Just two weeks after the events of ‘A’ is for Alibi, Kinsey Millhone is hitting a slow time at the office. Unfortunately, this is put a stop to by Beverly Danziger; she wants Kinsey to find her sister Elaine Boldt. There’s a small legal matter that Beverly needs Elaine’s signature; one so small, she could just look for Elaine herself. Yet she’s asking Kinsey to find her instead. The whole affair doesn’t sit well with Kinsey. And if there’s something she’s learned in her line of work, it’s to always follow your instincts…
Kinsey’s instincts prove right when she begins to dig into Elaine’s whereabouts and discovers that the attractive widow was last seen in a flashy lynx coat boarding a plane for her apartment in Boca Raton. But the more Kinsey searches for Elaine the more questions she encounters. Is Elaine’s disappearance tied to the brutal murder of one of her bridge partners, and the subsequent arson of the victim’s house, that occurred several months ago? And what happened to Charles Mingus, Elaine’s Persian cat, who seems to have also vanished between California and Boca Raton?
I loved this book as much as I loved the first one. Kinsey seems to every book be collecting her own AARP version of the Baker Street Irregulars; first Rosie and Henry, now Julia Oschner, the firecracker Elaine has as a neighbor down in Boca Raton. If Kinsey wasn’t enough of a draw, you have those three to relish. As Rosie and Henry have appeared two books in a row, I am desperately hoping this isn’t the only time we’ll see Julia. Detective Dolan, Kinsey’s frenemy in the force, also makes a cameo; I can only assume he’ll have a larger part as the series progresses. And joining Colin in the “so beautiful it hurts” club is Mike, the arson victim’s nephew by marriage. Ms. Grafton seems to have a habit of writing incredibly beautiful teenage boys; you know they are, because Kinsey comments on it (not in a sexual way; more of an admiring way.)
Kinsey is written like a real person; she’s petty sometimes, she sometimes misses clues, she has a temper, she jogs though she hates exercise; she eats mostly junk food, gets hurt, and is like a dog with a bone when she gets a mystery in her sight. I know I said in my review of Alibi that she would get along great with McGuire’s Toby Daye, but I would also add Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow and Lawrence Sanders’ Edward X Delaney from The First Deadly Sin. Plus, the entire book is written as the summation report she throws in her files at the end of each case, which is a unique writing style; I like it, but it’s unique.
The mystery will keep you guessing until the end (or at least it did with me). I figured out part of the why, and some of the who, but the total was a complete surprise. And may I say, the murderer is one of the creepier ones I’ve read about it a while. I’m sorry we don’t see Dolan’s reaction to Kinsey solving the case, or how she went about doing so; the fireworks could probably be used in a Fourth of July display.
This is also the book where you discover that Kinsey used to be on the police force, as well as a further look into her childhood. I am sorry we’ll never get to meet her aunt; not only can I see where Kinsey got her personality from, but from the sound of her I think I can also see where Donna Andrews got inspirations for Meg’s grandmother Cordelia from.
I would recommend this series if you like Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett potboilers, good old standard mysteries, or series with strong and realistic female leads.
