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by Mary Paul
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by Michelin Travel Publications
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by Ralph Charell
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by Cherie & Shirley Parenteau
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by Stanley Ellin
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by John Wesley Howard
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(Larger Image)
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"M" is for Malice (The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries)
by Sue Grafton
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (1996-11-15)
ISBN: 0805036377
EAN: 9780805036374
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Hardcover: 304 pages
Edition: 1st
SKU: mon0000038220
Condition: Very Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com
"Every investigation has a nature of its own, but there are certain shared characteristics," explains private eye Kinsey Millhone in her 13th alphabetic outing. "Here's what you hope for: a chance remark from the former neighbor on a skip-trace, a penciled notation on the corner of a document, an ex-spouse with a grudge, the number on an account, an item overlooked at the scene of a crime. Here's what you expect: the dead ends, bureaucratic bullheadedness, the cul-de-sacs, trails that go nowhere or simply fade into thin air, denials, prevarications, the blank-eyed stares from all the hostile witnesses. Here's what you know: that you've done it before and you have the toughness and determination to pull it off again. Here's what you want: justice. Here's what you'll settle for: something equivalent, the quid pro quo." All of the above are on display in Grafton's latest entry in her increasingly popular series set in a thinly-disguised Santa Barbara, as the virtually ageless Kinsey finds and loses a missing heir and gets back an old lover.
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Product Description
"M" is for money. Lots of it. "M" is for Malek Construction, the $40 million company that grew out of modest soil to become one of the big three in California construction, one of the few still in family hands.
"M" is for the Malek family: four sons now nearing middle age who stand to inherit a fortune--four men with very different outlooks, temperaments, and needs, linked only by blood and money. Eighteen years ago, one of them--angry, troubled, and in trouble--went missing.
"M" is for Millhone, hired to trace that missing black sheep brother.
"M" is for memories, none of them happy. The bitter memories of an embattled family. This prodigal son will find no welcome at his family's table. "M" is for malice.
And in brutal consequence, "M" is for murder, the all-too-common outcome of familial hatreds.
"M" is for malice . . . and malice kills.
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Customer Reviews
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One of the Best...
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-11
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
M is for Malice is one of the better books so far. Not only is there a compelling mystery, but we also get a visit from someone in Kinsey's past. I'm reading M, N and O in the three in one version, and there is a note from Sue Grafton about the time warp the character of Kinsey is caught in. I find myself wondering why Kinsey isn't using cell phones, computers, etc. and the author explains that since the time from each story is only a few months, not a year as the books come out, Kinsey is still in the 80's.
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Malice and Crime
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-05-03
The plot is an interesting one. There is an inheritance of millions and there are four brothers to share it. However before anyone can inherit their money they must find the sibling that is missing. He has been gone for eighteen years. It is Kinsey's job to fine him. It is not simple and there is always suspense and intrigue when Kinsey is working. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream' and "Natchez Above The River"
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War
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one of my favorites
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-04-22
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I've been reading all of this series in order. I wasn't sure that I would like them after reading the first one. I did not particularly like the way it ended so abruptly and I would have liked to have had the mystery wrapped up in a better fashion. I have felt that way about several of these as I often feel that I have unanswered questions in the end as to the whys of what happened. As I have progressed in reading the series, I have thoroughly enjoyed Kinsey and her stories and can't wait to start the next book as each one ends, even if I haven't quite figured it all out(usually I do, but would still like to have more explanations and answers). This particular one was a little different as I thoroughly "got it" (although I never suspected the outcome)and the story was quite interesting.
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Good "basic" detective story
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-03-24
How much more "back to basics" can you get than this? A multi-millionaire dies. The current will is missing so an older one has to be used. The dis-inherited black sheep son is found and brought back to the mansion. Murder & mayhem follow.
Kinsey's personal life continues to evolve in this one. Set in 1986, the total lack of laptop computers, internet & cell phones are a bit jarring and will probably confuse younger readers (why doesn't she just google this person?) who don't pick up on the clues, do the math and figure out what year it is.
I am an occassional reader of the Kinsey Millhone series rather than a hardcore fan, but it seems to me that they have a tendency to get better, rather than weaker like most series.
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Slow-paced, cliche detective story with some familiar, likable characters, a breezy tone, and some substance to the plot
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-07-11
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. She can be a terrific storyteller. After rallying from the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories with stronger efforts in "I," "J," and "K," the "Lawless" book returned to the bottom of the heap. So I was not sure what to expect from "M." At least the book explains, "Mill-hone, ... Accent on the first syllable. The last rhymes with bone."
The book is very slow to get started. The murder does not happen until page 200. Even after it does, the book continues to drag at a self-indulgently slow, lackadaisical pace. The murder is a crude, boring bashing-in of a person's head while he is sleeping, so there is nothing clever or interesting about the method or any detection related thereto.
It looks as if someone from missing heir Guy Malek's bad-boy past has come back to kill him once Millhone runs him to earth for his construction company boss father as a now-humble, changed man. Millhone suspects the crime has its roots in a personal connection, fraud, and death from years ago. Without giving it away, the plot is a familiar cliche, embroidered with some complicated and sentimental details. So intent is the book on making Guy into a sympathetic character that it does not even have the courage of its convictions about his supposedly disreputable past. The characters are hazy and unmemorable.
Again, Grafton paints on some personal subplots. Millhone gets involved in the case because of her relative Tasha. The book mentions Henry Pitts and his brother William and ethnic wife, who runs the diner up the street. The book injects P.I. Robert Dietz into the story. But this is all tacked on, superficially, with no meaningful connection or theme, just as Grafton's attempts to forge a link between Millhone and Guy Malek fall flat. These personal angles seem to get ever more perfunctory; reviews that find great meaning in those in "M" are fooling themselves.
What distinguishes this book for me was its carefree, easy confidence, which makes it breezy reading in one sense. But it also makes the book slack, uninvolving storytelling that only really picks up in the last 50 pages. The book certainly has more to it than "L." "M" is in the ballpark of "J" or "K" only because, though hardly original, its plot ends up being more focused, coherent, and meaningful than those books.
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