“U is for Undertow” by Sue Grafton – a confusing mess
Okay, I’ll admit it – I’ve read all of Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries. When she started the series few people thought she’d ever make it to the end but it looks like, by hook or by crook, she’s going to do it. Buy why? The last few books haven’t been that good and, sad to say, “U” isn’t any better. Grafton should have titled it, “U is for Underwhelmed.” The entire story is predicated on something a six-year-old boy saw, or thought he saw. Now 27, he comes to Kinsey for help in solving the mystery. The book bops back and forth from the 1980’s to the 1960 and is hard to follow. However, I did find the stories and people from the ‘60 chapters to be the most interesting and the characters the most developed. At one point the now grown 27-year-old sees a man and….remembers him from the incident when he was six! HUH? I didn’t buy that for a second.
One of the problems with all of Grafton’s books is that she over describes – EVERYTHING! For instance, “She left her office, drove three block down Main Street and tuned left on Parker. She got lucky, there was a parking spot a half a block from her apartment. She turned off the car, grabbed her purse and locked the car. She walked up the street….” I’m not kidding! The book is full of that stuff. Instead she should have written, “Kinsey left her office and went home.” This book needed editing – badly. So much of it was filler and I’m not sure why.
A lot of Grafton’s information was just plain wrong. At one point there’s a cadaver dog that Kinsey refers to as a “Golden Lab.” There is no such breed. Labs come in three colors: yellow, black and chocolate. Granted the yellows can be anything from white to brown, they are still referred to as yellow. Unless Grafton meant the dog was a Golden Retriever/Labrador Retriever mix- she didn’t know what she was talking….or writing about. At the end of the book, Kinsey, who never speaks of practicing at the gun range, shoots a gun out of the bad guys hand and says….it’s easy! Really? I’ve shot pistols in competition for a long time and I don’t that that would be easy at all.
So, once again we have an author who made her name with a few, good, innovative books, and has been resting on her laurels since. Why not – they sell. We readers should rise up and say, NO MORE! We’re not buying shoddily edited books with poor confusing plots anymore! There are so many talented writers out there who never get a chance because all the NY publishers are content to put out bad books. STOP PAYING FOR THEM. Check out e-books – cheaper, better, faster and most of those authors are wonderful. That’s my rant for the day – what do you think?
Tags: "U is for Undertow" Underwhelming - too much filler - bad plotting
January 8th, 2010 at 1:42 am
Yes – you’re so right! I’ve also read all the Grafton mysteries, and I really like the caracter Kinsey Millhone. But the story is not convincing.
I’m frustrated about the ending – I just don’t get it!!! Now, English is not my first language and mayby I’m just stupid. But, please, help me!
Why was the dog buried in the first place? Somewhere in the end of the book we are informed that this burial took place before the girl was kidnapped. The six year old had mixed up the dates. Then why did it happen at all?
I don’t get the story together…/christine
January 9th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Fun review. Thanks for saving my dimes on this one.
I love reviews but “The Mystery Starts Here” promises to be so much more than that. (Let’s share our love of mysteries…great!…but how?)
February 7th, 2010 at 11:13 am
I did not understand the ending either – totally confusing and did not wrap up the story. Why were they burying a dog? Did the same two kidnap the second girl? What happened? Please tell me!
February 23rd, 2010 at 10:50 am
I agree the ending was confusing. The dates (kidnapping and dog burial) don’t match, why was the dog buried, why didn’t the boys spend the $15,000. I really like the way she writes, but this ending didn’t tie any lose ends.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
First, the boys kidnapped Rain, then returned her after receiving the ransom money. When they realized that the money was marked, they were afraid they’d be caught, and decided to bury it. That’s when Michael came along and saw them. They were afraid he’d tell someone, so they stole the dog’s body and buried that instead.
At least that’s what I think happened! It was definitely confusing…
April 17th, 2010 at 1:37 am
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June 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
I love the character Kinsey Millhone, however, I was very disappointed with the ending of this book. There was a HUGE build up (most of which I liked) and I thought the story would end with an exciting bang. Unfortunately, it was a very boring ending which left me unsatisfied and with more questions than answers. I will still read the rest of the alphabet books as they come out but I really hope that Ms. Grafton does better by Kinsey in V, W, X, Y and Z.
June 20th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
BETSY!!!! Thank you SOOOOOO much for clearing that up for me!! I just finished “U” today and have been wondering if I skipped something that explained the buried dog and why Sutton’s timeline was off yet he was right they were the killers….. I was SOOOOOOO confused! I have developed a habit of skipping her drawn out descriptives……Thought I was gonna have to go back and reread sections to figure it out!
Hope the next one is better
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:43 pm
If you have read any of the previous books you should be well past the exquisite detail one reader especially complains about. It’s just the way it is! I thought this was the best book of all. I havent read one for a couple years or more but this definitely was a different take on story telling and i loved it. I put myself in the hands of this author and i dont go all adolescent about being jerked around, or her being capricious. When Walter lets slip some reference to the little girl, in his inner thoughts, i thought i would hit the ceiling! Chills even now. The thing with loose ends i think is an unfortunate tack of popular authors. I find it disrespectful. The hook that got KM and us going is a muddled mess NOT cleared up in my estimation. Boo. It scarred the experience …and i will still recommend the book to everyone i see in the next three weeks!
March 5th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
I was confused about why the dog was buried and starting searching for a passage to explain it. I think Betsy may have figured it out. The author could have done a better job with that important detail.
March 9th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Was anyone else left wondering what happened with the dates Michael was at Disneyland for his sixth Birthday? Did I totally miss something? I was left wondering if his siblings fabricated something to make him look bad??? Thoughts?
March 18th, 2011 at 9:20 am
They were burying Rain’s ransom, and Rain was kidnapped earlier, so maybe he saw them before his birthday, which is when the second kidnapping took place and he was at Disneyland. The ransom for Rain was found buried with the second girl, so it wouldn’t make sense for the “pirate” meeting to have happened the week after the trip to Disneyland.
Not that any of that makes much sense anyway.
March 20th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I have enjoyed all of the alphabet series, particularily “S” and “T,” so I was really looking forward to “U.” I was disappointed. It lacked much of what makes Kinsey so interesting, and much almost seemed to have been cut/pastde from previous books. I was glad to see some progress with her family, but that was lacking the emotion that typically accompanies the ties to her past. I didn’t feel like I understood what she was feeling at all.
Most frusterating of all was the ending! As others have noted here, the part about Micheal’s mixing up of the dates was really confusing. I think Betsy was right. But why would they feel the need to put a dog where the money had been? They could have just filled in the hole. I can see if they had moved the girl’s body they might have wanted to replace it with another cadaver to confuse dogs or explain hair and fiber or something, but even that doesn’t really make sense. And why didn’t they spend the money? I know it was mentioned a bunch of times that “everyone” had a blacklight in ‘67, so I am guessing they saw the marks, but that would have been a good flashback scene or something.
I am still looking forward to the rest of the series. They can’t all be winners, but I think this one could have been much better with just a few more paragraphs at the end.
October 7th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Whoa! I just found my name in the Twitter API =o
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