nikki hires Kinsey Millhone, a gutsy P.I., to find the real killer. The trail is cold, but Kinsey finds a lead that brings her face-to-face with the murderer!

This is the first in the popular series featuring California investigator Kinsey Millhone. She's 32, twice divorced, no kids, an ex-cop who likes her work...and who works strictly alone!

Don't miss the other titles in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery Series.

©1982 Sue Grafton (P)1993 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Grafton has created a woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner....Smart, well-paced and very funny." (Newsweek)

This is a great series!

I really enjoy these books. The narrator is talented and while not my favorite, she still does a good job with the different voices, emotions, and expressions.
Sue Grafton does a great job with creating a badass and likeable main character. The plots are really engaging and keep you guessing until the very end. Great pleasure read as it’s not too intense to cause discomfort or anxiety but enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Enjoyed it

I love Sue Grafton. Even though I have read this book several times and own the paperback it was fun listening to it.

Not bad …

… just not excellent. I started with “W” which was excellent in story and narration. Could be me, but it was hard to keep
up with the characters, and narrator has a robotic tone. Felt like Alexa was reading to me. I do plan to continue the series in order. I may have enjoyed this book better had I heard this one first. Don’t pass up. Just keep in book order because Kinsey Millhone is quite the character.

Kinsey is one tough cookie!

Bought on Audible

What I Loved: Kinsey is one tough cookie! She is very much someone I would want on my side in an investigation. I like that she is PI and not a cop that gives her a little bit more room to work things out in the Kinsey way. She is whip smart, tough, and yet flawed in the "independent, opinionated, little bit defensive" kind of way. I really liked all her personality quirks. The case itself was pretty good too. I had part of it figured out early but there were a couple of twists that I did not see coming. The pacing was perfect and worked well with the tempo of the book.

What I Liked: I really liked all the women that she met in the book. They were each multi-dimensional, savvy, not predictable, and fun to read.

Complaints: None

Audiobook Review: Narrated by Mary Peiffer, she does a fantastic job of portraying Kinsey. I thought she did a good job on the male voices too though they were not quite as good as the females. Her reading pace was very good and she was easy to understand.

Why I gave it a 4: The story, audio, and characters were all very well done. I could see myself re-reading this story in the future.

Who I would recommend this too: Fans of Mystery/Thrillers (though I am fairly certain I am behind the curve on falling in love with this series).

Not my cup of tea

If you like police procedurals then you will like this. I usually read cozy mysteries. I thought I would try something new since I was caught up on all of my other authors. It's not my kind of book so I don't have much to say. The narrator did a good job reading what was a good story. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

A is for Awesome introduction

I am revisiting Sue Grafton's alphabet series. Fun to be reminded of how it all started. Kinsey Milhone is my favorite PI.

good book

I enjoyed this book. At first I thought the narrator a little monitored. But she got better as the nook went on.The ending was quite a surprise.

The endings always make me draw a breath!

Plots and people roaming around until the end. I was not interested in anyone in particular until the end.

Who can't fall for the "Kinsey" books!

Where does A is for Alibi rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I actually went back to re-listen to the this in this series. I love them all! Will listen to them all over again and again!

Good Read

Sue Grafton creates the character Kinsey Milhone with not much parallel to her own life, and I do enjoy Kinsey's point of view on a lot of subjects. Her sarcasm and wit offers humor on some subjects that may need it to break things up. I started in the middle of the alphabet series with "R is for Ricochet", and have committed myself to read the entire series.
Judy Kaye is the better narrator of the alphabet series because she has the ability to deliver Kinsey's personality to the reader. Mary Peiffer on the other hand gets the job done while lacking the delivery of Kinsey Milhone. For myself I haven't ran across a narrarator that I could not adjust to--Frank Muller being the most difficult.
As it has been said the most important part of a book is the story, it is always about the story. Sue Grafton writes these private eye stories beginning with "A is for Alphbet" that are easy to follow, which is what is fiction is all about. A book that takes us a away and to a place that we can relax and enjoy, not a place that is complexed and hard to figure out. No matter what case Kinsey has taken on it is sure to be an enjoyable story.