A is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery

The narrator is no Judy Kaye. I am going to make my way thru the alphabet series on Audible as I already have in print, so this is my starting point, though I have already listened to other books in the series. This book is instructive because it shows how subtle things can trash a reading. Much of the dialog is very wooden and doesn't flow the way a real conversation does. This is very distracting and makes it difficult to focus on the plot. I love Grafton, which is really the only thing that keeps me going.

I usually look so forward to my long drives and the Audible books that I get to listen to along the way. This book was chosen by my book club so I must finish it, otherwise I would not. I dread listening to it and cannot wait to be finished with it. The plot is boring. I am not at all interested in finding out "who dunnit." Even worse than the book itself is the narrator. Her male voices sound ridiculous and some of the female voices sound like a female trying to sound male - very off-putting. At times, she has lengthy pauses at very odd places in the story. At other times, she ends a sentence or a chapter in a way that makes the listener think that she has not read the end of the sentence. I will avoid this reader and this author in the future.

This was my first and my last Sue Grafton novel. Her writing was amateurish and her characters 2 dimensional and stupid. The plot was painfully predictable. Her main character never really told the story, but outlined steps and frequently talked about herself in the 3rd person rather than the 1st person (the story was being told, or attempting to be told in 1st person voice). I would characterize this book as a dime store novel. Do not waste your time with this book, and if this book is typical of her writing, I would avoid the author as well. It would take me far too long to describe how awful this book was with all of its cliche's, plot holes, and anti-climatic events. I was thrilled when the book was done. I guess my first clue should have been that the abridged version was taken down to 2 ish hours where the original was around 8. Any book that can shrink that much doesn't have much in it.

I was always hearing how great these books were, last week after litening to This is Audible and the author's interview, I tried the first 4 in the series. I'm hooked. I can highly recomend.

Sue Grafton's hero, Kinsey Millhone, is wonderfully presented, as are all her characters. There is a pervading sense of fun mingled with human compassion throughout. Kinsey's qualities of irony and self deprecation are dynamically conveyed through delightful similes and asides.


Grafton's titles work through the alphabet, and have now reached U. Unfortunately Audible has only released unabridged versions of 6 of this series. But Grafton is a writer to be savored and enjoyed, not edited.

And talking of enjoying, the reading of Grafton's books illustrates what all Audible members know: that the narration has a strong impact. In the Audible unabridged selection, Grafton's books are narrated by Judy Kaye and Mary Peiffer. For me, Peiffer effortlessly draws out the colour, fun and sense of ease and enjoyment Grafton exudes, while Kaye, although a very professional reader, bypasses these important qualities

This was an interesting story with a mediocre reading.

Narrator makes me fall asleep. Boring.
Also, what monkey chopped this audio book into chapters? Completely arbitrary breaks. I guess the logical chapter breaks is too sensible.

No heavy lifting here for a reader. Just an engaging, brief-ish mystery that serves as an able introduction to the then-new PI. The only "problem" listening to this, and many future Grafton mysteries, is that the author introduces many characters and does not provide the "cues" other authors do to help readers keep them straight.

The weakest aspect of this audiobook is the narrator who mispronounces several reasonably common words (e.g., covert). This has an unfortunately jarring effect on the narrative.

i enjoyed listening to this book--didn't figure out the culprit until right at the end--i would recommend it highly

Fabulous! I love it! Can't wait to get to B, C, D, E.....etc.