K is for killer – Sue Grafton

I abandoned my Herefordshire haul in favour of the next letter of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series … borrowed from the Barbican Library in lieu of the Lonely Planet Guide to the Ukraine (still out on loan, despite my having put in a request for it over three weeks ago – bah!). Actually, I’d had to call this one back from the mysterious ‘stack’. Quite why some of the series get to stay out on the shelves and others don’t is another mystery.

But Barbican mysteries aside; K is for Killer is another quick and easy read, this time putting Kinsey on the trail of the murderer of a high class call girl come proto-porn star whose decomposing body had drawn a blank for the Santa Theresa police. With no reference to Kinsey’s long-lost family, Killer felt a bit of a filler, but then again you can understand wariness in a character who’s spent most of her childhood an orphan, and most of her adult life living alone suddenly finding out she’s got aunts, uncles and cousins, and a weathy grandmother who disowned Kinsey’s mother.

A suitable read for the Astraeus flight from Gatwick to Simferolpol, and H and my first day in Yalta.

Buy it: Amazon link

J is for Judgment – Sue Grafton

Back to Sue Grafton and Kinsey Millhone before my library copy of J is for Judgment was due back… to encounter an interesting and major twist in the gradually unfolding of Kinsey’s own history and character.

The main plot involves the Robert Maxwell-like disappearance and presumed death of a con man, and the effect on those around him – friends and family, co-cons and victims. But the most interesting parts are about Kinsey herself; her past and her family.

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I is for Innocent – Sue Grafton

Hot on the heels of H is for Homicide, I induldged in a bank holiday excess of amercian crime fiction with the follow up case for Californian PI, Kinsey Millhone.

I is for Innocent deals with the priveledged and wealthy of St Theresa county, in contrast to the gangland culture in the previous book. The characters are equally rich, with Kinsey picking up the the investigative trail followed by another PI, whose fatal heart attack proves not to be quite as innocent as it first seemed.

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H is for Homicide – Sue Grafton

Investigating the murder of a former colleague, Kinsey gets embroiled with an on-the-run modern day gangster’s moll, and ends up going undercover with the insurance scam gang, where more of her dark side is revealed when she joins in with the fake accident and whiplash episodes.

A fun read.

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G is for Gumshoe – Sue Grafton

Another good read from Sue Grafton, doing exactly what it says on the cover. There are a few more backward-looking references and a bit more action for Kinsey, on a variety of fronts: she travels to a Mojave desert community to locate a missing old lady, and winds up with a hitman on her tail, a body guard and a mystery that turns into multiple murder…..

Now all I need to do is find H is for …. in the Barbican library when I take this one back!

Buy it: Amazon link