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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780805019353
ISBN number: 0805019359
Label: Henry Holt and Co.
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: May 15, 1993
Publishing house: Henry Holt and Co.
Sale Popularity Level: 267179
Studio: Henry Holt and Co.
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'J' is for Jaffe: Wendell Jaffe, dead these past five years. Or so it seemed until his former insurance agent spotted him in the bar of a dusty little resort halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz.
'In truth, the facts about Wendell Jaffe had nothing to do with my family history, but murder is seldom tidy and no one ever said revelations operate in a straight line. It was my investigation into the dead man's past that triggered the inquiry into my own, and in the end the two stories became difficult to separate.'
Five years ago, when Jaffe's thirty-five-foot Fuji ketch was found drifting off the Baja coast, it seemed a sure thing he'd gone overboard. The note he left behind admitted he was flat broke, his business bankrupt, his real estate gambit nothing but a huge Ponzi scheme about to collapse, with criminal indictment certain to follow. When the authorities soon after descended on his banks and his books, there was nothing left: Jaffe had stripped the lot.
'Given my insatiable curiosity and my natural inclination to poke my nose in where it doesn't belong, it was odd to realize how little attention I'd paid to my own past. I'd simply accepted what I was told, constructing my personal mythology on the flimsiest of facts.'
But Jaffe wasn't quite without assets. There was the $500,000 life insurance policy made out to his wife and underwritten by California Fidelity. With no corpse to prove death, however, the insurance company was in no hurry to pay the claim. Dana Jaffe had to wait out the statutory five years until her missing husband could be declared legally dead. Just two months before Wendell Jaffe was sighted in that dusty resort bar, California Fidelity finally paid in full. Now they wanted the truth. And they were willing to hire Kinsey Millhone to dig it up.
As Kinsey pushes deeper into the mystery surrounding Wendell Jaffe's pseudocide, she explores her own past, discovering that in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment.
'J' is for judgment: the kind we're quick to make and often quicker to regret.
'J' Is for Judgment: Kinsey Millhone's tenth excursion into the dark places of the heart where duplicity is the governing rule and murder the too-frequent result.
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Rated by buyers 
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All her books are great and once you read A you are hooked... I am on S right now so once you start you will have to work your way through.... great great great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rated by buyers -
Sue Grafton always has you looking for more...desperately awaiting the subsequent letter of the alphabet!
Rated by buyers -
For me, this one took a while to get into, but it was still a fun, entertaining read. The very first paragraph grabs your interest. There are some changes in Kinsey's life, or maybe I should say in her past as she knew it. I look forward to seeing how this incorporates into future books. I'm trying to work my way through the alphabet.
Rated by buyers -
This series of books is one of the most interesting I have come across. The main character and surrounding characters are very interesting.
Rated by buyers 
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As soon as I read her earliest books, Sue Grafton became one of my favorite writers of light, straight, credible detective fiction. She can be a terrific storyteller. After being badly disappointed by the skimpy, disorganized "G" and "H" stories, but buoyed by the "I" book, I was looking forward to "J," which promised a very interesting tale. Unfortunately, I was disappointed again (though not as badly as I had been by "G" and "H" or as I would be with "L"). It is difficult to get a handle on exactly why. The book is quite a mish-mash.
Grafton opens the "J" book with a complex and fascinating premise, even if it was not exactly original (for example, see John D. MacDonald's "The Empty Copper Sea") -- a slick, near-bust land developer/real estate wheeler-dealer disappears under mysterious circumstances, is presumed dead, yet is spotted elsewhere years later. The early part of the book is interesting, with some good attention to detail. But the book never really takes seriously and runs with its opening plot idea.
Instead, the book strings it out for a while, deteriorates into a series of subplots (about the kids, about the wife, about the cop, about the partner ...) that lead nowhere, and then diddles away any life the story has left with a let-down ending involving a marginal character with a confused motive. This is not helped at all by a last-minute endeavor to suggest that the person was a master criminal after all, despite what appears to be impetuous, emotional, out-of-control, lunatic behavior. It leaves the reader wondering why it was worth slogging through all of the pointless personal subplots and complicated original premise.
The book's excellent opening premise seems to be used merely as a gimmick to kick-start an aimless, pointless story. All of the characters' motivations are obscure and confusing: the son, the husband coming back, the partner, someone turning murderous overnight. The murder happens far too late in the book. The story bumps along to a conclusion using one contrived "confession" scene after another (cop investor tells about money still in existence; leads back to partner, etc.).
The opening premise promised a finely crafted complex crime by a single mastermind. Yet, in execution, the promise evaporated because no one person in the story has his/her act together. No one is acting deliberately. Whatever happened -- the storytelling is so obtuse at times it is not entirely clear -- is a mass of completely haphazard and unconnected events (husband returning home because of son; son getting into trouble; cop homing in on extant money). No clear villain emerges who was responsible for one overarching, clever crime, just a bunch of disconnected people spinning their wheels. The endeavor on literally the last page of the book to suggest that what had happened had a larger meaning is flip, inadequate, and unconvincing, as is a melodramatic end scene in which a character "swims out to sea."
Generally, Grafton is a witty, upbeat writer, and Millhone is a fun character, and there is evidence of this in the book. The book provides some personal details of Millhone's family history that are mildly interesting. But in this book they feel distracting and painted-on. They fail to gel with the rest of the story and are not presented, much less resolved, in a meaningful way. Not since "H" has Millhone looked as haphazard, disorganized, procedure-oriented, coincidence-driven, and unprofessional. There is simply not enough of a coherent story to support her. The tone of the book is remarkably upbeat, but increasingly comes across as empty flippancy and scenery-chewing utilized just to get through a sagging, aimless plot.
Again, a likable, comfortable lead character and tone and a good premise and beginning made me want to like the book. But it simply fell apart to the point where I cannot in all honesty give it any more than three stars.
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