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A review by octavia_cade
D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Well this is depressing. It's well-written, and I zipped through it with pleasure, but there's no denying that it's just very, very sad. A drunk driver kills five people and when, a very few years later, he's let out of prison he end up dead. No surprise that it's one of the relatives of the victims who's done him in - the question the book's centred around is which one. I almost hoped it wouldn't be solved, because the ripple effects of that tragedy have clearly been profound and no one's really recovered. And let's face it, the murder victim was not the most sympathetic of men.
There are times when, reading mystery or crime novels, you can't help but think that the victim deserved it, and the kindest thing would be to let the perpetrators go. Just pretend not to see. I don't know how or even if that would work in real life, on a wider social level, but in a story? It's a bit of a shame that Kinsey just doesn't give up and let a more elemental form of justice prevail. Unfortunately she doesn't, and ends up just as traumatised as everyone else. No winners here.
There are times when, reading mystery or crime novels, you can't help but think that the victim deserved it, and the kindest thing would be to let the perpetrators go. Just pretend not to see. I don't know how or even if that would work in real life, on a wider social level, but in a story? It's a bit of a shame that Kinsey just doesn't give up and let a more elemental form of justice prevail. Unfortunately she doesn't, and ends up just as traumatised as everyone else. No winners here.