First off, this is a review on this book specifically. If you want a review on the series as a whole, well here's a link to a wonderfully witty review written by a handsome reviewer (I'm just guessing of course) talking more generally about the series.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...M is for malice (Why didn't you name this M is for murder, You know you wanted to) is more of the great detective Kinsey millhone. Meaning it does everything great that the other books did but also has alot of the same problems.M is for malice is about Kinsey taking a case to find Guy Malek who went missing twenty years ago after for his brother's, Donaven, Bennet, and Jack Malek because his father left him 5 million dollars. Kinsey gets to work on finding him but she and Guy relize things are deeper then they appear and it's up to Kinsey to sort though twenty years of Lie, bitterness, and theft to find the truth.Kinsey is just as awesome as ever! Witty, smart, sarcastic and awesome, but caring, kind and fights for truth and justice. Not only that but she has an arc in this story which didn't feel forced and progressed in a way that felt real. Plus she thinks like a real person being very logical. She's awesome, She's always awesome!And most of the supporting characters work. They all are intresting and most of them feel different enough that you can tell who Kinsey is talking to on the way they speak alone. From Christie, the housewife watching as the Malek family falls apart around him. To the mysterious Paul Trassti who even though he's barely in it, intrigued me and made me question his role in the story. They all make their mark on the story.There is one exception and it's a big one, the Malek brothers. They all basically share one voice/personality. Sure they have maybe one thing that makes them different, Jack is into golf, Bennet is a reckless entrepreneur and Donaven runs the family business but when they talk to kinsey you could swap them out for one another and you wouldn't notice. They are mainly just here to argue about Guy and the money. It's good arguing and feels real but they don't have much more substance then that. Other then that though, pretty good overall.The mystery is ok? I don't know how to feel about it. The actual build up, the clues, the questioning, the red herrings, ect. Works well. There are alot of suspects and they all feel like maybe they did it, maybe they didn't and they do give you a fair amount of clues although I would have liked a couple more and it does go in an intresting direction, one you wouldn't expect. It's not without problems. One is you might hate the big reveal but you might also really enjoy it. It's kinda anticlimactic but it also goes well with the story. And you might not guess it from the clues they give you. So I don't know, I enjoyed it because I Called It! (Well half of it) But you could really hate it. I guess read with caution.The big issue with the mystery is one that is in all (Ok three but at this point I think I can say this) of the Sue Grafton I've read, It is Glacial Slow. Very little happens that actually matters in the grand scheme of things within the first 100 pages and it takes another 100 pages for the main mystery to start. The set up for the mystery is longer then the book. "But you need time to set everything up) Then why does this book compress the mystery into the last 100 pages? I don't know why but Sue Grafton books follow the formula of "Nothing...Nothing....Nothing...Nothing EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW THE END"Ok to be fair, the first 2/3 are used to build character development as well as kinsey to get out all her personal stuff but why does that have to be separate from the rest of the story. Books can be more then just mystery's and people talking. You can do both.And while we're on the subject of things I didn't like, let's talk about my least favorite thing about this book and almost made me knock it down a star.The one character I havn't mentioned is that Kinsey has a kinda sorta boyfriend Robert Diaz (I don't know how you spell his last name and I don't care) Their relationship is nice, I guess. I like Robert, he bounce's off Kinsey well enough. But you can't have one of these mystery romances without "Oh I can't love you' I'm a loner and tortured and I can't get hurt by you again, We can't date but I love you and it feel so good to be loved and BLAH BLAH BLAH I'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE.This plauges almost all modern detective series and can even kill books for me. It's been done over and over and over and it just get's boring. You know their gonna start , You know the conflict that will arise, and you know that they will fall in love anyway. It's makes no one likable and turns everyone whinney. It doesn't make our charcters stronger because in the next book we'll be right back where we started! There never was, never is and never will be interesting. So please. STHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!Ok, Ok rant over.Despite my issue, this is still a great mystery. It's probably not as good as N is for noose, the book I read before this and if you've read any Sue Grafton I'd recommend staying away from this one. But if you're a new reader or you havn't read any Sue Grafton in a while, pikc this one up. Just be weary of the ending.
Note: This review does not contain plot spoilers, but it might contain some thematic spoilers for those who don't want to know ahead of time about Kinsey's character development.I've obviously fallen a few years behind on my reading; when I began reading the series, M is for Malice was a few months away from publication. Part of the fault is my schedule (I'm a high-school teacher and usually read Kinsey during summer vacations); part is my just-completed graduate program; part is the fault of L is for Lawless, which I disliked and which is, so far, my least-favorite in the series. In fact, K is for Killer is probably my second-least-favorite, so I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get to the rest of the alphabet.Oh, some of the fault probably goes to Harry Potter, too. :)What a pleasant surprise M is for Malice is. Not only is the story intriguing, but further developments in Kinsey's life take interesting turns. I have to say that unlike some reviewers on GoodReads, I'm not fond of the whole Dietz dynamic. Kinsey's fierce independence and issues of abandonment are important parts of the character I love exploring, but when they spread into her romantic life, I admit feeling quite bored, especially when Kinsey doesn't give us a lot of reason for WANTING her to be with Dietz. I haven't been convinced that she has feelings FOR him because all she talks about are her feelings about BEING with him.However, her relationship with Tasha and with Tasha's sisters takes a few small steps forward here, which I like, and the entire dynamic with Guy Malek is very interesting. Fans who want mostly plot will be disappointed, I think, at how much introspection there is here, and I agree it does get a big heavy-handed at times. However, in the context of the story, particularly within the framework of this Guy Malek dynamic, it works for me. Perhaps this is my problem with the Dietz thing: So much of Dietz took away from the rest of the story. It felt like a distraction rather than another neighborhood in this world of Kinsey's, unlike her relationships with Henry and Rosie, which have become such important parts of her world that a novel without them would feel wrong.The prose is about what you'd expect, but I disagree with some of her technical decisions, such as a few misplaced apostrophes and periods where there should be question marks.Still, a nice return to form for Kinsey, and I'm happily back on the bandwagon. Bring on the Noose!
What do You think about M Is For Malice (1997)?
The completion of “M” marks the half-way point of this series (assuming the whole thing will end with “Z”). Happily, it seems to be getting better and better.This time, Kinsey Millhone, private investigator in Santa Teresa, California in the 1980’s, is hired by her new-found cousin for a missing persons case. The missing Guy Malek’s father has recently passed away and Guy, along with his three estranged brothers stands to inherit a substantial windfall. Unfortunately, as the black sheep of the family, Guy disappeared nearly 20 years ago and his brothers aren’t all that keen to find him and have to split the inheritance.It’s a pure plot and credible in many ways. The author isn’t afraid at this point to let us spend time with Kinsey, a loner by nature, as she uncomfortably evolves in her relationships with friends and family. There is a murder that happens of course, and the mystery elements are done very well. I humbly confess to suspecting just about everybody involved but not guessing the identity of the killer until the exact same time that Kinsey solved the case. Well, maybe she was one step ahead of me right near the end, but after all, I’m not a PI with 10 years of experience like she is.A nice addition to the series. I plan to continue my 4 per year rate for reading these novels so as to be ready for the final volume right about at its publication date.
—Benjamin Thomas
This is the 13th installment in the Alphabet series. Kinsey is still living in the 80s, still wearing her turtlenecks and driving an old VW car. There's something that I appreciate about the books still be set back in the 80s. Large portions of time don't pass for Kinsey so the timeline is relatively truncated, even though after 13 books I feel like Kinsey should be using a cell phone by now. In this one, Kinsey is hired by her cousin Tasha to locate a missing person who stands to inherit a lot of money from a will. At first I was a bit annoyed that Kinsey is still so reluctant to spend time with her newly found cousins. (New to the series? Kinsey's parents were killed in a car accident when she was little. She was raised by her aunt. Her aunt has since died too. Her mother and her aunt were two disowned children of some apparently super rich family in a nearby town. They never looked for Kinsey. She's bitter). Anyway, now her cousins have found her, they are interested in having a better relationship with her but she's not having it. And she bitches about it a lot. And part of me thinks, "get over it already." But having read the first paragraph of this review, I realized that although this has been four or five books coming already, it's only about 6 months in Kinsey time. So really, she hasn't had that much time to adjust yet. Sorry Kinsey, I'll stop judging you about this... for now. Anyway, so Kinsey is sent to track down Guy Malek, the youngest of four brothers and black sheep of the family. The other brothers, hardworking Donovan, jealous Bennett, and golf pro Jack, all would like nothing more than for their younger, former addict brother Guy to remain missing so they can cut him out of the will and share in his $5 million portion of their father's estate. But Kinsey finds him and brings him back. Hmmm... that was short. Oh wait, then Guy... well something happens to Guy and THAT is where the mystery really takes off. I actually was able to pick up a few of the plot points ahead of time. Good for me. I usually am pretty slow on the uptake of those. This book had the return of Dietz, Kinsey's erstwhile love interest. It also featured Jonah Robb which I thought would be included more in the book, but he only shows up once and Kinsey and he do not have a big scene together. It's somewhat dissatisfying. I'm giving this one three stars because it got pretty slow there in the middle and there were these weird elements hanging out there, but I'm definitely going to keep reading this series. It's kind of a nice break from heavier literature.
—Lea Ann
M is for Malice, or Malek as the case might be. Kinsey is hired by her cousin, Tasha, to search for a long lost family member. Guy Malek left home 18 years ago and hasn't been heard from since. None of his brothers - Donovan, Bennett, or Jack - were ever really keen on finding him, until their father passed away. Their father's will divides his wealth equally amongst the brothers. The three still in Santa Teresa don't quite agree with that, since their father disowned Guy eighteen years ago and gave him severance to leave.Kinsey's task is to find the long estranged brother and try to convince him to give up his portion of the inheritance. What she ends up with is 18 years of remorse, anger, and misperceptions.I have to admit this one threw me a bit. I really thought I had things figured out, but was fairly shocked when it didn't turn out that way.
—Angela
