About Me

My photo
Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton

14. - 477.) T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton – (WARNING - The following review may contain spoilers for some readers. I do not consider the review to have spoilers but it has information a reader might find too revealing of the plot.) The 20th Kinsey Milhone mystery is not one of the best. It is hard to write a great mystery about subtle elder abuse. The villain, a nurse with false credentials and name, is so evil and her great lump of a son, Tiny, a caricature. Kinsey’s neighbour, Gus Vronsky, has fallen and needs assistance. The situation is a challenge as Gus is a cranky old man with no relatives in California. Kinsey shames his niece, Melanie, into coming to California. After stabilizing the situation Melanie hires a nurse, Solona Rojas, to care for Gus. In the meantime Kinsey is investigating a curious accident in which very serious injuries have occurred in a low speed crash. She diligently goes through the tedium of searching for a missing witness. In a contrast to some of the mysteries the relationship with landlord, Henry Pitts, his brother William and restauranteur Rosie is an important part of the plot. Almost immediately Solona starts isolating Gus from his neighbours. It is cleverly done and illustrates the difficulty of discovering elder abuse. It is not a classic murder mystery. The pace picks up and accelerates to a great finish. I think it was hard to like the book because the villains were so evil, deceitful and cruel. It was good but not great. Paperback by choice. (Apr. 5/09)
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 1, 2012 at 8:09 PM

    Bill - I think it's interesting that our enjoyment of a novel (it's happened to me, too) can be affected by whether the villain has any redeeming qualities, so that we can find her or him interesting, or is just too evil. Thanks as ever for the "food for thought." I'm glad you found the novel at least good, if not really great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bill SelnesMarch 1, 2012 at 11:14 PM

    Margot: Thanks for the comment.

    I think instinctively we do not see people as either all good or all bad.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maxine ClarkeMarch 2, 2012 at 7:07 AM

    I don't think I enjoyed this one as much as some of the series - I do remember it in part but not in sufficient detail. I agree that villains who are all bad can seem too cardboard cut-out and uninteresting, I think this is an issue in quite a bit of the "classic" crime fiction when characterisation was not usual.

    I thought the next one in this series, U is for Undertow, much better, though I still feel a bit confused about one aspect of the ending!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bill SelnesMarch 2, 2012 at 3:35 PM

    Maxine: Thanks for the comment. I thought "T" was one of the weaker books in the series. I also considered "U" better. I am hoping "V" will return to the quality I enjoyed in most books of the series.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)