My Weekly Book

H is for Homicide, I is for Innocent and J is for Judgment- Sue Grafton

The next batch of Kinsey Millhone mysteries more or less inhaled at a sitting:

In H is for Homicide Kinsey is faced with investigating the death of a friend and former colleague who is found shot dead in the parking lot of California Fidelity insurance. Before she’s had a chance to make much headway at all she finds herself swept up in the dramas of an old school friend, helping to protect an insurance fraudster - and finally talked into entering a situation that could well prove beyond even her considerable talents.

In I is for Innocent we meet the charming David Barney - believed by everyone except the courts to be a wife-killer. Kinsey’s hired by her new landlord (in a professional sense, don’t be concerned about Henry Pitts), a street-fighting attorney named Lonnie Kingman, to come up with the goods for a civil suit against the man. Except before long she’s finding cans popping open stuffed to the gills with worms. If Barney didn’t kill his wife, who did? And why did the PI on the brink of solving the mystery have such a conveniently-timed fatal heart attack?

In J is for Judgment Kinsey comes smack up against her own past and motivations after being re-hired for a last dance with Mac Voorhies, her old boss at California Fidelity. She’s sent on vacation to La Paz in Mexico after a former agent sees a dead man alive and well in a bar there - a man whose wife’s picked up a cool half a million in life insurance payout. And, before she knows what’s hit her, she’s caught up in a family tragedy that unpredictably morphs into the story of her long-dead parents, the aunt who raised her and the horde of gossipy, demanding relatives she never knew she had. And, very probably, doesn’t want now.

It will be no surprise to anyone watching these books being digested without sufficient chewing in batches of three that I really enjoy the Kinsey Millhone series. I particularly like observing the way in which the author manages to make each one distinctive, and to raise the stakes for our Plucky Girl Detective each time. On the above occasions she is arguably in more physical peril, and certainly in more emotional peril, then we have seen her before.

There’s an interesting line in the I is for Innocent page on the author’s website which compares the book to a trial novel: a third for the prosecution, a third for the defence, a third for the denouement - but without any actual trial. And in both of the others she creates an extraordinary cast of supporting characters, giving them great depth and resonance. And this on top of some superb plotting.

I’m trying to make myself leave K on the shelf while I clear a backlog of Bookcrossing book rings that must, must, must go on to other people. It’s a hard job…

Some links:
Sue Grafton’s website: H is for Homicide
Sue Grafton’s website: I is for Innocent
Sue Grafton’s website: J is for Judgment

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 11:39 pm and is filed under 2007 reading challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.