Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
56th out of 395 books
—
2,078 voters
U is for Undertow (Kinsey Millhone #21)
by
Sue Grafton
Calling T is for Trespass “taut, terrifying, transfixing and terrific,” USA Today went on to ask, “What does it take to write twenty novels about the same character and manage to create a fresh, genre-bending novel every time?” It’s a question worth pondering. Through twenty excursions into the dark side of the human soul, Sue Grafton has never written the same book twice....more
Hardcover, First Edition, 403 pages
Published
December 1st 2009
by G.P. Putnam's Sons
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
I thought this was an interesting idea of the boy who cried wolf and then would not be believed.
It was told from different view points, the past and present and different characters and that made it interesting
What I don't quite get and which the book didn't explain was how the the "boy who cried wolf" could have been telling the truth when he couldn't have possibly witnessed as he was in another country and this was the documented by photogrphic proof? it made it unlikely- how as a writer can...more
It was told from different view points, the past and present and different characters and that made it interesting
What I don't quite get and which the book didn't explain was how the the "boy who cried wolf" could have been telling the truth when he couldn't have possibly witnessed as he was in another country and this was the documented by photogrphic proof? it made it unlikely- how as a writer can...more
6 likes · like · see review
view all 20 comments
Dec 31, 2009
Kathleen Hagen
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2009-audio-books,
2009-mysteries
U is for Undertow: a Kinsey Millhone Mystery, number 21 in the Millhone series, by Sue Grafton, a-minus, narrated by Judy Kaye, produced by Books on Tape, downloaded from audible.com
I can’t imagine the Millhone books read by anyone else but Judy Kaye. She has just the understated acerbic tone of voice to characterize Kinsey, and she can change voice and mood for the other characters as well. In this one Kinsey is sitting alone in her office doing paper work when a young man, Michael Sutton, come...more
I can’t imagine the Millhone books read by anyone else but Judy Kaye. She has just the understated acerbic tone of voice to characterize Kinsey, and she can change voice and mood for the other characters as well. In this one Kinsey is sitting alone in her office doing paper work when a young man, Michael Sutton, come...more
2 likes · like · see review
Feb 02, 2010
Vanessa
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
series,
2010-finished
Ok, I love this series, and with a few exceptions, I really liked each and every one. I think L is my least favorite, and I wasn't overly thrilled with O, or Q. But this, her latest book, is outstanding.
Kinsey Milhone is a unique and strong character, and that's one of the things I love about this series. On one hand, she dislikes socializing, but has a few really good friends she loves to hang out with. Her landlord, Henry, is a doll. He is 80 something and has three brothers in their 90's. (O...more
Kinsey Milhone is a unique and strong character, and that's one of the things I love about this series. On one hand, she dislikes socializing, but has a few really good friends she loves to hang out with. Her landlord, Henry, is a doll. He is 80 something and has three brothers in their 90's. (O...more
3 likes · like · see review
I could just say, "the best one yet" and be correct, but that seems a little too simple. I started reading this alphabet series after Grafton had written four of them. I loved her descriptions of everything and felt like I was sitting on a park bench in Santa Teresa. I still feel that way.
I met Sue Grafton at a book signing once. She had spoken about how she received letters from people admonishing her about how much Kinsey swore. She reacted by having Kinsey swear less, but felt uneasy about i...more
I met Sue Grafton at a book signing once. She had spoken about how she received letters from people admonishing her about how much Kinsey swore. She reacted by having Kinsey swear less, but felt uneasy about i...more
10 likes · like · see review
Jan 18, 2010
Diane
added it
Sue Grafton's skill at crafting a good mystery hasn't abated as she continues through the alphabet. She's clever enough to set U Is for Understow in 1988, when Kinsey Milhone is still a fairly young, but experience 38-years-old, and when most people didn't have access to iPods, iPhones, computers that can do everything but scrub the toilet, and all the other amenities of life in 2010. Consequently, Grafton's plot doesn't have to take this modern technology into account.
The murder at the heart of...more
The murder at the heart of...more
2 likes · like · see review
By this entry, the 21st in the series, I'm pretty bored with Kinsey Millhone. And it seems that the author is, too. This time around Grafton includes flashbacks to the events of 20 years before the time of this "mystery" and the characters and events are much more interesting than the telling of Kinsey's bumbling investigation. (This may be because The author's writing is also tiresome: Kinsey always "fires up the engine" when she "hops into her Mustang". Her "answering machine light blink(s) me...more
This was the second time reading it... I guess I forgot I had. It was still great the second time around. Now I am anxiously awaiting a new one (is there one in the queue?). Love Sue's books. Always something new and exciting, some new twist.
It’s April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s thirty-eighth birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael...more
It’s April, 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone’s thirty-eighth birthday, and she’s alone in her office doing paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he’d be carded if he tried to buy booze, but Michael...more
There's always that chance an author's style may deteriorate and become repetitive and dull after writing in the same style or about the same character for how many years, like what I felt has been happening to Lilian Jackson Braun and Carl Hiaasen, who I consider favorites. It really is admirable Sue Grafton has been able to be consistent with her storytelling and Kinsey Millhone is definitely one of my favorite literary characters. I've read all the books so I've come to know the character ver...more
If you like Sue Grafton, this is definitely one of her better books. It is written is three voices, obviously with Kinsey taking up most of the story line. The technique is not the first time Grafton has used it, but so far it is the best. The story bounces back and forth between the current time (80's) and the 60's, bringing the sins of the latter into the former. The idiocy and arrogance of some of the 60-era people is well captured, however some of the children of that era grew up as contribu...more
Another Kinsey Millhone mystery, and true to form. Lots of detail -- more than enough, actually, I don't really need to know the history of the small towns -- but like many of the books, particularly the later ones, Grafton chooses a crime that reflects concerns we have today. I've reallyl noticed in the past few books, Grafton is really taking us into crimes that are more than just whodunnits, but crimes that illustrate real social ills. In this case, a particular callousness toward children th...more
I liked this entry in the Kinsey Millhone saga. I liked that she still has Henry to bounce ideas off. I liked that she is still friends with Cheney Phillips after their affair ended. I liked that there was the a p.o.v. shift as in the last book, this time with several characters getting to contribute, not just Kinsey and not just Kinsey and the villain.
New characters, even those with just one scene to play, are fully rounded, such as the dog owner and the P.I. from Kinsey's distant past. Her sma...more
New characters, even those with just one scene to play, are fully rounded, such as the dog owner and the P.I. from Kinsey's distant past. Her sma...more
Kinsey Millhone is approached by a young man who thinks he might have witnessed the burial of a kidnapped child over 20 years ago. She reluctantly agrees to investigate his sketchy story for just one day. Her investigation takes Kinsey to Horton Ravine, an enclave of the wealthy, and reveals the attitudes of the rich toward their servants as well as the rest of the population who work for an honest living. Kinsey feels compelled by a charming photo of the kidnapped girl to pursue her investigati...more
First of all, I want to clarify that when I picked-up this book, I had realistic expectations. I was not expecting great literature. I just wanted an entertaining, suspense light-read. This book didn't even provide that.
I do not understand so many positive ratings on this book. I do acknowledge that I picked it up without having read anything else in the series. However, I didn't like anything about it. There is absolutely nothing special about Grafton's writing style. She overly describes every...more
I do not understand so many positive ratings on this book. I do acknowledge that I picked it up without having read anything else in the series. However, I didn't like anything about it. There is absolutely nothing special about Grafton's writing style. She overly describes every...more
I've started listening to these mysteries on tape (CD, really) during my two hours of daily commuting. Unlike the Patricia Cornwall mystery that I couldn't even finish because the woman reading it was so ridiculous, the actress (Judy Kaye) that reads Grafton's books is fabulous. Her voices are distinct enough to help you keep track of who's talking without being ridiculously over the top or cartoonish.
The novels themselves are great. I would call them "trashy", but they're not. They're just fun...more
The novels themselves are great. I would call them "trashy", but they're not. They're just fun...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
1 like · like · see review
When I started this 21st installment in the Alphabet Series, I was afraid its charm was starting to wear thin on me. Even the familiar "My name is Kinsey Millhone ..." recitation at the beginning was coming off a bit too much like a drone. However, the initial interview with her young client Michael Sutton was intriguing enough to keep me reading, even if the questioning did seem a bit like it was intended to prompt exposition more than anything. Years before, as a small child, Sutton recalls wi...more
I have always loved Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries and I think that her novels have grown more rich and layered over time. It seems now that just as she is nearing the end of the series, her writing is perfecting itself. Kinsey Milhone is a woman out of time - our time - but is still clearly a resident of the 1980's; sans cell phone, computer and World Wide Web. She solves her cases the old-fashioned way, with lots of footwork and interviews. I like the stripped-down feel of Kinsey's life and...more
In a world of crappy mysteries a la Dan Brown or John Grisham, it's nice to know there's always Kinsey Millhone. Methodical and inquiring in her sleuthing, Kinsey knows how to successfully unravel a mystery by tugging on threads and organizing index cards. If only other fictional sleuths were as diligent instead of drawing on The Secret or plain old uninspired legalese. With the help of her creatrix, Sue Grafton, Kinsey's work is seamlessly blended with vignettes of the baddies and other charact...more
It's been a while since I spent some time with Kinsey, and I have skipped a lot of letters so I don't know if the quirks that stuck out in this book were always there and I just missed them before (or forgot them) or if they are new. Kinsey's narration is incredibly detailed, which can be good or bad, possibly depending on my mood. Seriously. Sometimes it makes the scene easier to visualize ("I turned left onto --- street"), and sometimes you wonder, why do I need to know this? ("I grabbed my ja...more
Listened to this via audiobook. The more recent books, like from O is for Outlaw on - are read by Judy Kaye. I love the reading of Judy Kaye for this series. She IS Kinsey Milhone! I've now gotten through all of the Judy Kaye read audiobooks so will have to continue on *reading* the books I haven't read yet.
Audiobook or read from the book, either way I love Kinsey! She is so down to earth - just a regular woman, very smart and very gutsy. She relies on no one but herself, though sometimes I thi...more
Audiobook or read from the book, either way I love Kinsey! She is so down to earth - just a regular woman, very smart and very gutsy. She relies on no one but herself, though sometimes I thi...more
I found myself thinking, here we go with another Kinsey Millhone book. Big deal. I've read all Sue Grafton's books, so I might as well continue, right? But it had been awhile since I read the last one, and I have to say that "U" reminded me of why I've happily read all Grafton's books over the years. If one definition of a good read is finding it hard to put the book down because you can't wait to see what happens next - then "U is for Undertow" offers that, hands down. Sue Grafton isn't Tolstoy...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
In this 21st book of the Alphabet Murder Mystery Series, PI Kinsey Milhone opens a case that's been cold for 20 years: the kidnapping and presumed murder of a local 4-year old child.
I really liked the mystery in this...er...mystery. The author does something unusual in that she doesn't introduce the character whodunnit in the first chapter, as she almost always does, which was a nice change. On the other hand, Kinsey does tell us in the first chapter that she's not going to meet the bad guys unt...more
I really liked the mystery in this...er...mystery. The author does something unusual in that she doesn't introduce the character whodunnit in the first chapter, as she almost always does, which was a nice change. On the other hand, Kinsey does tell us in the first chapter that she's not going to meet the bad guys unt...more
Normally I enjoy the Grafton series as fluffy beach reads. The suspense has kept me reading in the past and have found Kinsey Millhone to be an interesting character, with her reminiscences of former boyfriends, wonderfully paternal landlord and charmingly intrusive Hungarian restaurant owner friend. But I found this one to be a disappointment. I found myself skipping parts, which I don't normally do with Sue Grafton's books. The parts on the history of the area were not an improvement and I did...more
2 likes · like · see review
Let me begin by getting a few things straight. I love Sue Grafton. And I love Kinsey Milhone. I love both of them in Grafton's latest novel, U is for Undertow, and I also really liked the novel. Yes, I said that exactly right -- I love Grafton & Milhone, and liked Grafton's latest book. It did what it was designed to do; it gave readers more of what they've been asking for -- more Kinsey. It just didn't (400 plus pages later) satisfy my yearning for another great Grafton mystery.
In U is for...more
In U is for...more
I had originally thought that entering a series at the 21st instalment was a bad plan, but the thought of trudging through U is for Undertows predecessors was somewhat paralysing. Luckily if you are in the same boat, I can totally reassure you that Grafton’s master writing skills prevent any need for backstory. Sure there was a bit (well maybe a lot of) information dump at the start of the novel which I promptly forgot, but the story was fine to follow from that perspective.
I was also worried,...more
I was also worried,...more
I've read the whole alphabet series and most of them are pretty good. The U plot turns on a young man who visits our intrepid Kinsey Millhone and claims to have witnessed the burial of a kidnapped child two decades earlier. Kinsey's investigation unearths a few highschool acquaintances, a long-lost pair of hippies and a country-club family torn apart by abuse allegations. Woven into the story is a new piece of Kinsey's own history. I found that part only mildly intriguing but the mystery is pret...more
When I started reading these books years ago, I thought that having the books go through the alphabet was a neat idea. I wonder if Sue Grafton has ever had second thoughts about the decision? This was an enjoyable book that, surprisingly, never really grabbed my attention. Instead of reading it through or at two and three hour periods, I found myself reading it for 30 minutes or so and then putting it down to pick up another book. Anyway, it's 1988 and Kinsey Milhone is almost 38. So she doesn't...more
Kinsey Millhone, PI, is at it again. This time she's presented with a strange case -- a young man has suddenly remembered a key piece of evidence in a kidnapping case from two decades before. His recollection turns out to be spotty, though, and Kinsey is forced to try to separate fact from fiction while she follows the thread of a decades-old crime. Along the way issues of her own past creep up, and she tries to process some new information about her family while tracking down leads.
This was by...more
This was by...more
1 like · like · see review
I must begin by noting that I have read every one of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books from A to U, so far. I am a die-hard fan. With that said...
If this were NOT a Sue Grafton book, I very well may have quit about half-way through... I was struggling with all the characters in the different time periods. [I should note that I only read this in the evening, a half-hour to an hour per sitting, once a day.:] But, being a Kinsey Millhone book, by Sue Grafton, I had faith that it would come togeth...more
If this were NOT a Sue Grafton book, I very well may have quit about half-way through... I was struggling with all the characters in the different time periods. [I should note that I only read this in the evening, a half-hour to an hour per sitting, once a day.:] But, being a Kinsey Millhone book, by Sue Grafton, I had faith that it would come togeth...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sue grafton interview NOV 14TH | 1 | 23 | Oct 27, 2011 06:08pm | |
| Too predictable | 1 | 24 | Aug 02, 2010 11:30am |
Connect with Sue herself on Facebook! www.facebook.com/suegrafton
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2003.
Family History:
Father: C.W. Grafton, born 1909, third son of Presbyterian Missionaries, born and raised in China, educated Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina; practicing attorney in Louisville, Kentucky with a 40-year specialty in municipal bonds. Au...more
More about Sue Grafton...
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2003.
Family History:
Father: C.W. Grafton, born 1909, third son of Presbyterian Missionaries, born and raised in China, educated Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina; practicing attorney in Louisville, Kentucky with a 40-year specialty in municipal bonds. Au...more
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
“If I'd been listening closely, I'd have caught the sound of the gods having a great big old tee-hee at my expense.”
—
7 people liked it
“I showered and shampooed. I even shaved the requisite legs and armpits just in case I fell in a swoon and one or the other was exposed to view. (Kinsey Millhone)”
—
3 people liked it
More quotes…
