N Is for Noose

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"Suppose we could peer through a tiny peephole in time and chance upon a flash of what was coming up in the years ahead?" The questioner is Kinsey Millhone, middle-aged, two-time divorcee detective and junk food junkie star of Sue Grafton's popular "alphabet" mysteries; the book is 'N' Is for Noose. If Kinsey had had just a smidgen of foresight, she would never have taken her current case, handed down to her from her on-again, off-again flame and comrade in arms, Robert Dietz. We encounter the two this time out after Deitz's knee surgery, as Kinsey drives his "snazzy little red Porsche" back to Carson City, where she checks out his digs for the first time. To her surprise, he lives in a palatial penthouse, which--under the unspoken bylaws of investigative etiquette--she qualmlessly snoops through. They sit around for a fortnight playing gin rummy and eating peanut butter and pickle sandwiches together, but perennially single Kinsey grows wary: "It was time to hit the road before our togetherness began to chafe."

She heads off to meet Dietz's former client, Mrs. Selma Newquist, a devastated widow whose makeup tips seem to come from Tammy Faye Baker. Her husband Tom Newquist, a detective himself, had been working on a mysterious case when he abruptly died of a heart attack. Selma suspects foul play, but bless her, she isn't the brightest star in the sky and can't figure out what Tom was working on even though he's left behind enough paper to fill a recycling truck. Kinsey digs right in and roams the sleepy, one-horse town of Nota Lake for clues, interviewing a colorful cast of in-laws and locals. Beneath the quaint, quiet, country veneer, she unearths a bubbling hotbed of internal strife and familial double-dealing. Was Tom covering up for his partner? Is Selma protecting someone? Grafton's knack for gritty details and realistic characters ("[Selma's] skin tones suggested dark coloring, but her hair was a confection of white-blond curls, like a cloud of cotton candy"), coupled with the fast-paced, believable story line, makes for another delightful, entertaining read. --Rebekah Warren, Bestsellers editor

Book Description

Tom Newquist had been a detective in the Nota Lake sheriff's office--a tough, honest cop respected by everyone. When he died suddenly, the townfolk were sad but not surprised. Just shy of sixty-five, Newquist worked too hard, drank too much, and exercised too little.

Newquist's widow, Selma, didn't doubt the coroner's report. But still, she couldn't help wondering what had so bothered Tom in the last six weeks of his life. What was it that had made him prowl restlessly at night and brood constantly? Determined to help Selma find the answer, Kinsey Millhone sets up shop in Nota Lake, where she finds that looking for a needle in a haystack can draw blood--very likely, her own. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Flawed but one of Grafton's best later books,with good descriptions of people and place and a plot with some depth and substance.......2007-07-11

Along with "I" and "K," this is one of Grafton's better later books, with a solid, substantive plot and strong storytelling. But there are still some annoying flaws.

In "N," Grafton patiently develops the story through beguilingly human interviews of person after person and genuine legwork. She builds to a suspenseful conclusion even when I've guessed much of it. The story is long on a sense of place and people and attention to the case details; short on philosophizing and social commentary; and non-existent on personal subplots. Compare Grafton's smooth, lean, credible, pleasurable storytelling with Marcia Muller's sometimes all-over-the-place, dreary, convoluted writing (as in Butcher).

Millhone is hired by a deputy sheriff's widow to investigate why he was so upset the last six weeks of his life that he ended up having a heart attack on a lonely road at night. Dutifully, if gripingly ("oh, it's cold, oh, I want to be back in my own bed, oh, there's nothing to find out"), she interviews person after person and tracks lead after lead to piece it all together.

Pieces seem to fall into place when Millhone interviews (several times, somewhat tediously, but, I guess, believably), a female cop back in her home base. Millhone learns that Tom Newquist had linked a killing of a violent ex-con by hanging with a similar killing of a drifter hanger-on of the con; both bodies had been left to rot in remote mountains. Tom was on the trail of the hanger-on (described hilariously by his horny 60-year-old ex-wife), when someone else got to the man first.

Among the raving comments about the book, the reviews finally included something insightful: "While the usually sassy Kinsey wit is here ... there is less violence and more emphasis on character. One of the more thoughtful mysteries in the series." "Her best work since K Is For Killer."

The sassiness of past novels, which can make the plots seem even more slight (K Is For Killer comes to mind), is less off-putting here. But Grafton maddeningly fails to engage in deductive reasoning along the way, letting what are obviously major clues drop without comment. And she stoops at times to horror/suspense melodrama and physical violence that only serve to undermine her character's credibility as a professional.

Especially in the earlier novels, but also in some of the middle ones, Grafton is sometimes given to gratuitous physical abuse of Millhone. There is a very unsettling scene where Millhone is tailed by a tough in a sewn-tighter ski mask and black panel truck (conveniently left with the keys in it by a colorful local because it had been stolen so often he "stopped caring"), who then picks the lock of her isolated motel cabin, breaks in the door, beats her up, dislocates her fingers (leading to a long filler scene at the hospital), and gratuitously vandalizes her property.

Similarly overblown is the end scene, where Millhone is drugged and stalked, as her mind amazingly manages to put all the pieces together and then, with superhuman strength, she takes the killer down, avenging her shame at being beaten up before, and then fends off another character.

Though not without some suspense, the ending goes over the top, becoming a predictable, melodramatic mess. In her drugged frenzy, Millhone puts together pieces that should have been obvious, like about certain brownies and about the iron burn she inflicted on her motel assailant. Stupidly, Millhone earlier allows herself to be assaulted in the motel because she delays returning home to get her gun. Then when she brings one later, she sticks it under a mattress, where it is easily stolen in a staged break-in. One of the final clues is a clumsy code in Tom's notebook, which turns out to be ridiculously simplistic, strangely kids-stuff for a serious story. Themes like "secure in my ignorance of events to come" fall flat because Millhone should have picked up on the obvious danger signs at the time. She can come off as supremely ineffectual.

Confusion surrounds the possible motives. I thought for a while that the ex-con was the abusive natural father of another character (the mother had two front teeth grayed from abuse). But the hanger-on would not have known the con back that far and no mention of this is made in the abrupt ending of the book. So I take what the book does mention, about a camping trip, at face value. Thrown in for good measure but apparently unrelated, one character is the lover of a woman who killed her husband 5 or 6 years earlier for insurance money, claiming she thought he was an intruder, and was put down by Tom, a straight-arrow cop, even though he had courted the same woman years earlier.

At times, Millhone's whining about the case is excessive and annoying. Her brief personal recriminations about having been humiliated by the masked intruder, no doubt intended to foreshadow a humiliation motive, are short, superficial, and exploitative, transparently used for effect. Injected near the end is a bunch of bad-mouthing of Millhone that was supposed to set her up for a staged death but merely came off as a flimsy gimmick. The plot point about a character holding onto Tom's notebook for months on end, not even sharing it with her cop father or her mother, is as convenient a delayed-action storytelling ploy as it is unbelievable.

Overall, the ending is very hurried. The epilogue is short and not very useful ("they let me read the police files," but does not tell the reader what they contained, just signs off with a hint of philosophisizing about the widow should have left well enough alone).

Another winner.......2006-08-19

It was nice to see the main character in a different setting and put on her toes. Due to this little plot twist and a couple of others, Kinsey had a more vulnerable feel to her than in previous books and that was an interesting change. It certainly kept you guessing about "who done it" right until the end.

REVIEW SUE.......2006-03-20

I JUST ENJOY EVERYTHING I HAVE READ BY SUE GRAFTON
SHE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS

Ambassador Kennedy would have liked this private eye novel.......2005-11-18

N is for Noose by Sue Grafton is one of the best books in her alphabet series. The reader really cares about finding the murderer of the character Detective Newquist. The storyline gets interesting when Private Detective Kinsey Milhone figures out that Newquist must have had a secret journal about his Police cases and she goes looking for it. The character Milhones love of junk food on the road is a lot like my own. Some Food experts now reccomend buying two burgers and skipping the deep fryer french fries. The residents of the small town are not very helpful to Milhone but she keeps asking questions until the case cracks open. I can reccomend all of Sue Graftons books.

A dull and very slow read.......2005-11-13

This was my first Grafton novel, and unless I take the word of a few other reviewers-that prior works in this series were much better-it will be my last. There was essentially no plot and little character development. I agree with another reviewer, that perhaps this is what the trivial, day-to-day activities of a real-life PI might be like. I only finished it to see if at least there was an interesting twist in the solution of the case. I was disappointed to the end.

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N Is For Noose.
Sue. Grafton
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Co. c
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0333669827

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N is for Noose
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JPEENA

8 Titles By Sue Grafton Kinsey Milhone Series : G is for Gumshoe H is for Homicide I is for Innocent J is for Judgment K is for Killer L is for Lawless M is for Malice N is for Noose

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8 Titles By Sue Grafton Kinsey Milhone Series : G is for Gumshoe H is for Homicide I is for Innocent J is for Judgment K is for Killer L is for Lawless M is for Malice N is for Noose
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.

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Armed Services edition
Willetta Ann Barber
Manufacturer: Editions for the Armed Services
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

G is for Gumshoe/H is for Homicide/I is for Innocent/J is for Judgment/K is for Killer/L is for Lawless/M is for Malice/N is for Noose/O is for Outlaw/P is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Series)

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G is for Gumshoe/H is for Homicide/I is for Innocent/J is for Judgment/K is for Killer/L is for Lawless/M is for Malice/N is for Noose/O is for Outlaw/P is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Series)
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Product Description

10 massmarket paperback Titles in Kinsey Millhone Mysteries Series - G- P - G Is for Gumshoe - H Is for Homicide - I Is for Innocent - J Is for Judgment - K Is for Killer - L Is for Lawless - M Is for Malice - N Is for Noose - O Is for Outlaw - P Is for Peril

K is for Killer/L is for Lawless/M is for Malice/N is for Noose/O is for Outlaw/P is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Series)

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K is for Killer/L is for Lawless/M is for Malice/N is for Noose/O is for Outlaw/P is for Peril (Kinsey Millhone Series)
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000PNLYP2

Product Description

6 massmarket paperback Titles in Kinsey Millhone Mysteries: K- P ; K Is for Killer - L Is for Lawless - M Is for Malice - N Is for Noose - O Is for Outlaw - P Is for Peril

Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, Books N-S ("N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence)

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Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, Books N-S ("N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence)
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

"N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence

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THE LOOP , N IS FOR NOOSE ,
READERS DIGEST
Manufacturer: READERS DIGEST
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2A4SE

The Loop/N is for Noose/Coast Road/The Eleventh Commandment (Reader's Digest Select Editions, Volume 1: 1999)

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The Loop/N is for Noose/Coast Road/The Eleventh Commandment (Reader's Digest Select Editions, Volume 1: 1999)
Nicholas Evans , Sue Grafton , Barbara Delinsky , and Jeffrey Archer
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EGZ3NY

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Try the Audiobook!

Sorta funny
Fandom of the Operator
Robert Rankin
Manufacturer: Corgi Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Snuff Fiction

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ASIN: 0552148970

Book Description

Gary Cheese is 19 and works for British Telecom as an operator. His hobbies include watching TV, walking his dog, going down to the pub, and attempting to re-animate the dead.

Customer Reviews:

Try the Audiobook!.......2005-07-13

I borrowed this from the library as an audiobook before a roadtrip and loved it. I think though, being an American and prone to reading things with an American's timing, rather than a Brit's, that I would have missed the humor had I not heard it read by the author. This book is funny, but exponentially more funny read aloud by Rankin. Reading it to myself, I would have likely rated it much lower, as I think I'd have mistimed the delivery.

Sorta funny.......2004-02-14

I read Fandom of the Operator because of ONE blurb on the back: Terry Prachett, author of the Discworld series, wrote "One of the rare guys who can always make me laugh." Well, that, and the fact that I picked it up cheap at a used booksale for charity. I won't go into the plot too much--suffice it to say that the ludicrous plot is the source of most of the humor, and alien mind control and raising the dead play a big part. It's a very silly book with more twists than an anaconda committing suicide, and nobody can rightly say they figured it out in advance. But for me it wasn't terribly satisfying. It's basically light entertainment, with a tiny touch of sex and a bit of disgusting stuff for fun. Discworld's much richer textured and funnier. I can't see it being worth the price asked here at Amazon--I think that's cause it's a UK book, and I'll bet you can get it in paperback from amazon.uk much cheaper. If you're someone who roars at the humor of the title, you'll go for it big. But the cover blurb, from the Daily Express, says it all for me, "Everybody should read at least one Robert Rankin book in their life." Well, now I have.

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The Fandom of the Operator

Manufacturer: Recorded Books LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 1402545088

Product Description

Gary Cheese is twenty-two. His hobbies include music, girls, TV and the novels of the legendary P.P. Penrose. And, of course, to reanimate the dead. He hasn't been having much luck with that one so far. But now Gary's got this new job in the telecoms industry. And, according to a rumour he's heard, there exists technology that can actually let you speak to the dead. Apparently it's been around for years ...

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The Fandom of the Operator

Manufacturer: Recorded Books, LLC (Clipper Audio UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Books on Cassette | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1841974757

Book Description

It's a massive hospital space station on the Galactic rim--384 levels, a staff of thousands--where human and alien medicine meet.

But Patient Hewlitt, new to Sector General, doesn't want to meet alien medicine--or alien doctors, or alien nurses, or aliens of any kind. Which is just too bad; he's an interesting case, and he'll have to get used to it.

In the meantime, it's always been an article of faith among Sector General's multispecies staff that infections can't pass from one alien race to another. But in this season of anomalies, it looks like they might have their first-ever interstellar virus on their hands, their tentacles, their cilla....

Combining intrigue, ingenious puzzles (and even more ingenious solutions), action, adventure and White's characteristic easy charm, Final Diagnosis is a science-fiction treat.

Customer Reviews:

Too much background.......2003-10-13

Maybe it's because I've read most of the other Sector General stories.. I felt that Final Diagnosis had way too much explanation in it. Most of the other books do explain the alien physiology classifications that White uses, which is fine, but this particular plot could have fit in a thimble after all the explanations had been cut.

This sci-fi book was a find which surprised and intrigued me.......1999-05-23

I have not read the rest of James White's Sector General series but I now eagerly anticipate reading them. The humor and mystery of the book were only equalled by White's talent for describing enthralling alien characters. He paints a picture of the future with a different slant than any I have read thus far, an uplifting look at human/life ironies told from a sympathetic point of view, like a Norman Rockwell doctor who routinely treats nitrogen-breathing slime creatures from a planet with five times our gravity!

I'm glad this wasn't the last book in the series after all.......1999-04-01

*Final Diagnosis* refers back to *Star Surgeon*, which pleased me because that the first Sector General book I ever read [in 1967 or 1968, when paperbacks were only 50 cents]. If you've read that earlier book you'll enjoy reading how things turned out, and you should enjoy the book even if you haven't. Although, as another reviewer mentioned, it's easy to figure out most of what's going on (once Hewlitt remembers his kitten's accident, the incident with Morredeth is inevitable, etc.), that doesn't matter much. Never mind the "mystery", the book is worth reading for the characters alone. I only wish, for new readers' sake, that series remained in print as long now as they did when I was a girl. The internet makes it easier to find out-of-print books than it used to be, but that's no substitute for being able to order all the earlier books from the publisher. Ann E. Nichols

White is still the best at this style scifi!.......1999-01-25

As a long time reader of White's Sector General novels i was definitly not disappointed with his newest. I really enjoyed Patient Hewlett's attempts to get over his xenophobia. No one writes aliens like White. You really want to meet these creatures by the end of his books. His plots are always wonderfully off kilter. It is good old fashioned science fiction in the best sense of the word. You can read them out of order but to get the full effect try to find the earlier books as well.

Great medical detetive story with a twist!.......1998-07-21

A different look at both medicine and culture, and how the two interact, with both interesting charaters and believable situations involing both medicine, patient's rights and how de-humanizing medicine can be "for our own good", and madding when doctors try to make our decisions for us, Petient Hewlitt must fight those who view him as a mential case looking for attention. This is a field seldom looked into in Science Fiction, where it is assumed the future will hold no illness, and everthing can be cured.

Final Diagnosis: A Sector General Novel (Sector General Series)

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Final Diagnosis: A Sector General Novel (Sector General Series)
James White
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTWFYG

Book Description

A feast for the eyes as well as the palate, this is the ultimate presentation of the exquisite flavors of Hawaii and the Pacific Rim. Boldly reinventing Hawaiian cuisine, award-winning chef Roy Yamaguchi emphasizes exotic seafood and fresh island ingredients, while borrowing techniques and flavors from European and Asian cooking. With favorites like Ahi Tartare with Crispy Polenta and Teriyaki Duck Salad with Candied Pecans and Papaya, this landmark book will help home cooks savor the tastes of the tropics no matter where they live.

Customer Reviews:

A must have for for fish lovers. Simple, Flavorful and Clean........2006-02-08

This is a must have for every library of cookbooks. The recipies translate very well in the home kichen. Although Roy's "Roy's Fish and Seafood: Recipies from the Pacific Rim"(a newer book) share some of the same recipies and has many that are new and wonderful, "Roy's Feasts from Hawaii", is the first book to add if you dont have it. it tends to be a little more simple and focused.

Cure for stagnant cooking.......2003-12-09

I've owned and used "Feasts from Hawaii" for several years. Roy's combination of asian flavors and french cooking techniques brings new excitement to your dinner table. Yes, the recipes are labor intensive and it is essential to have a source for asian ingredients as well as excellent seafood, but the results will make you feel you have discovered NEW FOOD! His pizza dough, which is sweetened with honey, is one of the best. You can pare down the recipes and serve interesting food or go for the presentation and cook like a pro. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels their cooking is growing stagnant with repeat flavors and themes. The recipes are challenging enough to make the work interesting and your family or guests will be completely content. Also, many of the sauces required for "a drizzle or drops" can be frozen and used as needed, or be a basis for other dinners during the week.

Beautiful but Labor Intensive.......2003-07-01

Anyone who has eaten at Roy's will undoubtedly get excited at the prospect of making something out of this book. The layout alone will be inspiring with all the beautiful pictures of Hawaii and the food itself. However, novices beware, this is not cooking 101. There is quite a bit of prep for most recipes - sauces that need to be made requiring a multitude of ingredients before you even get to the core of the recipe - resulting in hours of work. I could see this being ok in a restaurant environment where many of these things are made in advance and put together on order, but for the haole home cook it is a little much. Additionally, I have never been that happy with the results of my labor. My husband and I are fairly good cooks and always look at each other as we ponder why it is just not as good as we think it should be. Maybe it is missing the view of Molokini, I don't know.

Great book!.......2003-06-11

I bought this book after eating at the restaurant in Palm Springs. I'm in no way the most experienced cook out there, but I had no trouble understanding the directions - even to fix his Peking-style duck - and the recipes I prepared tasted almost as good as the restaurant.

If you don't live near an Asian grocery, you may have trouble finding some ingredients. However, most of the "foreign" ingredients called for are very common at any Asian store - even a very small one. I was even able to get the specific brand of red chile paste he recommended at a tiny Asian market by my house without going to the larger Asian grocery downtown.

Plus, most of his recipes do call for the same basic chili pastes and spices, so I wasn't discouraged by the thought of buying a whole bunch of bottles only to use a teaspoon out of each one.

Excellent book, and well worth the money, in my opinion.

Eaten at restaurant, but haven't gotten the book yet.......2002-08-29

I have eaten at Roy's (Seattle) three times now. Each time, I have loved the seafood! Not only were the dishes excellent, but the presentation was awesome as well. As I said, I don't have the book, but I highly recommend the restaurants. :) I plan to buy the book too, since I love preparing nice dinners for my friends & boyfriend.

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