Product Description

It is now nine weeks since Dr Dowan Purcell vanished without trace. The sixty-nine-year-old doctor had said goodnight to his colleagues at the Pacific Meadows nursing home, had climbed into his car and driven away – never to be seen again.

His embittered first wife Fiona is convinced he is still alive. His second wife, Crystal – a former stripper forty years his junior – is just as sure he is dead. Enter private investigator Kinsey Malone, hired by Fiona to find out just what has happened to the man they loved.

Enter also Tommy Hevener, an attractive flame-haired twenty-something who has set his romantic sights on Kinsey. And Tommy is a man with a very interesting past . . .

'Grafton is a delight to read, her books being highly literatre, with believable plots and three-dimensionally drawn characters' Irish Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37990 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 513 pages

Time Out Magazine
One of the most humane and empathic sleuths on the block, Grafton's heroine is also genuinely believable, full of quirks and all too human foibles ...

The Irish Times
'Grafton is a delight to read, her books being highly literate, with believable plots and three-dimensionally drawn characters'

From the Publisher
Sue Grafton's 'alphabet' series has established itself as one of the great crime series in publishing. Kinsey Millhone is one of the fictional giants in the genre. And the amazing thing is that each book stands as a novel in it's own right...you don't have to start with the letter A!

Customer Reviews

P is for Profound Disappointment
It is not uncommon for writers of detective stories to go off the rails from time to time - I'm thinking, for example, of some of the wilder excursions into other genres of Sarah Paretsky and P. D. James - but I thought Sue Grafton was too sensible for that kind of thing.

But no! Ms Grafton, who refuses her heroine the luxury of a computer or a mobile phone (too easy), has indulged herself with that scourge of the modern novel, the tricksy unresolved ending. I truly thought I had bought a dud copy of the book, with the last few pages missing, until I looked at the reader reviews and realised that nobody had them.

"P is for Peril" is as skillfully crafted and well written as any of the alphabet series, except that we're left guessing at the end about what actually happened. But we want to KNOW!! Readers of detective stories want closure, resolution, neat endings - all that kind of thing. That's one of the reasons they read detective stories. Cliff-hanger endings are great in their place, Ms Grafton, (at the end of chapters) but NOT at the end of the book. I beg Ms Grafton never to do this to us again, and Kinsey Millhone to sign off with her usual "Respectfully submitted, Kinsey Millhone" from now to the end of the alphabet (even if she hasn't been paid her full fee!). If Sue Grafton had started like this, she would never have got beyond A.

For this devoted fan of Kinsey Millhone and Sue Grafton, "P is for Profound Disappointment".

A little disappointed to be honest....
Maybe it was reading it in hardback, maybe it was because I had been anticipating this book for months now, or maybe it just wasn't up to scratch...but something about the latest Sue Grafton seemed a little lacking when I read it last week.

As the 16th letter in the alphabet, P for Peril gives us the 16th Kinsey Millhone crime novel from Grafton, and maybe she's beginning to run out of ideas. Although there may be a masterplan I'm not aware of, or Grafton's ideas for her main character are at odds with my mental image of her, I can't help my disappointment.

First off, what's with this giving Dietz a back seat yet again? Yes, Kinsey has commitment problems, yes, her thing is solving mysteries not getting married, but her inability to have a fulfilling romantic relationship should not be mutually inexclusive with her work. Maybe her on-off-on-off lover was out of the picture in order to enable the shifty Tommy to attempt to win Kinsey's affections, part of a poor plot device, but it's getting wearing.

Oh, that brings me quickly onto the poor plot! It's the first time I've ever raced ahead of Kinsey - what is happening to her? Anyone could see (without wanting to give away the plot) a) what relationship was key in telling us how the Dr disappeared, and b) that you just don't put your trust in insurance investigators without investigating them thoroughly first. What is happening to the Millhone magic? Why has she suddenly gone dumb?

Also, it's beginning to irk that it's still 1983. Yes, Grafton may introduce sly details to remind us it's the proto-computer age, but it's boring that everything's so damn 80s without any other pop-culture references whatsoever. Even Kinsey's hair and dress never change - things are getting dull and in need of a shake-up. That's the problem with a long series I guess - if this was TV turnover the 'new series' would begin after so many episodes allowing the main character to undergo a subtle transformation at least. But not the alphabet thrillers. Before I opened this book I felt myself wishing that Kinsey at least was made to take care of a dog and bonded with it, thus propelling her on a trajectory enabling her to spend more of her space, time and heart with someone. But no - in the book, she defiantly riles against the very same idea. It's not that I want her to suddenly settle down and breed - the character has until now proved good at her job! - but it's simply that the situation is stultifying. All of Grafton's characters can so easily write themselves, yet their mannerisms and personalities are becoming old news - they need livening up. OK, being on the 19th of (presumably) 26 books might mean we'll see our heroine living happily ever after by Z, but I for one can't wait that long.

The plots are thin, the red herrings transparent, the clues writ large. I for one found P for Peril disappointing and shan't be putting in an advance purchase order for the next Grafton novel. (I'll wait till it comes out in paperback.)

A Missing Doctor, an Annoying Client, and Scummy Characters
For those who love mysteries with lots of suspects, unexpected complications, red herrings, and sudden reversals, P Is for Peril will rank as one of the very best in this distinguished and popular series. For those who find it hard to be engaged by stories where they don't like the characters very much, P Is for Peril will be a bummer. Of the new characters you will meet in this book, only Jacob Trigg, Dow's best friend, and Anica Blackburn, a school counselor and family friend to Dow's second's wife's daughter, will probably be people you will want to read about again. If you are like me, you don't find books where the characters are all so unsympathetic to be worth five stars.

P Is for Peril opens with Ms. Kinsey Millhone at age 36 in 1986, having survived two unsuccessful marriages, her love life at a low ebb, and needing to find a new office to house her one-woman detective agency in Santa Teresa, California. Retired geriatric specialist and now nursing home administrator, Dr. Dowan (Dow) Purcell, aged 69, is missing. He left work one night, and hasn't been seen for nine weeks. The police have looked, but have no leads. Kinsey is hired by his first wife, Fiona, to find him. There are alimony checks to be kept coming at stake! While Fiona, the ex-wife, is hiring Kinsey, Kinsey gets a bad feeling that Fiona may not be the ideal client. Fiona is one of those people who could find fault with a saint. Kinsey tells Fiona, "I'll do what I can, but I make no promises." Suspicious, Kinsey asks about the bank balance on Fiona's account before depositing the retainer check. There's just enough to cover it. Whew!

The current wife, Crystal, is a much younger woman, a former stripper from Las Vegas, whose appeal to Dow was her willingness to perform kinky bedroom games. She is expensive to maintain, and seems to be causing Dow some concern. Why was she disappearing into another man's home every morning? On the other hand, her prenuptial agreement means she gets nothing if Dow divorces her.

At the nursing home, everyone loves Dow . . . except the former assistant administrator who disagreed with his firing of the bookkeeper. And soon there are rumors of investigations by the government for Medicare fraud. How does this connect to Dow?

At the same time, Kinsey figures out that she had better find a new office. Lonnie's firm is growing and won't have room for her. She meets two nice young men who offer her a nearby steal, and she takes it. Then the story gets interesting!

One of the best parts of the book is that the patented Grafton humor is very much in evidence. She gets help from a woman at the nursing home by bringing her junk food from McDonald's. In another key scene, Kinsey thinks she is about to be discovered as an intruder and instead is trapped under a desk by an illicit tryst. Several times, Kinsey makes major judgment errors and wishes she could kick herself. It's all good fun.

Most series that have run as long as this one has tend to wind down long before they end. This book clearly shows the benefit of lots of thinking, planning, and good writing. I just wish that Ms. Grafton had remembered that people to read about people they like. These characters do not even have charm to redeem their glaring faults.

After you read this story, think about the importance of developing and nurturing good character . . . in yourself, in your family, and in those you come into contact. How will you be remembered when you pass away? How would you like to be remembered? Consider Dow Purcell as a case example to stimulate your thinking.

Reputation is a precious asset -- protect it from peril!