X — X, written by Sue Grafton; reviewed by Debi O’Neille.

Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons 

The 24th Kinsey Millhone novel (of Grafton's 25-book alphabet series).

I promised in my A-Z theme to give honest reviews, so in all honesty I have to say—I

Did

Not

Like

X.

I want to be fair, so I’ll point out a few positives as well as my dislikes.

First, let me tell you that I feel I was misled. Partway through X, I realized I was reading a cozy mystery. A female private investigator trying to be hard-nosed but a little softer, more like a sleuth. And since Grafton set this alphabet series of mysteries in the 80s, she was true to the times and wasn’t always politically correct. Okay, fine. I squared my shoulders and braced myself for that education, considering the story wouldn’t have been authentic otherwise.

What I’m saying is that Grafton was writing the supposedly hard-boiled detective, but being a female of the 80s, the character was made only semi-hard-boiled (soft-boiled? Medium boiled?). In the 80s, women were considered incapable of being as hard as men. I’m sure that’s often true, but today I would challenge that with a few women I’ve met over the years. But all in all, considering the constraints of the times Grafton was under, she did a pretty good job with her main character. Still, the plot was a cozy mystery, and because of the dust jacket blurb, that’s not what I was expecting.

I read the Amazon description of the book before buying it. I’m almost positive that description must belong to some other book, not this cozy, soft-boiled, female detective story.

The description reads “… Perhaps Sue Grafton’s darkest and most chilling novel, X features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes.”

Huh? What serial killer?

Leaves no trace of his crimes?

How could I not want to read that?

I expected intense tension. A law-escaping serial killer. Excitement. I expected to be sitting at the edge of my seat. This book failed on each of these levels.

Unfortunately, because of the misleading description, when I should’ve been concentrating on what was happening in the book, I was skimming ahead to see when the action would start. It seemed to be taking forever, since Grafton explained every detail of parking a car, unlocking the car door, opening the door, getting out, etc. in minute detail. It would have created more tension had she shortened the delivery.

Never in this book did I feel the tension of a character holding his or her breath. Or a character nervously looking up and down the sidewalk, watching for suspicious-looking people. I never felt any sense of urgency anywhere in this book. This was a sit curled up on the couch and read book, not an edge of your seat thriller. I never felt the need to keep reading to find out what happens next, yet I honestly think that had I gone into reading this novel with the expectation of reading a cozy mystery, rather than nail-biting pages with a serial killer, I would not have felt so impatient for something to happen. I would’ve sat back and relaxed in the mode of watching “Murder, She Wrote.” And I do enjoy that show at times. But I never watch it when I’m in the mood to watch “Kiss the Girls.” (Serial killer mayhem)

Wrong book description or not, I can’t help but wonder about the editor. Putnam and Sons is a respectable publisher. Why didn’t the editor catch more of the overwritten areas and tighten them to give more tension?

But I haven’t written a cozy. Maybe they’re supposed to take their time describing every single movement. Maybe cozies never feel tense. I don’t know.

But because I was curious, I did read up a bit on this author. I did a search and found out that due to health problems, she only got to the “Y” in this series. That is so sad, and a loss to the world. She passed away from a two-year battle with cancer before she finished the “Z” mystery. Maybe with that, the editor did not want to change any more of Grafton’s words than absolutely necessary. I’d probably feel the same. Anyway, X is no doubt a good read if you consider it a cozy.

Here’s the link to other reviews. They’re mostly positive from the author’s fans, but if you read the review from John E Mack, he pretty much covers my thoughts exactly. Then again, scroll down a couple more reviews and read the one by Serena. There again, she admits to checking the dust jacket often (I did at least a half a dozen times) to make sure she wasn’t reading a knockoff by some other writer.

So it wasn’t just me who thought the description and the novel were somehow mismatched.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good read for those of you who like slower paced mysteries.

You can always go to Amazon, and click into the Kindle, which lets you read the first few chapters for free before buying.

Thanks for allowing me to be honest.

Best wishes and happy reading!