X (Grafton novel)

Last updated
"X"
Sue Grafton - X Cover.png
First edition cover
Author Sue Grafton
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesAlphabet Mysteries
Genre Mystery fiction
Publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
August 25, 2015
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages400 first edition
ISBN 978-0-399-16384-5
Preceded by "W" Is for Wasted  
Followed by "Y" Is for Yesterday  

"X" is the twenty-fourth novel in the "Alphabet" series of mystery novels by Sue Grafton. It features Kinsey Millhone, a private detective based in Santa Teresa, California, a fictional version of Santa Barbara, California. [1]

Contents

The novel, set in the late 1980s, finds Kinsey pursuing a sociopathic serial killer. It was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, and released in the United States on August 25, 2015.

Plot summary

The book starts off in third-person narrative by a woman called Teddy Xanakis. Teddy is in the throes of a bitter divorce and trying to ruin her ex-husband Ari, who had an affair with her best friend. The story transitions into first-person narrative by Kinsey Millhone. Since the last book she has inherited a large sum of money from a family member on her father's side. She meets with a client who wants her to find her biological son she gave up for adoption. She also starts trying to help out Pete Wolinsky's widow, Ruth, with an IRS audit. Another story-line involves new neighbors and attempts at water conservation. None of these story-lines are connected and Kinsey bounces back and forth between these disparate events throughout the book. Kinsey discovers that Pete was investigating a person he believed to be a serial killer who ends up attacking Kinsey. The disjointed plot lines have generally disappointed fans of her previous works. [2]

Characters

Title

When asked about the title of book 24 in 2013, Grafton told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the title "almost has to be Xenophobe or Xenophobia. I've checked the penal codes in most states and xylophone isn't a crime, so I'm stuck." [3] A few months before the book was published, she revealed that it would break the pattern of the preceding 23 books, omitting the "is for" and alliterative word from the title. [4]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Grafton</span> American writer

Sue Taylor Grafton was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton, she said the strongest influence on her crime novels was author Ross Macdonald. Before her success with this series, she wrote screenplays for television movies.

<i>"A" Is for Alibi</i>

"A" Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1982, is the first mystery novel in the author's "Alphabet" series. Featuring sleuth Kinsey Millhone, it is set in the southern California city of Santa Teresa, the nom de plume for Santa Barbara. She wrote the book during a divorce and admits about her husband that she "would lie in bed at night thinking of ways to kill him". The New York Times gave the book a lukewarm review.

Kinsey Millhone is a fictional character created by the American author Sue Grafton (1940–2017) for her "alphabet mysteries" series of 25 best-selling novels which debuted in 1982. Millhone, a former police officer turned private investigator, also appears in a number of short stories written by Grafton.

Santa Teresa has been used by several authors as the name of an invented city.

<i>"G" Is for Gumshoe</i>

"G" Is for Gumshoe (1990) is the seventh novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"H" Is for Homicide</i>

"H" Is for Homicide is the eighth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"B" Is for Burglar</i> 1985 novel by Sue Grafton

"B" Is for Burglar is a mystery novel by American writer Sue Grafton. It was published in 1985 by Henry Holt and Company as the second novel in her "Alphabet" series of mystery novels.

<i>"C" Is for Corpse</i> 1986 book by Sue Grafton

"C" Is for Corpse is the third novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"D" Is for Deadbeat</i>

"D" Is for Deadbeat is the fourth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel follows the development of Kinsey's relationship with Jonah Robb, the police officer she met in B is for Burglar.

<i>"E" Is for Evidence</i> Novel

"E" Is for Evidence is the fifth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel's plot develops Kinsey's personal back-story, as it features her second ex-husband, jazz musician and drug-user, Daniel Wade, previously mentioned briefly in C is for Corpse.

<i>"K" Is for Killer</i>

"K" Is for Killer is the 11th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel was a New York Times bestseller with a reported 600,000-copy first printing. Vice cop Cheney Phillips is introduced in this novel.

<i>"L" Is for Lawless</i>

"L" Is for Lawless is the 12th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"M" Is for Malice</i>

"M" Is for Malice is the 13th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel is set in 1986.

<i>"P" Is for Peril</i>

"P" Is for Peril is the 16th novel in the "Alphabet" series of mystery novels by Sue Grafton. The novel focuses on the disappearance of Dr. Dowan Purcell, a nursing home administrator and doctor at Pacific Meadows Nursing Home, and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California. The novel is set in 1986.

<i>"Q" Is for Quarry</i>

"Q" Is for Quarry is the 17th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"S" Is for Silence</i>

"S" Is for Silence is the 19th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"T" Is for Trespass</i>

"T" Is for Trespass is the 20th novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in the fictional Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"U" Is for Undertow</i>

"U" Is for Undertow is the 21st novel in the "Alphabet" series of mystery novels by Sue Grafton. It features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California.

<i>"V" Is for Vengeance</i>

"V" Is for Vengeance is the 22nd novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California, a fictional version of Santa Barbara, California.

<i>"W" Is for Wasted</i>

"W" Is for Wasted is the twenty-third novel in the "Alphabet" series of mystery novels by Sue Grafton. It features Kinsey Millhone, a private detective based in Santa Teresa, California, a fictional version of Santa Barbara, California.

References

  1. ↑ "About Sue Grafton and "X"". Penguin Random House. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
  2. ↑ "X (Kinsey Millhone, #24)". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  3. ↑ Hertzel, Laurie (September 10, 2013). "Sue Grafton closing in on the end of the alphabet". Minneapolis Star-Tribune . Minneapolis, MN . Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ McClurg, Jocelyn (April 23, 2015). "Read an excerpt from Sue Grafton's 'X'". USA Today . Gannett . Retrieved April 25, 2015.
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