Review by Booklist Review
Grafton's fifteenth entry in her popular alphabet series has supersleuth Kinsey Millhone investigating a particularly nasty murder. Bader Malek has died, leaving his three sons squabbling over a considerable fortune. A fourth son, Guy, was sent away in disgrace years earlier after a series of juvenile arrests for drugs, drinking, and assorted scams. Hoping Guy is dead or unfindable so they can split his share of the fortune, the three remaining Maleks figure they ought to make a good-faith effort to find him, so they hire Kinsey, who discovers Guy living a few hundred miles away, working as a church janitor. Surprisingly, he has turned over a new leaf and has become a born-again Christian. Once Kinsey finds him and breaks the news of his inheritance, he decides to return home to reconcile with his brothers. Bad idea. Two days later, Guy is found dead. Reenter Kinsey, who's developed an affection for the unassuming Guy, perhaps because his family problems remind her of her own troubled history. The cops arrest one of Guy's sibs for the murder, but Kinsey's not sure he's the killer. She figures the murder is linked to Guy's checkered past and sets out--successfully, of course--to prove her point. One can only marvel at Grafton's seemingly endless stock of adventurous and inventive plots and hope that a finite alphabet won't limit her to just 26 mysteries. --Emily Melton
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Approaching middle age warily, PI Kinsey Millhone of the Southern California coast is mildly depressed, romantically vulnerable and in the process of reassessing her family ties. Yet, when it comes to her professional abilities, she's at the top of her form, as this deftly plotted and absorbing novel (her 13th appearance, after L Is for Lawless) proves. Bader Malek, a local industrial tycoon, has died, and his four sons now stand to inherit a substantial fortune. But one of them, Guy, has been missing since 1968. A drug addict, ne'er-do-well and all-around miscreant, Guy had been disinherited by his exasperated father shortly before he vanished. But that particular will has disappeared, and Kinsey has been hired by the family to find out if Guy is still alive and thus in line to collect his original portion of the estate. She quickly succeeds in locating him and brings back a sweet, guileless and totally reformed man. But is he? The three other brothersa truly devious, arrogant and greedy lotare deeply ambivalent about Guy's return. A murder in the family leaves the surviving Malek kin as prime suspects. This is a subtle and swiftly moving novel, pleasantly unpredictable, with an agreeable overlay of smoldering romance, as fellow PI and former lover Robert Dietz reenters Kinsey's life. Grafton's heroinemore introspective, yet still feisty and surefootedleads this finely tuned and at times electrifying tale to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. 1,000,000 first printing. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Four heirs ask series star Kinsey Milhone to find their missing black sheep brotherperhaps just to fleece him. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
YAAs the alphabet of crime continues, Kinsey looks for Guy Malek, the missing son and partial heir to a huge fortune. She finds him, but then he is murdered. During their short friendship, Kinsey comes to believe that Guy's Christian conversion had been genuine and that he had been clean of drugs for most of his 17-year absence. The background provides scenes of disrupted family life in the 1970s. The informal style, witty repartee, and Kinsey's personality should appeal to teens.Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
If only Bader Malek, head of Santa Teresa's Malek Construction, had held onto his last will--the one disinheriting his wayward son Guy in favor of his three brothers who dutifully stayed the course at their father's house--the surviving Maleks wouldn't have to hire Kinsey Millhone to dig up the brother they wish would just stay lost, or at least sign a quitclaim to his $5 million share of the estate. But it looks as if Bader's old will, which duly mentions Guy along with all the others, will hold up, so Kinsey--setting aside her old lover Robert Dietz, who's turned up again like a bad penny of her own--goes hunting for Guy, last seen departing the family manse in 1968 amid a cloud of drink and drugs and a reputation for having raised every sort of hell within his reach. It's so easy for Kinsey to find Guy, now a janitor/handyman at Peter Antle's Jubilee Evangelical Church, that you just know that something besides the fatted calf will be killed at the prodigal's homecoming, and sure enough, Guy, improbably sweetened by his long exile, is bludgeoned to death as he sleeps in his father's house. Is the killer construction heir- apparent Donovan Malek, slick, self-described venture capitalist Bennet, or golfer Jack, the lightweight family mascot who never got over his infatuation with his missing brother? Or does the family disharmony go deeper than mere greed into a truly malicious series of betrayals? Polished, heartfelt work from Grafton (``L'' is for Lawless, 1995, etc.), though you wouldn't give the antique plot the time of day if it weren't for Kinsey. (First printing of 1,000,000; author tour; radio satellite tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by School Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
