Lou's Reviews

The latest in the Alphabet books by Sue Grafton.

~Background~

A bit of background for anyone who hasn't heard of them. The Alphabet books are of the crime/drama genre and A is for Alibi was first published in 1983. The main character is Kinsey Millhone, a ex police officer now turned private investigator. She lives in a flat attached to the house of her landlord and now good friend Henry. Other recurring characters include, Rosie the owner of the local tavern, who serves some of the vilest sounding Eastern European food! William, who is Henry's brother and now Rosie's partner and Lonnie Kingman, Kinsey's friend and legal advisor. Although these characters occur in all the books, and there are some other minor characters who pop up now and then, the books are all stand alone books. While knowing and investing in the characters adds to the enjoyment, it is quite possible to enjoy each book without reading the entire series.

~Short Synopsis~

Kinsey's neighbour Mr Gus Vronsky has a tumble at his home, leaving him requiring the services of a home help/nurse to assist his day to day living. His only relative (his great grand niece) lives too far away to help, so flies in to hire someone.

A shortage of applicants means she hurriedly hires Solana Rojas, and asks Kinsey to do a background check on her.

The background check shows Solana to be a efficient if rather strict and staid nurse. There's nothing to suggest that Solana will be any trouble at all. However, Solana is not all she seems and soon Kinsey has to re-evaluate her impresses of the nurse. And Gus steadily gets worse rather than better.

Kinsey is also hired to investigate the claims of a young woman accused of causing a road traffic accident. The young woman claims the couple suing her deliberately hit her, whilst the couple insist than she pulled out on them, causing a lot of pain and suffering.

~My Thoughts~

As usual Sue Grafton comes up trumps. The book is very easy reading, although i can lead to late nights and tiredness in the morning as you think 'I'll just read one more chapter', and that chapter turns into another and another, lol.
The characters all work really well together, and despite some of them appearing in every book they never get boring. In fact its good to know what it happening in their lives.

I like the way Sue has continued on from S is for Silence (where she first introduced 3rd party points of view) and writes from both Kinsey's and Solana's points of view. It means you can really get into Solana's mind and get an understanding of what makes her tick.

I also like the fact Sue has covered the little written about subject of elderly abuse, child abuse books are a dime a dozen, but elderly abuse is barely mentioned.

The only problem was the ending was a little weak, but not enough to take away from the fact it was a great book.

~Availability~

From all book sellers, currently priced at Amazon for £8.36 in paperback or £8.44 in hardback.