S Is for Silence
Tue., May 9, 11:32 AM
I actually read a book, the way I used to before I ran into eye trouble. And [fanfare] I liked it.
Sue Grafton’s “alphabet mysteries” go back a long way. It’s more than twenty years since I read A Is for Alibi, which I really enjoyed. It was a contemporary detective story, with an interesting protagonist, Kinsey Milhone. I usually appreciate a woman in a “man’s job,” even if I don’t like everything about her. I eagerly anticipated “B,” “C,” and “D.”
About ten years later, I wasn’t so sure. She was stuck in the eighties – no cell or car phone, no computer. By comparison, in 1982 I was working with an “automatic typewriter,” where form letters were stored on computer cards and you just filled in the blanks. By 1987 I was computer literate and regularly called my boss on his car phone.
I was beginning to think these stories would be like Victorian novels, the kind that begin “London, 186–.” In addition, the quality was inconsistent. The bookmobile librarian asked me about one, and I said “P Is for P.U.” I did, however, continue reading them. Even though I couldn’t recount the plots, I enjoyed most of the eighteen I had read.
I had seen S Is for Silence advertised and had thought about it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay for it until I saw it advertised in large print. It’s worth a shot, right?
The year is 1987, and I was right: these do work better as period pieces. The lack of modern gadgets isn’t so glaring if the story isn’t supposed to be contemporary. In addition, Kinsey is working on a disappearance that occurred in 1953, a time when there were fewer records – and fewer people who remember the circumstances. As a matter of fact, reading this story put me in mind of “Cold Case,” one of those terrific Bruckheimer productions.
Kinsey can look at old newspaper stories and legal records, but mostly it’s interviews, comparing her notes and finding out just what doesn’t match. Several chapters are flashbacks of the different characters, and soon you have an inkling of who is – not necessarily lying, but withholding part of the truth. Then the question becomes, “how is that relevant?” For example, we’re talking about adolescent girls here; they’re so self-conscious that maybe nothing really pertains to the case.
Yes, Kinsey solves the case(s), gets into danger and gets herself out, and remains pretty much in the 1987 limbo where she started. Finally, a satisfying read.
