SOURCE: Review of “P” Is for Peril, by Sue Grafton. Publishers Weekly 248, no. 21 (21 May 2001): 84.

In the following review, the critic offers a negative assessment of “P” Is for Peril, criticizing Grafton's “lackluster characters.”

PI Kinsey Millhone's trademark dry sense of humor is largely absent in the first half of [“P” Is for Peril,] the 15th book in this justifiably popular series, though it resurfaces as the suspense finally begins to build in the second half. In the bleak November of 1986, Kinsey looks into the disappearance of Dr. Dowan Purcell, who's been missing for nine weeks. Dr. Purcell is an elderly physician who runs a nursing home that's being investigated for Medicare fraud. His ex-wife, Fiona, hires Kinsey when it seems as though the police have given up on the search. Fiona thinks that he could be simply hiding out somewhere, especially since he's pulled a disappearance stunt twice...