I picked up an ancient paperback copy of “A is for Alibi” at a church book sale a few weeks ago. I only knew that it was a popular series, and figured that starting at the beginning was usually a good idea.
So I read it, and I didn’t really care for it. But it was the first book, so I’m willing to cut it some slack. Are the other books in the series better, or are they more of the same and I should just give up?
My wife has read all of them so far and seems to enjoy them. She doesn’t often read fiction, so they must have some appeal.
I have a friend who’s read a ton of 'em and she loves 'em.
I did not like them as much as I was supposed to. They’re 1.2gajillion times better than the Paretsky books, which is what they’re most frequently compared to. Grafton has her following, but she’s no Dorothy Sayers.
Some of them are pretty good, others not so much. However, I can never remember which ones the good ones are (or which ones the bad ones are) because the titles have so little to do with anything in the book.
I started A For Alibi recently as well, after hearing that they were popular and wanting some new mystery books to read.
I was also disappointed, and actually got sick of it and returned it to the library in favor of a better book after getting about two-thirds of the way through.
I know it’s not all that helpful. I just wanted to chime in and say
Since a friend of mine was crazy about Sue Grafton, I read five or six of these books (can’t remember which ones). I didn’t find any of 'em to be much more than ‘meh.’
My friend kept saying “yes, but you’ve got to try this one,” and I kept reading, and still I didn’t get Grafton fever. So finally I stopped taking my friend’s literary advice. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I think I enjoyed the first 6 or 8 and found them all reasonably similar. Since that point, Kinsey’s interpersonal relationships have gotten more complicated, (especially with family) and Grafton suffered a dollop of “how do I top this” (or what haven’t I done before). She’s not as bad as some, but it seems like I enjoyed A-K better than L-O or P. I haven’t read the last several-- but I think it has more to do with how I read books than how she writes them. (Books in series I have a hard time reading just one or two of, and I didn’t enjoy the early ones enough to make me want to go reread them all. )
They get a little bit better (as you said, first book) and then they start getting worse as the author is merely trying to get 26 out there - somehow.
A few rough edges came off after A, then they were remarkably consistent, IMHO. They are like comfort food. If they are not your type of comfort food, it probably won’t matter which ones you read.