Sunday Synopsis - G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton

 

G is for Gumshoe by Sue Grafton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I put off so long reading Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series. I just finished G is for Gumshoe, and in this book, we find Kinsey Millhone, private investigator, moving back into her garage apartment after it was blown up in the previous book.

Kinsey is hired by a new client who wants her to locate her elderly mother Agnes who was last living at The Slabs in the middle of the Mojave desert. Kinsey locates her at a hospital near The Slabs and says her daughter wants her to move to Santa Teresa to live with her. Agnes is frightened and just a little bit crazy. The reader will find out later why she was afraid and why she originally left Santa Teresa.

Kinsey also learns that a dangerous criminal, Tyrone Patty, has put a hit out on her and a few other people who helped the Carson City police department capture him. Sure enough, there is a hit man on her tail. After she is almost killed the first time, Kinsey hires Robert Dietz (former PI on a case she had helped with) to be her bodyguard.

Kinsey is running from a hit man and trying to chase down the mystery of her client's mother's whereabouts, which makes for a pretty wild ride. The two cases overlap near the end leading to Kinsey solving the mystery and escaping the hitman. You didn't think she was going to die, did you? She's the main character!

I like Grafton's novels because you know what you're going to get. You're going to get wisecracking Kinsey, a detective mystery, straightforward plots with a little complexity, and vivid descriptions. In the end, Kinsey always gets her "man" (whether it be male or female). It's a good go-to series when you want something not too heavy yet entertaining.

And when you end up abandoning two books in a row (One Day and Murder at Teal's Pond), you need to read something dependable. The Alphabet Series fits that bill.

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