'Y IS FOR YESTERDAY'..........FAREWELL, KINSEY MILLHONE...........

Y Is For Yesterday by Sue Grafton (2017)   Sadly, the beloved 'alphabet' series' by the late Sue Grafton ends here....at number 25........one letter short of finishing the l980's-set mysteries that began with "A Is For Alibi".....featuring Grafton's most enduring creation, California private eye Kinsey Millhone.

            Now having read them all, let's say this up front right away.......

            In varying degrees, we enjoyed all the books........some more than others. And that's because of how Sue Grafton chose to guide the series......

             She wasn't out to write the same book 26 times, each one perfectly assembled from the same elements over and over again, like a MacDonald's Quarter-Pounder........(as do other best-selling authors and you know who they are......)

             As the series progressed, Grafton improved her style, deepened her prose and never set out to write the same book twice.  She never shied away from changing up the structure or point-of-views if it suited her purpose to tell her stories in a new or different way.

             We can't honestly tell you that "Y Is For Yesterday" will stand as a fitting grand farewell for Kinsey Millhone.  We won't count it as one of our favorites in the series.......sorry.

            For us, the one book that grabbed us totally will always be "T Is For Trespass".....with pitted the dogged, persistent Kinsey against two nightmarish villains.......a senior-care nurse who looted her elderly patients' savings before killing them and her scary sidekick, her brutal Frankenstein-sized son.

              Grafton threw out the whodunit template for this one.......you knew who these monsters were from the start and what they were up to......so it was only a matter of time before Kinsey faced a violent showdown with them.  (And as long we're talking this one up, let's slap 4 stars on it right now.(****)

             And we had a fine, entertaining time visiting Kinsey in all the other books, along with her small of group of neighbors and friends, including Henry, her 90-ish landlord and Rosie, owner  of a restaurant serving the world's must nausea-inducing Hungarian dishes.

             But sad to say, "Y Is For Yesterday" won't make it into any list of our favorites in the 'alphabet' series. It's overlong and at times, painfully overwritten. Grafton fully indulges in her habit of writing exhaustive (and exhausting) descriptions of the characaters' homes, apartments and wardrobes.........to the point where you may think you're reading articles in "Architectural Digest"......

            The book bounces back and forth in time between Kinsey's 1989 investigations and the ten years earlier melodrama involving a gaggle of repulsive teens........that led to a gang-rape VHS tape and a murder.

              The mysteries in both time periods unravel at a measured, methodical pace.......but Grafton never gets a handle on how to bring the teenagers to life.......they all remain cardboard-cutout jerks, sniping at each other like slasher-movie teens, killing time before they find out which one of them's due for a killing...........

               On top of all that, Kinsey's still being stalked by the serial killer left over from "X", the previous book.  (Amazingly, she always forgets to carry her gun with her......almost as often as Janet Evanovich's goofball girl private eyes, Stephanie Plum....)

               And we're pretty sure nobody's going to like the last sentence in Kinsey Millhone's 'respectfully submitted' wrap up report.......unsatisfying, disturbing and all too true......

                One huge regret:  Grafton possessed a wonderful flair for wit and laugh-out-loud humor which she only rationed out in tiny portions throughout the entire series. We wished she hadn't been so stingy with this unique talent.......whenever she allowed the alphabet series to briefly erupt in some comedy, it sometimes made us giggle and smile wider than we did during the entire length of a Stephanie Plum book.

                This book's no exception in that regard........delivering a final go-round between Kinsey and the serial killer that's equally thrilling, gruesome and strangely hilarious.....

                 So rest in peace, Sue Grafton.......thanks for all the pleasures of these books......and goodbye to Kinsey Millhone, a welcome character we'll always miss. For "Y Is For Yesterday" 2 & 1/2 stars (** 1/2)......for the entire series as a whole, 4 stars (****)  Start at the beginning if you haven't read them yet......they're all worth your time.