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Summary and Reviews of N Is For Noose by Sue Grafton

N Is For Noose by Sue Grafton

N Is For Noose

by Sue Grafton
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 1998, 289 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 1999, 286 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

In which Kinsey Milhone becomes the target and an entire town seems in for the kill.

Kinsey Milhone should have done something else -- she should have turned the car in the direction of home. Instead, she was about to put herself in the gravest jeopardy of her career.

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 townsfolk were saddened but not surprised: Just shy of sixty-five, Newquist worked too hard, smoked too much, and exercised too little. That plus an appetite for junk food made him a poster boy for an American Heart Association campaign.

Newquist`s widow didn't doubt the coroner's report. But what Selma couldn't accept was not knowing what had so bothered Tom in the last six weeks of his life. What was it that had made him prowl restlessly at night, that had him brooding constantly? Selma Newquist wanted closure, and the only way she'd get it was if she found out what it was that had so bedeviled her husband.

Kinsey should have dropped the case. It was vague and hopeless, like looking for a needle in a haystack. Instead, she set up shop in Nota Lake, where she sound that looking for a needle in a haystack can draw blood. Very likely, her own.

"N" Is for Noose: a novel in which Kinsey Milhone becomes the target and an entire town seems in for the kill.

Chapter One

Sometimes I think about how odd it would be to catch a glimpse of the future, a quick view of events lying in store for us at some undisclosed date. Suppose we could peer through a tiny peephole in Time and chance upon a flash of what was coming up in the years ahead? Some moments we saw would make no sense at all and some, I suspect, would frighten us beyond endurance. If we knew what was looming, we'd avoid certain choices, select option B instead of A at the fork in the road: the job, the marriage, the move to a new state, childbirth, the first drink, the elective medical procedure, that long-anticipated ski trip that seemed like such fun until the dark rumble of the avalanche. If we understood the consequences of any given action, we could exercise discretion, thus restructuring our fate. Time, of course, only runs in one direction, and it seems to do so in an orderly progression. Here in the blank and stony present, we're shielded from the knowledge of the dangers ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

The Boston Globe - Robin Winks
Sue Grafton has created perhaps the most likable female private eye in the business.

Booklist
One can only marvel at Grafton's seemingly endless stock of adventurous and inventive plots and hope that a finite alphabet won't limit her to just twenty-six mysteries.

Publishers Weekly
The noose of the title implies a tight knot, but the twists and turns of Grafton's latest plot are pretty loose. Not that the fans of self-reliant PI Kinsey Millhone's 13 previous alphabet appearances .... are likely to object.

Reader Reviews

Anonymous
James
I'm only on chapter 12, but this book has already hooked me. It started out as a project for my mystery and suspense class, but has recently become a truly entertaining way to pass the time. If anyone out there wants to help me out on an essay ...   Read More
Anonymous
Ann Rigby
I really enjoyed this novel and liked the "on the road" atmosphere- i.e.. Kinsey away from Santa Theresa. A real sense of danger was evoked by the skilful writing and the plot was full of gripping twists and turns that kept me ...   Read More

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