7.8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date August 25, 2015 Pages 400pp (first edition) Originally published 25 August 2015 Genre Mystery Publisher G. P. Putnam's Sons | 3.9/5 Goodreads Series Alphabet Mysteries Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 978-0-399-16384-5 Preceded by "W" Is for Wasted Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar "W" Is for Wasted, "V" Is for Vengeance, "T" Is for Trespass, "U" Is for Undertow, "A" is for Alibi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"X" is the twenty-fourth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels and features Kinsey Millhone, a private eye based in Santa Teresa, California, a fictional version of Santa Barbara, California. The novel, set in the late 1980s, finds Kinsey pursuing a sociopathic serial killer. The novel, was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, was released in the United States on August 25, 2015.
Contents
Publication history
Explanation of the novel's title
Beginning with "A" Is for Alibi in 1982, Grafton's "Alphabet" series of mystery novels has been published in alphabetical order with a new book coming out every 12 to 24 months. The name of each upcoming book has been an ongoing source of speculation among fans and in the press. In May 2009, Grafton told Media Bistro that she is "just trying to figure out how to get from "U" Is for Undertow to "Z" Is for Zero" (in 2019) and that "just because she knows the endgame title for Z [...] doesn't mean she knows what V, W, X, and Y will be".
When asked about the title of book 24 in September 2013, Grafton told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the title "almost has to be Xenophobe or Xenophobia. I've checked the penal codes in most states and xylophone isn't a crime, so I'm stuck." In April 2015, she revealed that this novel breaks the pattern of the preceding 23 books, omitting the "is for" and alliterative word from the title.