A is for Alibi

Name: Michelle Sherwin
Grade: 12+
Title: A is for Alibi
Author: Sue Grafton


This book begins with the detective Kinsey Millhone being hired by the wife of a person who was found dead by cause of poisoning. After being in prison for several years for this murder Nikki Fife is free and she is out to find out who did it, but she is going to need Kinsey's help to find out who did it and get revenge for the years that she spent in prison on their behalf. This seems like a pretty tough feat for Kinsley as this case has been sealed and the first time around all the evidence did seem to point straight to Nikki. From the means of having the poison easily accessible to her and the keys to the house available as well to the motive of her having a journal of the times her husband cheated on her and with who. She seemed like the jealous wife who had everything pointing to her and the jury had no problem condemning her. Kinsley is convinced that she should at least give Nikki a chance and look into the case. During this she falls for a charming and dashing man who just so happens to be one of her suspects for the murder. She seem to find that even though one of her rules is not to get involved with the people she is investigating she can not resist this man. The investigation and the romance both grow and both seem to be going well for Kinsey.  Although  the case started out cold it begins to heat up, but once she opens the files to the case again she finds out that there is someone who doesn't want her finding out just what really did happen to Laurence Fife and his last lover Libby Glass. Poisoning may have been the initial method this killer used, but now it is obvious that they will do anything to keep all fingers pointing to Nikki and away from them.  Will Kinsey be able to dodge all the bullets (literally) and find out just who did kill Laurence and Libby or will Kinsey become one of the victims of  the investigation as well? Find out in A is for Alibi!

I liked the story line behind this book. The way that the author was always giving something new for the reader to ponder was very interesting. It was also very interesting to see the pieces as they were falling together. They always seemed to be pointing one way and then they would take a sudden turn and would turn out to be some thing completely different. It was interesting like wise to find out how important little pieces that were over looked in the first investigation came to be in the second investigation. Even things that didn't seem relevant to Kinsey were in the end very important.

The book did get a bit sappy with personal details at times. It seemed like there were a lot of details about Kinsley that were not important to the story that were  a big part of the story. I found that a good majority of these details really did not add anything to the story and kind of detracted from the overall story. 

I picked this book up mainly because it looked interesting and I wanted a good mystery. This seemed to fit the bill.
I finished this book because it was interesting and there were some very interesting plot twists. Just when I was about to condemn one person to having done it there was always another clue that lead up to a different conclusion.

I'd give this book to anyone who enjoyed mystery books and could enjoy the art of solving a good old fassioned who done it. I would particularly give it to someone who enjoyed Janet Evanovich.

I'd rate this book a ***