About the author: Sue Taylor Grafton (1940 – 2017) is best known as the author of the 25 "alphabet series" ("A" Is for Alibi, etc.) novels featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California (based upon Santa Barbara). She was the daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton.
Major characters:
- Laurence Fife, deceased from poison 8 years prior to story
- Nikki Fife, just released on parole, Laurence Fife's second (and final) wife
- Colin Fife, their son, who is deaf
- Elizabeth "Libby" Glass, accountant, deceased from poison 8 years prior to story
- Sharon Napier, Laurence Fife's former secretary, now a Vegas card dealer
- Charlie Scorsoni, Laurence Fife's former law partner
- Gwen ---, Laurence Fife's first wife
- Charlotte Mercer, Laurence Fife's former affair
- Lyle Abernathy, Libby's boyfriend
Locale: Santa Teresa, California and Las Vegas, Nevada
Synopsis: Kinsey Millhone, private detective, investigates the death of divorce lawyer Laurence Fife. His murder eight years earlier convicted his wife, Nikki Fife. Upon being released from prison, Nikki hires Kinsey to find the real murderer. In the course of the investigation, Kinsey becomes involved with Charlie Scorsoni, Fife's former law partner. She discovers Fife's death similar to that of Elizabeth "Libby" Glass in Los Angeles, his law firm's accountant; both died after taking poisonous oleander capsules. Kinsey reasons that if Nikki is indeed innocent, the real killer is comfortable after eight years and will not stand for the reopening of any investigation. Kinsey goes to Las Vegas to interview Fife's former secretary, Sharon Napier, who is killed minutes before Kinsey arrives; proving her supposition correct (portions from Wikipedia, edited for brevity and to remove spoilers).
Review: I had read through this alphabet series a few years back, (prior to my review blogging) and this is the beginning of my second trip through. I had always found these books warm and appealing, with believable characters and descriptions; and it was time to revisit them.
The story tries to unravel happenings from eight years prior, but Kinsey is up to the task; and illustrates how the career of a P.I. is not wearing a trench coat and pretending to read a newspaper while leaning against a lamppost, but rather plodding searches of public records.
I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Nikki signing with Colin (her son, who is deaf). She described how a person fluent in sign language can carry one on conversation with her hands while having a totally independent conversation verbally with a third person. Having seen this happen in person, it is quite impressive. I found it similar to my experience as a ham radio operation in having a conversation in Morse code with another operator, while having a side conversation verbally.
There are some twists at the end when the killer(s) are identified, although I found one of them quite a stretch - but being the first in the series, forgivable. Grafton uses a Christie-like sequence of misleading the reader by having multiple killers instead of one.
Warning: I learned that Wikipedia has plot summaries of these books, but beware: spoilers abound. I made the mistake of looking before finishing the book, and I couldn't "unread" them! I won't do that again.
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