Reviews

Love Kinsey, love this series. This entry offers a personal twist, in that Kinsey is visited by some relatives. I love how it's not all wrapped up at the end--it's left to hang, Kinsey has some concerns and questions and she flip-flops through the entire book about what to do with the revelation that she's not actually alone in the world. You can wrap up mysteries in one book--after all, that's the point--but personal drama in a series should never finish cleanly. In real life, it never does.

orygunn's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a pretty good one, although I can always use more Henry. Interesting that Grafton opened up more about Kinsey's history in this book, I think it will add an interesting dynamic as the books go forward.

kricketa's review against another edition

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3.0

in which kinsey visits mexico on the lookout for wendell jaffe, a ponzi schemer who staged his own suicide before leaving the country.

the thing that struck me yet again is that, for a self-alleged misanthrope, kinsey is really good at getting people to talk to her and trust her. she's constantly showing up unannounced at people's homes demanding information and they all invite her in for coffee and a chat, and allow her to come back even after she pisses them off. i know that this stuff makes the investigations work in the plot (dialogue with people face to face is much more interesting that reading transcripts of phone calls), but it's not that realistic.

not that i'm reading these because they're realistic or anything.

menniemenace's review against another edition

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3.0

Wasn't as fun, but the ending was kind of cool.

emilykathleenwrites's review against another edition

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3.0

Kinsey Millhone is 34, still living with Henery Pitts in Santa Theresa (Santa Barbara) CA. Wendell Jaffe has been dead for five years and his wife has just collected on his life insurance. It was believed he committed suicide after a Ponzi scheme he was running came crashing down. The only problem is that Wendell Jaffe was just spotted in Mexico alive and well.

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone is tapped by her former employer California Fidelity (the company who paid the life insurance claim) to fly down to Mexico to verify the tip. Jaffe's son Brian (a privileged white boy given the benefit of the doubt too many times) is in jail on a murder charge. Wendell heads north to try and help out, but it all goes wrong.

We also learn more about Kinsey's family, namely that she has one. Kinsey's parents were killed in a car accident when she was young and she was raised by a stern aunt. Her aunt died when Kinsey was in her twenties. She has always prided herself on being a loner but apparently, she's lived an hour away from a grandmother, and a host of cousins for the last 20 years and never knew it. - they never tried to reach out either. one conversation she had with a cousin had me yelling expletives.

I always appreciate the no-nonsense characteristics of Kinsey. She is tough and can more than hold her own in a male-dominated field. It's tough, though to ignore the stereotypes of Latino inmates Biran Jaffe gets mixed up within this book especially when compared to the "boys will be boys" attitude she has about Brian. There is also blatant body shaming. She refers to a woman who is 5'10" and 140 lbs as needing to lose some weight.

Had I read this book when it was published in 1993 I might have blown right by all this, but reading it in 2021 it sticks out like a sore thumb. I do this the stories are still worth reading especially if you like to study fast-paced plot-driven stories. It's easy to pick apart plotlines and dissect the structure.

This is the 10th book in the series and there is a new narrator on Audible. It's taking some time for me to get used to it.

A personal bonus is that Kinsy is a runner and the books are set on the Central Coast of CA... Two things the character and I have in common.

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