E-audiobook
S is for silence [electronic resource] / Sue Grafton.
Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks display. She was never seen again. In the small California town of Serena Station, tongues wagged. Some said she'd run off with a lover. Some said she was murdered by her husband. But for the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter Daisy that she left behind, her absence has never been explained or forgotten. Now, thirty-four years later, she wants the solace of closure.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780739305133 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
- ISBN: 0739305131 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)
- Publisher: [Santa Ana, Calif.] : Books on Tape, 2005.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Downloadable audio file. Title from: Title details screen. Unabridged. Duration: 12:07:38. |
| Participant or Performer Note: | Read by Judy Kaye. |
| System Details Note: | Requires OverDrive Media Console (file size: 174306 KB). Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Millhone, Kinsey (Fictitious character) > Fiction. Women private investigators > California > Fiction. Missing persons > Fiction. California > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Mystery fiction. Audiobooks. |
Search for related items by series
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2006 April/May
In her nineteenth mystery, Kinsey Millhone, Sue Grafton's no-nonsense gumshoe, takes on a cold case--the question of what happened to a shady lady who disappeared 30 years earlier. In a refreshing change in the alphabet series, Grafton alternates between Millhone's first-person point of view and third-person flashbacks that depict the life of the missing woman in 1953. The device works well, especially for narrator Judy Kaye, Kinsey's alter ego on audio, who capably goes beyond the first-person narrative. Some stalwarts of the series may be unhappy that there's less of Kinsey than usual, but Grafton's approach gives the audiobook a bit more complexity than its predecessors. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine - Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2005 September #2
Grafton's determined march through the criminal alphabet puts readers within striking distance of the end, a destination no Grafton fan wants to reach. The latest in the lexicon should really be C Is for Cold Case, since it involves a disappearance that took place nearly 35 years in the past. (Although the alphabet keeps progressing, Grafton's heroine, Kinsey Millhone, is still in her late 30s and, given her high-fat eating habits, probably wouldn't have survived to be a sleuth in her 60s.) The daughter of a really neglectful mother (who could have starred in I Is for Issues) has been haunted by her mother's disappearance from a Fourth of July celebration when the daughter was only three years old. Part of the intrigue from this case comes from Grafton's sensitive portrayal of the psychological consequences of neglect. Boldly departing from the conventions of victim fiction, Grafton portrays the daughter as sniveling and annoying as well as desperate. Millhone doesn't have much hope for the case but starts digging (it's fascinating in itself to see how Millhone flounders and flounders until she finds a crack in the case). Grafton juxtaposes flashbacks to 1953, when the mother disappeared, with the current investigation, giving different points of view on the woman. Although she gives us a bit too much of Millhone's eating and living habits (probably in response to fan enthusiasm), this novel also presents strong character portrayals, a mosaic of motives, and a stunning climax. ((Reviewed September 15, 2005)) Copyright 2005 Booklist Reviews. - Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews - Audio And Video Online Reviews 1991-2018
Grafton fans know what to expect from the popular writer's alphabet mysteries. In her latest, the daughter of a neglectful mother seeks clues to her mother's disappearance 34 years ago. Unsatisfied with authorities' inadequate response and unlikely explanations, the desperate daughter hires Kinsey Millhone to crack the case. In her reading, Kaye is particularly effective in building tension as Millhone closes in on the truth, but she is less successful providing distinctive character voices. S could easily stand for a successful, satisfactory, and suspenseful audio, marred only by some rather annoying yet mercifully brief background music. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2006 June
S Is for SilenceIf I ever need a private detective, I'd like to call Kinsey Millhone. I've followed her alphabetic adventures for years and now we're at "S." "S" could easily stand for super-suspenseful story, but in Sue Grafton's 19th compelling foray into crime, S Is for Silence. Daisy's young, pretty mother, a flashy good-time girl with an abusive husband, disappeared without a trace 34 years ago. Daisy, now 40, still needs to know what happened and Kinsey, moved by her need, takes on this ice-cold case. As she pieces together the jigsaw puzzle of past events, the case heats up—but now it's Kinsey who just might fall into the fire. Judy Kaye has done a great job reading every Kinsey Millhone escapade since A Is for Alibi, her timing taut, her characters entirely credible. Copyright 2006 BookPage Reviews.
- Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2005 September #2
Kinsey Millhone (R Is for Ricochet, 2004, etc.) is pulled into the ancient case of the bad-girl wife and mother who ran off without her man and without a trace.On the evening of July 4, 1953, Violet Sullivan celebrated her independence by blowing a kiss to her daughter Daisy, 7, and her babysitter, Liza Mellincamp, and driving off in the new Chevrolet Bel Air that her alcoholic, frequently abusive husband Foley had just bought her. Ever since that day, Daisy has never been able to trust anyone or to put her life back together. Now, 34 years later, she and her friend Tannie Ottweiler ask Kinsey to track down Violet and her car. Wanting to ensure that she won't drag out what seems like a hopeless case, Kinsey agrees to limit her investigation to five days. But it takes her only four days of chatting up Violet's friends and enemies in Serena Station-her ex-landlord Tom Padgett, Liza and her childhood buddy Kathy Cramer, Kathy's car-dealer father Chet and his salesman Winston Smith, Tannie's father Jake-to find out what happened to Violet. Given the passions Daisy's mother stirred among everyone who crossed her path, it's quite a tribute to Kinsey that she needs only that fifth day to wrap the case up tight.Score another triumph for Kinsey. Grafton brings every corner of Serena Station, past and present, more deeply alive than your own hometown.First printing of 1,000,000; Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Guild, Mystery Guild main selection Copyright Kirkus 2005 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2005 October #2
On July 4, 1953, small-town wife and mother Violet Sullivan disappears without a trace. Did she leave her abusive husband and young daughter behind, never to contact them again, or did a secret (or not-so-secret) lover do her in? Fast-forward to the 1980s: Daisy, the missing woman's now grown daughter, enlists Kinsey Milhone (R Is for Ricochet ) to resolve her mother's disappearance. Although this is the 19th entry of her popular alphabet series, Grafton has struck on another fresh tack, alternating between Kinsey's current investigation and the days leading up to Violet's disappearance as told by the people who knew her. The climax that results when the two narratives converge will leave readers breathlessly awaiting the next installment. Essential for all collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 8/05.]-- Andrea Young Griffth, Loma Linda Univ. Lib., CA
[Page 52]. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2005 October #2
Kinsey Millhone has kept her appeal by being distinctive and sympathetic without craving center stage. While some mysteries that provide the PI's shoe size or most despised food create a forced and intrusive intimacy, a master like Grafton makes the relationship relaxed and reassuring. Millhone's life is modest and familiar, though her love life, now featuring police detective Cheney Phillips, tends to be oddly remote. This 19th entry (after 2004's R Is for Ricochet) adopts a new convention: Millhone's customary intelligent and occasionally self-deprecating first-person reportage is interrupted by vignettes from the days surrounding the Fourth of July, 34 years earlier, when a hot-blooded young woman named Violet Sullivan disappeared. Violet's daughter, Daisy, who was seven at the time, hires Millhone to discover her mother's true fate. Violet had toyed with every man in town at one time or another, so there's no shortage of scandalous secrets and possible suspects. Constant revelations concerning several absorbing characters allow a terrific tension to build. However, the utterly illogical and oddly abrupt ending undermines what is otherwise one of the stronger offerings in this iconic series. One million first printing; Literary Guild, BOMC and Mystery Guild main selection. (Dec.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
