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U Is For Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 21
Unavailable
U Is For Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 21
Unavailable
U Is For Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 21
Audiobook14 hours

U Is For Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 21

Written by Sue Grafton

Narrated by Judy Kaye

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

It's April 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office catching up on paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced.  Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. More than two decades ago, a four-year-old girl disappeared, and a recent newspaper story about her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial and could identify the killers if he saw them again. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the grave and finding the men. It's way more than a long shot, but he's persistent and willing to pay cash up front. Reluctantly, Kinsey agrees to give him one day of her time.

But it isn't long before she discovers Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his story true, or simply one more in a long line of fabrications?

Moving effortlessly between the 1980s and the 1960s, and changing points of view as Kinsey pursues witnesses whose accounts often clash. Gradually, listeners come to see how everything connects in this twisting, complex, surprise-filled thriller. And as always, at the beating heart of her fiction is Kinsey Millhone, a sharp-tongued, observant loner who never forgets that under the thin veneer of civility is a roiling dark side to the soul.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 1, 2009
ISBN9780739323229
Unavailable
U Is For Undertow: A Kinsey Millhone Novel, Book 21
Author

Sue Grafton

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton (1940-2017) entered the mystery field in 1982 with the publication of 'A' Is for Alibi, which introduced female hard-boiled private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, operating out of the fictional town of Santa Teresa, (aka Santa Barbara) California, and launched the bestselling Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. In addition to her books, she published several Kinsey Millhone short stories, and with her husband, Steven Humphrey, wrote numerous movies for television, including “A Killer in the Family” (starring Robert Mitchum), “Love on the Run” (starring Alec Baldwin and Stephanie Zimbalist) and two Agatha Christie adaptations, “Sparkling Cyanide” and “Caribbean Mystery,” which starred Helen Hayes. Grafton is published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.

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Reviews for U Is For Undertow

Rating: 3.843833828954424 out of 5 stars
4/5

746 ratings86 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I like this series, but was disappointed that this one had some gratuitous junk.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    BOTTOM-LINE:Nice ending, but the story feels like retread.PLOT OR PREMISE:Kinsey's client thinks he remembers seeing two men digging a hole back when he was six years old, just days after a child's kidnapping that subsequently ended tragically. Maybe it was the kidnappers?.WHAT I LIKED:The flashback story harkens back to a hippie-style couple living in a van in the driveway of his parents' house, which was mildly interesting at first. The introduction of a reporter named Alvarez is good for future stories too. But the only really good part is filling in some of Aunt Ginny's history, with old letters and a PI that was hired to look into Ginny's parenting ability..WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:The flashback storyline removes almost any mystery or tension from the story. You know who the bad guys are way before Kinsey, and the storyline with the reporter holds some initial promise but ultimately goes nowhere. Just a lot of wasted time and space..DISCLOSURE:I received no compensation, not even a free copy, in exchange for this review. I am not personal friends with the author, nor do I follow her on social media.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've been reading this series since my mom introduced me to it in middle or high school. They're good detective stories that are entertaining, yet to-the-point, with no flowery language. The last few books, however, have been getting wordier, with entire paragraphs of information (say the history of a certain city, or why people react certain ways to photographs or memories, yada yada yada) that have no bearing on the plot, and don't add anything to the story. You can look at the first half of the books and tell that they're slimmer and more concise than the later half. It's not a problem to skim these sections since, as I said, they don't affect the story. The book still entertained me and was a quick read. By this point I'm so far in it'd be silly not to finish the alphabet, regardless of the writing style.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It has been awhile since I read a Kinsey Millhone story, and I really liked this one. Usually I don't like books that skip back and forth between 2 time periods, but it didn't bother me this time. It was easy to keep track of when each event was taking place. The characters were interesting. I especially enjoyed the hippies, traveling around in their bus. I am happy with just reading a good mystery, but for people who like to get more backstory on Kinsey, there was some of that too. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Every time I finish a Grafton novel, I feel it has been her best and cannot be topped. Then she writes one that does. In this book, she is approached by a young man who thinks he saw two men bury the body of a kidnapped child when he was six years old. While she is skeptical, she starts to look into it and when they find the burial site pretty quickly, it looks like this fellow isn't crazy until the body found is of a dog.You know Kinsey will not give up. Meanwhile one of the kidnappers is having major personal problems which we follow in a parallel narrative. This novel was difficult to put down.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This series is always a great palate cleanser for me. The audiobooks are excellent and each new mystery gives us a little more info on Kinsey’s background. A random memory of “pirates” leads a man to hire Kinsey to try and solve a cold case of a kidnapped little girl. The hippie couple were obnoxious, but it was interesting to switch to different points of view and time periods in the story. I loved learning more about the aunt who raised Kinsey.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An understated mystery that meanders through several false starts on solving the mystery presented when an adult man remembers seeing two men digging in the woods when he was 6 years old and realizes that it was around that same time a young girl was kidnapped and never seen again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    You know what you're getting when you follow Sue Grafton. Years ago I started to read her books in alphabetical order. I don't remember how far I got until I was bored with her formula of storytelling. I've thought about going back to her over the years and then a friend loaned me this book. The formula is the same and each of her books give enough bio info on Kinsey that they don't need to be read in any order. Having said that, I found the book, at over 400 pages, too long. The story was great, though confusing at times, with the back of forth between 1988 and 1967. But you could always count on Sue Grafton for an entertaining mystery and I'm sorry to see her gone from us.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Grafton has written one of the best of her alphabet mysteries, with no clunky plot tricks. Instead it is a believable story told with revealing flashbacks and the right amount of suspense.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not Grafton's best read, IMO but still a decent bit of escapism. I like the idea of Michael Sutton - Kinsey's client - having a checkered past when it comes to reliability of information. This provides a nice level of complexity to the story. Grafton is now very comfortable with shifting timelines and narrators and while the "whodunit" crops up rather early in the story, it is the details like the "why" that are slowly revealed to the reader. I like how Rosie continues to provide a bit of comic relief to the stories and Kinsey's landlord Henry continues to be a reliable sounding board for the times when Kinsey finds the clues are just not adding up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Kinsey investigates a mystery from 1967, the disappearance of a little girl.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Simple reading....
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Really enjoyed this Kinsey M. Liked the stories on the different characters and then how they all came together. I also thought Grafton did a good job going back and forth in time and creating suspense as the the story line developed. One of the more enjoyable of this series for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had stopped reading the Kinsey Millhone series back around "J" or "K" and it was high time I returned! Kinsey, like her author and like many of her readers, has matured--although more slowly than the rest of us. Far more of Kinsey's background has been slowly unraveled over the intervening books and it was a pleasure to learn more about her childhood, youth, and family. Unlike some mysteries, the identities of the persons involved are revealed to us bit by bit but we still don't see how all the pieces fit together until the end, creating a delightful atmosphere of suspense. In addition, I was reminded that Sue Grafton, like Elizabeth George and others, is not just writing a whodunnit or a howdunnit, but is exploring themes that relate to the human condition. I won't say what characteristics and situations are at play in this volume, but read it yourself to find out!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although it makes me sad that I'm getting to the end of this series, I have to say it's been an enjoyable ride. I first read "A is for Alibi" when it initially came out, and I think along the way I've missed only a couple. I think that over time Grafton has moved into more complex plots and storytelling styles, but she has never lost Kinsey's voice. This plot is twisty and satisfying, although the final encounter seems to happen a bit quickly when it comes. Still a must-read for Grafton fans.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Reading candy... Still think I could be Kinsey Millhone.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Umm, not too bad, not too good--the alternating time frames and viewpoints were a bit off putting. Unsolved kidnapping "solved" almost by accident. Kind of thin. Padded out by more of Kinsey's family drama.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is one of my favorite books out of the Alphabet Series, hands down. Which isn't as big of a deal as it might have been, I don't harbor an enormous amount of fondness for this series (pretty much just enough to finish it out). However, I didn't feel like Millhone was as shallowly written as before and I think Grafton incorporated the mystery, Millhone's personal situation, and fleshing out the characters (both good and bad) with more aplomb than in prior books. I also found it very interesting for Grafton to include something that was so prevalent in the 80's, such as false memories coaxed out by therapists who really didn't seem to care about the damage they were wreaking for victims or for those that had not been victimized but couldn't cope emotionally or mentally with the false memories their "sessions" created. I think she did a good job of writing about something that was/is extremely controversial and the damage it can inflict on a family and on individual lives.

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Reading candy... Still think I could be Kinsey Millhone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Entertaining story and much better effort than the last few alphabet mysteries. I still find it confusing that Grafton gets more and more behind in terms of date (this book takes place in 1988) but I enjoyed the addition to Kinsey's family story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A young man comes to Kinsey Millhone with a story of a repressed memory, recently flushed out, of having seen two men burying something in the woods. It happened twenty years ago, when he was six, and several days after a well-publicized kidnapping of a four year-old girl. As Kinsey investigates, she learns that he may not be the most reliable witness.As with all her other books, I couldn't put this down once I started. However, I found the ending unsatisfying. One major plot twist was never explained, and the ending seemed abrupt.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Once again, Sue Grafton has written a book that I can heartily recommend to those who love a good mystery. She writes detectives like it is nothing to her but a walk in the park, and U is for Undertow is one of the alphabet series which you MUST read. The plot starts to get thick when a 27 yr old unemployed college drop out named Michael Sutton comes in to hire Kinsey Millhone. Sutton professes to know about a kidnapping that happened two decades ago, of a 4 yr old girl. Sutton believes he knows where the burial spot is and wants Kinsey's help in locating the grave and finding the killers.Not able to tell all of the truth, is he fabricating his story or is there meat on it? Moving effortlessly between the 80' and the 60s, Kinsey pursues witnesses whose points of view clash and change over time. Twisting, complex, surprise-filled events fill all of Grafton's books and this is no different. Everything connects, of course, at the end, and we even find out what happened to the child and the ransom money. To find out for yourself and with me giving no tips, call your local bookstore and order this wonderful novel. You won't be disappointed now, or with any of Sue Grafton's books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The next in the alphabet series by Ms. Grafton. Kinsey Malone is on a cold case of kidnapping and murder. The usual fare with enough intrigue to keep it interesting and Kinsey’s narration to keep it flowing. In this book we finally find out more about Kinsey’s family which was interesting, but I felt it was at the expense of missing other characters such as Henry and Rosie. Reading this book I had the sense that with 5 letters of the alphabet to go Kinsey is mellowing and Ms. Grafton is edging her constant readers to the conclusion.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When you want an easy read, Grafton is the place to go. I had to get past some weird sentence structure and comma placement in the beginning, but she's a good enough storyteller I stopped caring about it after a while. And occasionally she throws in some great imagery, just for entertainment's sake. I wouldn't teach her in a lit class, but I'd recommend her for an enjoyable read.


    Petrea Burchard
    Camelot & Vine
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the 21st book of Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series and it was a mixed bag. The strengths of the book were in the multiple narrators and voices that were a welcome addition to Millhone's perspective, and as a set of character studies. "Undertow" examined what lies unexpected and under the surface of appearances, in much the way that rip currents will carry unwary swimmers where they do not expect to go. The appearances of the community in which two little girls were kidnapped in 1967, and in Millhone's family in responding to the death of her parents were deceptive, and the book is an entertaining exploration of how appearance and memory can deceive.

    Another fun aspect of the book was the anachronisms involved. The primary story is set in 1988 and the flashbacks to the crime in 1967. The story contains some anachronisms which are fun to spot, and certainly make you think about how technology has changed from both time periods.

    However, the book was very sloppily plotted, and this was the primary weakness of the book. The book hinges on a memory that a man has of two men burying a child-sized object when he was a boy, but Grafton goes out of her way to discredit those memories with proof that the man was in Disneyland with his family at the time that he supposedly spotted the two men burying the body. In the end, the man's memories were vindicated, however, there is no explanation of the conflict whatsoever. Indeed, we get no indication of how the vindication of this man's memories affected his relationships with his family.Additionally, although we can speculate that the child's body or the marked bills the men had received for ransom when they abducted another little girl were what the men were burying when the boy came upon them (then disinterred after the boy spotted them and buried in a safer location), we never really get a good explanation of why they buried the dog in that spot.

    This was the usual entertaining Grafton novel, but not one of the strongest in the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Probably my favorite of all 21 books. Maybe it was the cold case aspect the multiple view points, the plot itself or just all of the above.

    Though it was clearly know early on who the kidnappers were it did not diminish the over all plot
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Who’d a thunk it? 21 installments into a series and, far from being a return to a comfort zone, Sue Grafton’s latest effort is something of a departure from the routine. As the book opens private investigator Kinsey Millhone is asked to do a day’s work by a young man, Michael Sutton. When he was six years old he saw two men burying something in the woods and, due to a recent newspaper article, he now believes they may have been burying the body of Mary Claire Fitzhugh, a four-year-old child who was kidnapped in 1967 and has never been seen since. Kinsey soon learns that it’s not as clear-cut as Michael thought but, as always, she doggedly nuts out all the facts and builds her case.

    With respect to the doggedness of Kinsey the book is as familiar as an old cardigan but the surprising element for me was that Kinsey’s is only one of several stories that unfold in this book. In addition there’s a thread that takes place in the 1960’s featuring people who may, or may not, have had something to do with the kidnapping of the young child. The person who features most strongly in that thread is a woman called Deborah Unrah whose grown son returns home greatly changed by the flower power movement and drug culture of the 1960’s. There’s also a parallel thread to Kinsey’s in 1988 featuring a middle-aged man called Walker McNally who is a rather repugnant alcoholic. These two characters, and several others who orbit around them both, are deeply and perceptively depicted as their colliding stories are told.

    In some ways the ending of the book is fairly predictable but this book isn’t the same kind of procedural as its predecessors and relies less on that kind of suspense for its drama and conflict. Instead I was gripped by Grafton’s exploration of a single concept across all the disparate threads. All of the stories, even Kinsey’s own, relate in some way to the notion of family and the myriad ways that concept can manifest in society. This book is really about why things happen rather than what happened and it’s this that is something of a departure for this series.

    Grafton is one of the few authors whose books I have read in order roughly at the time they were published and due to familiarity breeding a little contempt I have tended, of late, not to look forward to them with the same anticipation that I once did. However this outing shows that Grafton still has her story telling abilities well to the fore and she is not afraid to take the risk of trying something new. Apart from discovering anew that 69-year-old Grafton is still at the top of her game I’ve also been reminded that some authors stay on the best seller lists because they are good, not merely because they have great publicity machines.

    I would highly recommend the book to both Grafton’s fans, who will have just enough of the familiar to satiate their needs (though not enough Henry for most I admit), and those who have never read Grafton before because this, more than most of her other alphabet tales, is a standalone book of the highest quality. All of the niggly things about the series (such as Kinsey’s failure to age and the ever-increasing gap between the technology available to Kinsey and that available to the rest of us) really take a back seat in this installment because here stories with undercurrents are all that matter.

    I can also recommend to audio book fans the added treat of listening to Judy Kaye’s excellent narration which really did make the long-ish book simply fly by.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In Grafton’s mystery novel, Michael Sutton seeks out Kinsey Millhone with a story from his childhood about witnessing two men burying something and believing they were pirates. With nearly nothing to go on, Kinsey sets out to track down the burial site only to find herself digging into a deceit that stretches back twenty years.Complex and psychologically potent.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Love Kinsey. Can't remember enough to distinguish one book from another in the alphabet series. Some are better than others. All are enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is my absolute favorite of Grafton's Kinsey Millhone's stories. Did Michael Sutton witness the burial of a kidnapped child when he was just a boy? The story hooked me immediately. I was very interested in the characters and their lives. Well done Sue Grafton!