Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have long been a Sue Grafton fan and have read all of the books in the Kinsey Millhone series. Nearing her late 70s, Sue Grafton remains a master of the private eye genre. Y Is for Yesterday, however, is disappointing. The subject matter is indeed dark and disturbing, involving an amateur porno tape and a high school murder. Worse, few if any of the characters are appealing. Even some of the old Millhone characters, like her landlord Henry, Rosie and the homeless Pearl, don't do much to relieve the darkness. The constant flashbacks between 1979 and 1989 become annoying, with information repeated from several different points of view. Most of Grafton's books have Kinsey as the first-person narrator. In this one, supposedly the next-to-last in the series, Kinsey narrates part of the story, but large chunks of it use an omniscient or third-person narrator. Kinsey herself seems to have lost some of her self-confidence and spunk that has made her such a delightful character. She's constantly fearful of another attack by the man who had tried to strangle her in X (with good reason). I can't recall another novel in the series that I've enjoyed less. I can only hope that when Z is for Zero comes out it will take us back to the Kinsey Millhone we've known and loved. Grafton certainly still has the talent and ability to do so. I do admit that the ending of Y Is for Yesterday is, for the most part, satisfying, so that gives me reason for hope that Grafton will wrap up the series in style.