B Is for Burglar

A Kinsey Millhone Mystery

By: Sue Grafton

Narrated by: Mary Peiffer

A wealthy woman needs to find her sister to settle a will. It looks routine...boring. Still, business is slow and even a private investigator has bills to pay, so Kinsey Millhone takes the case.

But this is not routine and the deeper Kinsey digs the trickier things get. The client tries to call Kinsey off, an accusing husband surfaces, and a double murder turns the case sinister. Kinsey feels adrift in a fog of distortion, where nothing, except danger, is quite what it seems.

Don't miss the other titles in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery Series.©1985 Sue Grafton (P)1993 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Unconventional, unsentimental, Millhone's a fine addition to the ranks of fictional private eyes." (The Houston Chronicle)

A good story.

Having listened to many if this series. B is for Burglar is good but not great.

ABC

I loved it. Sue is so good at bringing you in. B is for Bravo.

I Did Finish It

I did finish this book, even after reading "A is for Alibi." But I won't get any of the others by this author. After reading David Baldacci's books, this is just too simple. The Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt are lighter than Baldacci and much preferred over this author. But this is just my unsolicited opinion...

great story

the story is great. Keeps you guessing. Lots of twists and turns. The narrator is OK. Much better than the narrator used for her first novel alibi.

pretty good

very good naration.
loved listening
story pretty good
i enjoy her mataphores very poetic and moving

Burglar

enjoyed book very much. very entertaining and suspenseful. it held my attention until the end

excellent read

I enjoyed this Sue Grafton book, just as I enjoy all of Sue's Books so far.

narrator is not annimated but is story excellent.

narrator is not annimated but story is excellent. I have read most of the books and was looking to the audible but was disappointed.

The gold standard for female detectives

This is how to write female detectives. I love the commentary, it’s so funny. Her descriptions of the characters and events are so on target. No one is spared her sharp wit, not even rich people and fancy material possessions. Kinsey is so not impressed by anything or anyone and has so much confidence. I’ve never read a more likable female sleuth.
This novel is so California. Somehow Kinsey has missed the memo about being impressed with traditional trappings of prestige and simply describes them as she sees them, without guile. I love the comment about how eating a traditional greasy meal is “considered a suicide attempt” in California.
Kinsey is unabashedly independent which I love. She is part of increasing group of single women who feel fulfilled and not even lonely without relationship. That also strikes me as being so California—we do our own thing with nobody watching and discover that the traditional roles aren’t even necessary for happiness. I can’t see a book like this being written today. Today’s sleuths are always desperately seeking a man or feeling emptiness and misery without one.
I first read this book in1987 or thereabouts. I was hoping that by now there would be many likable female sleuths but there just aren’t. After listening to hundreds of them here I am back at one of the key starting points of the genre and it is so fresh.
Kinsey is unpretentious, self sufficient, funny and brave without an ounce of self created drama. Maybe the plot isn’t the most exciting but Kinsey’s point of view is so clear and unencumbered by tradition. I wish all authors or who think they can write female sleuth novels would study Sue Grafton’s absolutely down to earth characters.

Back again for B is for Burglar

I actually had not heard this since it was first out on Books on Tape a looooong time ago and wanted to hear it again! To me it was actually fun to hear the old Books on Tape stuff at the very start of the book.
Although still a good story the second time through, I can really see (hear) why so many reviewers were not very happy with the early books just because of the reader Ms. Peiffer.
Although she reads the story fine, as with several other readers of various books, she just doesn't seem to have the correct or expected 'tonal quality' for the character in this story, in my opinion!!!
If you're just discovering the "Alphabet" series, I'd still recommend giving it a listen, or, especially in the early stages of this series, get the abridged version and hear the reader that now has become the ONLY reader of the series for the most part, abridged or unabridged, Judy Kaye!
She IS Kinsey Millhone!