U Is For Undertow, Sue Grafton
U Is For Undertow, Sue Grafton
26 Rating(s)
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U Is For Undertow
A Kinsey Millhone Novel

Author: Sue Grafton

Narrator: Judy Kaye

Abridged: 5 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/01/2009

Synopsis

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, we 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.

About Sue Grafton

A contemporary American author of detective novels, Sue Taylor Grafton, was born in Louisville, Kentucky as the daughter of another detective novelist, C. W. Grafton. Even though her father had an influence, she has commented that her biggest influence came from author Ross MacDonald.

Sue received her bachelor's degree from University of Louisville in English literature, humanities, and fine art. Upon graduation, Sue worked as a hospital admissions clerk, cashier, and medical secretary. She wrote several novels that were not successful.

After moving into writing screenplays for television, Sue became interested in novels that carried a central theme through each title. She saw a book that alphabetized methods of murder, and immediately started writing what became her best-known works, "the alphabet novels". Each story is set around a fictional California town based on Santa Barbara. The novels are written from the perspective of a female investigator. After her G novel, Grafton was able to devote all of her time to writing her novels. She has given many refusals to those who wanted to buy her novels from which to make movies. She has no desire to work with Hollywood.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on September 07, 2017

3.499999 stars (rounded to 3 since that's my only option due entirely to the laws of fractions and decimals) for the twenty-first book, U Is for Undertow, a mystery published in 2009 by author Sue Grafton. When I first stumbled upon this series, I was super excited that there would be 26 books by the......more

Goodreads review by Jilly on April 26, 2019

Don't worry. If you aren't sure what the difference between an undertow and a riptide is, Kinsey will tell you in excruciating detail. She will also give you the statistics on at least three towns - including the population and every business there. In one town history, she even lets us know about t......more

Goodreads review by Skye on August 13, 2017

I have been a consistent fan of Sue Grafton's alphabet series, and this particular book was relatively convoluted in terms of plot and style. There are several incidents of violence and even murder---quite dissimilar from past novels. Grafton crafts the plot by transitioning between 1988, 1963 and 1......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on May 05, 2018

I enjoyed this mystery. Thought it was really good. But I always enjoy Sue Grafton. Glad I got to read another of her books. It was a very involved story with time changes, etc to tell it but when it finally got to the end, it went very quickly. I felt that there were a few unanswered questions that......more

Goodreads review by Book Concierge on January 25, 2023

Digital audiobook performed by Judy Kaye. Book # 21 in the mystery series starring private investigator and former cop, Kinsey Millhone. This time she gets involved in a cold case when a man comes to her with a memory from when he was only five or six years old of two “pirates burying treasure.” He t......more

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