"R" is for Ricochet (A Kinsey Millhone Mystery, Book 18)

by Sue Grafton

2005

Status

Available

Publication

G.P. Putnam's Sons (2005), Edition: 1st, 384 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:In this #1 New York Times bestseller in Sue Grafton's Alphabet series, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has her hands full when a job that should be easy money takes a turn for the worse. Reba Lafferty was a daughter of privilege, the only child of an adoring father. Nord Lafferty was already in his fifties when Reba was born, and he could deny her nothing. Over the years, he quietly settled her many scrapes with the law, but wasn't there for her when she was convicted of embezzlement and sent to the California Institution for Women. Now, at thirty-two, she's about to be paroled, having served twenty-two months of a four-year sentence. Her father wants to be sure Reba stays straight, stays home and away from the drugs, the booze, and the gamblers... It seems a straightforward assignment for Kinsey: babysit Reba until she settles in, make sure she follows all the niceties of her parole. Maybe a weekâ??s work. Nothing untowardâ??the woman seems remorseful and friendly. And the money is good. But life is never that simple, and Reba is out of prison less than twenty-four hours when one of her old crowd comes circling round..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member chengiz
Among all the bad books I've actually completed, this must be one of the worst. This was my first Sue Grafton, and needless to say, my last. There is no mystery here other than what the heroine will wear, and what color dress she will buy, and how handsome her man will look this time. This is a
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detective story in which the detective does NOTHING, and is some sort of bumpkin sidekick to someone who does. And what they do, Frank and Joe Hardy would balk at as being too childish to actually work.
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LibraryThing member kd9
This is one of Sue Grafton's more improbable works. It's hard to believe that straightforward Kinsey Millhone would be led into such twisted situations as she was by Reba Lafferty. Could we blame it on Kinsey's burgeoning affair with Cheney Phillips? Or some basic restlessness that found a chord
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between Kinsey and Reba?

What saves the book is the delightful nature of Reba Lafferty. She is an original madcap heiress. Lately out of prison, never far out of trouble. It is only a matter of time before she starts smoking, drinking and gambling again. And Kinsey is dragged into every adventure.
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LibraryThing member Jax450
Just like everyone else, I love Sue Grafton's alphabet series. This meant R is for Ricochet was a disappointment for me.

I think it's great that Grafton wants to try some new ideas (the series can use some perk!), but this was just too out there.

I kept reading wondering where the mystery is! This
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was just a story about Kinsey and Reba Lafferty. No mystery, no murder, nothing.

I got the feeling that it was time to write R and Sue didn't have any ideas so she came up with this. I hope that S will get back on track with some good ol' mystery.
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LibraryThing member phillies
I have started many series in the mystery genre including Parker, Patterson, Gardiner, Child, Corban and others but have given up on most but keep coming back to Grafton. Perhaps this is because I find her books the most realistic. The main character, private investigator Kinsey Millhone, is no
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superwoman. She has two failed marriages, a fondness for junk food, and commitment problems. She solves her cases with nut and bolt investigative work and resorts to snooping and lying. She has relationships but Grafton does not let them take over the story. Her history has been unfolding throughout the series and her landlord, the 86 year old Henry, always makes an appearance. These side stories usually give a break to the action and tend to enhance the story rather than distract.

This book, "R" is for Ricochet, is average for the series. Millhone is hired to pick up a young woman being released for prison and help her get settled. Of course things go wrong and Millhone has her hands full chasing after her charge. What is different in this book is that the client rather than Millhone takes charge of the story. Overall the story held my interest.

I find Grafton to be a dependable author and I have not had one disappointment in the 18 books I have read in the series. I often read one of Grafton's books after heavier reads, on vacation, or on a long trip.
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LibraryThing member Mrsbaty
This is a very different story from the previous Kinsey stories and it's gotten some bad reviews because of that but it's in the top 5 for me. It's clever and kept my curiosity up through the whole story.

Kinsey has been hired by a elderly gentlemen to pick up his 30 year old daughter, Reba, from
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the Correctional Institute for Women after doing 2 years for embezzlement. He wants her to get the daughter home and settled, then her job is done. Of course, we know it won't end there. Turns out, Reba was working with her employer when the money disappeared and they are heavily involved with money laundering. The FBI is after them and wants Reba to turn on her former boss. The way this all plays out makes a a clever story, in my opinion. There is no murder mystery here but the story we do have is great.

We have two other side issues going on. Kinsey's relationship with Cheney and Henry's relationship with his brothers and the woman he's interested in. They keep Kinsey feeling like a real person in a real world.

Yes, this is not the same type of story we've had in the past but it's one of the best.
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LibraryThing member FMRox
Private Investigator Kinsey Milhone is asked by a wealthy client to pick-up his paroled daughter from the penitentiary. All sorts of trouble ensues when Kinsey decides to "keep an eye on her"... the kind of trouble that involves the local/state police departments and the FBI.
The plot isn't as
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exciting as some of Grafton's other plots. There certainly is the typical Kinsey Milhone ending, action climax right until the last sentence with a wrap-up epilogue. The most interesting character is this book is still Kinsey Milhone. She's a little less reckless and of course she has herself a fling. The one nice thing about this fling is he doesn't try to kill her or double cross her. There's a side story regarding Henry Pitts her neighbor and his family and love life but it's a little extraneous and doesn't seem to fit in. Although I love Milhone and Grafton, this isn't my favorite work but I will keep on with the series until she's done. Oh, and why is it called R for Ricochet?
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LibraryThing member smik
Kinsey Millhone, 37 year old private detective living in Santa Teresa, is hired by elderly and wealthy Nord Lafferty to pick his daughter Reba up from the women's prison where she has been for the last two years for embezzlement. Kinsey will be paid well to help Reba settle back into "normal life",
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and to help her from breaking the conditions of her parole. But Reba has ideas of her own, meeting up almost straight away with her former boss who charged her with embezzlement. The secondary story that runs through each of these books, of Rosie, Henry and William, is almost as important and certainly as enjoyable as the main story. #18 in the Kinsey Millhone series. As one of the comments on the dust jacket says - " a remarkable achievement to keep this series going at the same standard. " The first, A IS FOR ALIBI, was published in 1982. Interestingly in this book Kinsey was about 32, and has aged only 5 years in 22 "earth" years.
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LibraryThing member fyrfli
My first Sue Grafton read and I was a little disappointed that the heroine seemed to be so gullible and easily led astray. Nevertheless, I found the story to be an easy read, well composed and nicely packaged. I think I will read a couple more in the alphabet before I make a final call.
LibraryThing member bookqueen
I love Kinsey! Start with "A is for Alibi" and catch up!
LibraryThing member readafew
Kinsey Millhone is back in 'R is for Ricochet' the 18th book in the series. This is another solid book, a little better than the average Kinsey tale. Once again Kinsey gets herself into trouble by letting her conscience and lack of forethought get in the way.

Kinsey is asked by one of the local
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pillars of the community (very rich old man) to go and pick up his daughter Cheaney from prison when she is released, and bring her home. After that, spend a couple days helping her get used to the real world, and report if she seems to be backsliding toward her 'criminal' ways. Kinsey hits it off well with Cheaney and things seem to be going well, then she finds out the 'ex-boyfriend' who really isn't 'ex' is being investigated by several different government agencies for money laundering and a host of other crimes. It is suspected Cheaney went to prison for him and the IRS agent wants Kinsey to approach Cheaney to help them bag the man. One thing led to another and once again Kinsey is in major trouble.
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LibraryThing member kepitcher
One of my favorite Kinsey Millhone novels yet!
Kinsey is asked by a wealthy dying man to escort his daughter home from prison. What Kinsey thinks will be an easy one or two day job turns into a case involving money laundering, gambling, topless dancers called Misty and lots of cash. Kinsey becomes
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involved with Cheney Phillips, a vice cop introduced in "'M' is for Malice", which produces a lot of heat and the requisite drama.
Good P.I. novel, with the love interest thrown in, makes for a fun and enjoyable read.
(Read March 2006)
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LibraryThing member debnance
In R, the 18th book in Grafton's alphabet mysteries, private eye Kinsey Millhone is asked to keep an eye on a woman just released from prison who can't seem to help getting into mischief. With Grafton, like Evanovich, you know before you open to page one what you are going to get: a nice little
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mystery, no mental gymnastics required. Sometimes that's all I want out of a book.
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LibraryThing member ffortsa
(spoiler alert) A job that starts out babysitting a parolee by the name of Reba leads to offshore accounts, murder, kidnapping, and some very important computer files. But Kinsey and Cheney get together - in a big way. Hope this relationship continues on down the road..
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Babysitting. Kinsey is asked to"keep an eye" on a daughter recently released from prison. This quickly leads into a complex fraud investigation. The addition of the FBI is just confusing, but Reba's characterisation is quite fun, Grafton's writing once again shining on the "just outside the law"
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areas.

Random Subplot - Kinsey's love life with Cheeny. At least this adds some more character to Kinsey.
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LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
In R is for Ricochet, Kinsey Milhone is given a seemingly easy assignment that pays well. She is being paid to babysit Reba Lafferty, the 32 year old daughter of a wealthy man who has just recently been paroled after embezzling. Things start off well for Kinsey. Reba is easy going and they get
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along well, but before long Reba falls back into her old crowd that got her into trouble to begin with.

This is a less than stellar Sue Grafton novel. Although she isn’t one of my favorite writers, this was one of her weaker efforts. The idea behind the story isn’t all that inspiring. The plot is pretty bland. The best aspect of this novel is that the character development is fairly strong, otherwise there isn’t much here to like. I would skip this novel.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
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LibraryThing member lberriman
A good light hearted female detective story.
LibraryThing member benfulton
There's a surprising angle in this one, where Kinsey, although remaining the narrator, almost takes a back seat to her companion Reba. Once the betrayal of her lover is revealed, Reba takes the initiative and does the majority of the work in solving the mystery, with Kinsey mostly hanging around
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says, "Are you sure we ought to be doing this?" and working on her new relationship. It's a refreshing change for this more-or-less formulaic series. This is the latest one I've read and it would be neat if Grafton could bring her character off the rails a little more as she works through S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. It's a good story and I thought the international banking aspects were handled quite realistically.
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LibraryThing member mariabiblioteca
Summertime and vacation means paperback fiction and lots of it. Sue Grafton is a reliable go-to for entertaining, gripping, plot-twisty stories with appealing characters.
LibraryThing member kaulsu
Another rather predictable Milhone detective. Rather boring, actually. If it weren't that I have read nearly the whole alphabet, I'm not sure I would continue. SPOILER ALERT: I'm not sure why the patsy had to die or the bimbo wasn't trounced completely.
LibraryThing member wdwilson3
I've read every Sue Grafton written, and on the basis of this latest effort, I think Sue should knock Kinsey off and try a new detective. Milhone is completely ineffectual in this volume, simply letting circumstances play out. There is no detective work to speak of, and the plot is so thin that
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Grafton pads the book shamelessly with numbing descriptions of such things as federal money laundering statutes and irrelevant side plots like Henry's love life. Characters wander in, bore us for a while, and then are never heard from again. This has the sickening feel of a book written solely to meet a contractual obligation. The well has run dry. Don't waste your time with this book. Grafton's earlier volumes were far superior.
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LibraryThing member tloeffler
Not the best of the series, but not bad. Kinsey is asked to pick up a young lady from the penitentiary. They become companions, and Kinsey is caught up between the girl's revenge on her former boss and the FBI, not to mention a possible romance.
LibraryThing member dbhutch
Ms. Grafton brings more of Kinsey out in yet another of the Millhorne Mysteries, and it is a welcome change. Previous books have led the reader to believe Kinsey is more than a bit removed from the world socially, especially when it comes to relationships. family was tackled in athe previous book,
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and now, more of her personal realtionships are. As well as a new challenge - actually befriending the daughter of a client, and going well above her duites as an investigator to help her and keep her out of harms way. With the usual good twists and turns Ms. Grafton always delivers, this book goes down as one of my favorites of the series so far.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Kinsey is engaged to pick up a young woman who is being released from prison, and return her home to her ailing father. After the lengthy car ride with her charge, she becomes "involved" with the situation far beyond the obligations of her employment, as is her wont. In this case, I got very
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impatient with Kinsey for not putting on the brakes, any number of times, before putting herself in legal, moral and physical jeopardy. Her reasons just weren't good enough for me. But the ending was twisty and satisfying, Kinsey's love life is in a good place, while her "elderly" hot octogenarian landlord Henry's is complicated by his interfering siblings. An absorbing read, despite the quibbles.
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LibraryThing member JohnGrant1
A pretty good entry in the fairly reliable Kinsey Millhone series. Plutocrat's daughter Reba Lafferty was a wild one who mixed with bad company until finally the law caught up with her and put her away for a few years. Now she's due out on probation, and adoring daddy Nord Lafferty commissions
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Kinsey to babysit his daughter and make sure she settles back into civilian life, this time without all the booze and the drugs and stuff. And, of course, it proves to be not nearly so simple as anyone expected . . . Lots of fun to read, somewhat forgettable afterwards.
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LibraryThing member TysonAdams
R is for Rancid.

After starting this book I was wondering how someone could have successfully had a series 18 books long with writing this poor. An hour into reading and I was yet to come across anything other than needless exposition. I then checked the reviews for this and the rest of the series.
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Apparently most people agree that the quality of Sue's writing has been in decline since her first two in this series. Clearly this is not the book to be picking up to become a fan, this is a book for long time fans who need a few hundred pages to keep them going between other novels.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2004-07-14

Physical description

384 p.; 4.19 inches

ISBN

0425203867 / 9780425203866

Barcode

1602304

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