The very first of mystery writer Sue Grafton's "alphabet" series that I ever read was "L" is for Lawless, several years ago. I had completely forgotten what happened in it, though, and welcomed a reread. In it, California-based private detective Kinsey Millhone finds herself sucked into a no-win scenario after her benevolent landlord, octogenarian Henry Pitts, asks her to look after a small matter concerning a recently deceased neighbor. Originally a simple investigation to get his burial and grave site taken care of by the Veteran's Administration for his service in World War II, Kinsey eventually finds herself an unwitting party to a father and daughter's attempts to recover long-hidden loot from a decades-old bank heist while avoiding pursuit by a murderous man bent on reaching the prize first...and killing them all in the process. This story was interesting in that it shows how people can gradually find themselves over their heads in matters not of their concern if they're not careful...
As for "M" is for Malice, I read that one a couple of years ago and wrote about it on this blog, so I skipped it this go-around on my alphabetical journey through Grafton's series. Here is a link to that article...
The last Sue Grafton book I've read, "N" is for Noose, was a fresh story for me. In it, Kinsey is, for the most part, in Carson City, Nevada, taking care of her friend, fellow private eye Robert Dietz, as he recovers from leg surgery. As in "L" is for Lawless, she finds herself in an unwinnable situation after Dietz asks her to look into the concerns of Selma, a widow of Tom, a police officer there who had died of a heart attack after weeks of appearing disturbed about something. Kinsey's task is to find out what that "something" was...once again things get out of control as she discovers the connection between two murders-by-hanging out in the nearby desert, spaced five years apart, and Tom's scribbling of a noose with a numerical code written within it. What do the numbers mean? Of course, Kinsey is going to discover the answer...although in retrospect she isn't sure that it might have just been better had she simply walked away from the case...
I haven't yet read a single Sue Grafton novel that I didn't enjoy. One reason for this is the first-person narrative by a truly sympathetic character, Kinsey Millhone. Kinsey has her weak moments, to be sure, but she also possesses a degree of self-confidence and assertiveness...along with a tight grip on reality...that I admire. Let's see...Grafton just got through the letter "X" with her writing, so at this stage I have ten more of these books to read before I "catch up" to her...
