R is for Ricochet - Sue Grafton

At last, Kinsey rediscovers her love life and her libido!! I get the feeling that Sue Grafton had second thoughts about writing off Cheney Philips as a potential lover in her last novel, and managed to finagle him back into batchelorhood, and as prime candidate for Kinsey's attentions. At the same time, Robert Dietz is written off as an absent object of Kinsey's affections and the door closed firmly on her affair from the early alphabet novels.

Added to this upturn in Kinsey's affairs of the heart is the tension between her neighbour Henry and his brothers, clashing over the romantic attentions of a youthful seventy-something they'd met on a recent cruise.

And added to that we have Reba, the ex-con Kinsey agrees to chaperone for the first few days on parole, and who shows up Kinsey as a goody two shoes. A contrast that's no mean feat given Kinsey's track record of lock picking and law bending. A cracking story, although the baddies could have been drawn more darkly, and where of where has the long-lost-family subplot gone to?

Buy it: Amazon link