Alphabet Series O to V

Letters O, P, Q, R, S,T, U, and V by Sue Grafton, eight books totaling 3100 pages

This is the continuation of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series which I previously blogged about.

The basic premise of the stories remained unchanged. Each book is still a separate case from Kinsey’s files from being a private investigator. As you would suspect, these books are all mysteries, and lean more towards cozy than hard boiled. These letters however, marked a change in the writing style from Grafton. Whereas the first batch of novels all followed the story line solely from Kinsey’s point of view, these not only added other points of view, but also jumps in time. Thankfully Grafton tends to do most of these cuts by chapter, which aids the reader in following along. Though I must admit the first time we had a hop back in time it took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

As you can tell from my continued reading and blogging about this series, I have enjoyed it. I would not say it is my favorite series, or even my favorite mystery series, but it holds up well. Despite having nearly the same plot for every book, Kinsey investigates something, Grafton still manages to keep each book unique enough to make it worth reading. And while I would certainly lobby for you to start with A is for Alibi, each book can stand up perfectly fine by itself. Unfortunately for me I have nearly caught up to Grafton who only recently released X.