X
by
prolific novelist Sue Grafton has three stories rolled into
one book. Starting with the letter A, the author, has certain
elements that can be identified with all of her books. The
main protagonist is private investigator Kinsey Millhone.
The plot takes place in the 1980’s, and the title of
all of her books is an alphabetical letter. In this book Grafton
broke slightly with tradition in that she still uses alphabetical
titles, but did not indicate what it stood for.
She did this because “I used the alphabet but did not
put what it stood for. Because I made the rules I figured
I could be the one to break them. I thought I would write
about xenophobia, a hatred of foreigners. After I stated writing
the story there was not a foreigner to be had. I did not want
to just stick one in there so I could get a title out of it
since it seemed like cheating. I never figured out how I could
get out of this dilemma so I just called it X and weaved X
traits into the story.”
Grafton was able to include many “X” traits in
this plot considering she named one of her characters, Xanakis.
Another interesting way she intertwined the letter in the
plot was having codes as clues to a crime. These codes are
based on both numbers and letters that have the commonality
with “X” since it is both a Roman numeral and
a letter. They were used as a jumping off point for this part
of the story, with the encryption proving that Millhone was
wrong about her late partner’s morals and ethics. She
is alerted that he was on the track of a serial killer. Millhone
must find the killer before this sociopath causes more chaos
that includes making her his next victim.
Another storyline has Teddy Xanakis, wanting revenge on her
divorced husband by attempting to steal a priceless painting
from him. She hires Millhone to locate someone she put up
for adoption many years ago that will help in the theft, but
much to the private investigator’s chagrin she was paid
with marked bills. Now riled up Millhone will not stop until
she finds Xanakis and gets answers.
Californians can relate to the third storyline, as Millhone
attempts to help her neighbors. This includes the landlord,
Henry Pitts, who takes drastic action to lower his water use
during the 1989 California drought. A quote from the book
is exactly what many Californians have felt abut this recent
drought, “Then the government came along and proposed
moving water from up yonder to down here and then on. They
called it the State Water Project. More like Steal Water,
if you want my opinion.”
What makes the story even more interesting is the time period
in which it takes place. An era where private investigators
had to solve cases the old fashioned way using their mind,
legwork, and ingenuity. There were no cell phones, very few
Internet servers, and many did not even have a computer.
She explained, “ A is for Alibi , my first
book, was published in 1982. As it happened the next couple
of books took place in June and August of that year. Without
meaning to I painted myself into a corner. The other issue
was the aging process. I did not want my main character to
age one year for every book so I slowed the whole process
down. This way I could get through all 26 letters of the alphabet
without making her 109 years old in 2015. I might end the
series in either 1990 or on New Years Eve 1989.”
X has so many twists and turns it could be a rival
to Lombard Street in San Francisco. Grafton keeps readers
on their toes since what appears to be a minor event turns
out to be something of importance. This is a riveting mystery.
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