X, Sue Grafton
X, Sue Grafton
63 Rating(s)
List: $24.00 | Sale: $15.84
Club: $12.00

X

Bestseller

Author: Sue Grafton

Narrator: Judy Kaye

Unabridged: 13 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/25/2015

Synopsis

Of #1 New York Times–bestselling author Sue Grafton, NPR’s Maureen Corrigan said, “Makes me wish there were more than 26 letters.” With only two letters left, Grafton’s many devoted readers will share that sentiment.

X:  The number ten. An unknown quantity. A mistake. A cross. A kiss.

X:  The shortest entry in Webster’s Unabridged. Derived from Greek and Latin and commonly found in science, medicine, and religion. The most graphically dramatic letter. Notoriously tricky to pronounce: think xylophone.

X:  The twenty-fourth letter in the English alphabet.

Sue Grafton’s X: Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, it features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.

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 David

Sue Grafton has over the years created in Kinsey Milhone one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. Grafton is a writer who gets better and more nuanced with each offering. And I love the fact that the books are all set in the 1980s. I get a kick each time Kinsey frantically searches for......more

Goodreads review by James

The first entry in this series, A is for Alibi, appeared in 1982. It's a taut 192 pages long, written close to the bone. The suspense builds from the first page to the last and pays off with a great climax. It was a fantastic introduction to the Kinsey Millhone series. By comparison, X is 498 pages......more

Goodreads review by James

After a ~4 year hiatus from reading the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series, I got back to focusing on it late last year just before the author, Sue Grafton, passed away. In the second to last installment, X, Kinsey and the series become a bit more relaxed, but it also reminded me there's only 1 book le......more

Goodreads review by Brick

Meandering Filler After waiting for years for the 24th installment of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Mysteries, I eagerly forked over my $20 and settled in for the evening to read. When I finished, I was in awe--not because of the finesse of another finely-tuned novel, but of the mess that the publish......more

Quotes

Praise for X

“Grafton’s endless resourcefulness in varying her pitches in this landmark series, graced by her trademark self-deprecating humor, is one of the seven wonders of the genre.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Excellent...pulse-pounding...Grafton has never been better.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Ratcheting up the heat as she heads toward the finish line of her alphabetically-framed series, Grafton has turned in a corker of a novel with X, upping her already high-level game.”—The Boston Globe

“X features a smashing ending that rivals that of her debut, A is for Alibi.”—The Washington Post

More Praise for Sue Grafton and the Alphabet Series

“I’m going to miss Kinsey Millhone. Ever since the first of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mysteries, A Is For Alibi, came out in 1982, Kinsey has been a good friend and the very model of an independent woman, a gutsy Californian P.I. rocking a traditional man’s job...it’s Kinsey herself who keeps this series so warm and welcoming. She’s smart, she’s resourceful, and she’s tough enough to be sensitive on the right occasions.”—New York Times Book Review

“The consistent quality and skillful innovations in this alphabet series justify all the praise these books have received over the past 35 years.”—Wall Street Journal

“A superb storyteller.”—Publishers Weekly

“Grafton is a writer of many strengths—crisp characterizations, deft plotting, and eloquent dialogue among them—and she has kept her long-running alphabet mystery series fresh and each new release more welcome than the last.”—Louisville Courier-Journal

“[Grafton’s] ability to give equal weight to the story of the detective and the detective story sets her apart in the world of crime fiction.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

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