DescriptionThis is the 19th novel in Sue Grafton's ever popular "alphabet" series featuring PI Kinsey Millhone. Just after Independence Day in July 1953, Violet Sullivan, a local good-time girl living in Serena Station, Southern California, drives off in her brand new Chevy and is never seen again. Left behind is her young daughter, Daisy, and Violet's impetuous husband, Foley, who had been persuaded to buy his errant wife the car only days before. Now, 35 years later, Daisy wants closure. Reluctant to open such an old and cold case, Kinsey Millhone agrees to spend five days investigating, believing at first that Violet simply moved on to new pastures. But very soon it becomes clear that a lot of people shared a past with Violet, a past that some are still desperate to keep hidden. And in a town as close-knit as Serena, there aren't many places to hide when things turn vicious.
DescriptionIt is now nine weeks since Dr Dowan Purcell vanished without trace. The 69-year-old doctor said goodnight to his colleagues at the Pacific Meadows nursing home, climbed into his car, drove away, and was never seen again. His embittered first wife, Fiona, is convinced he is still alive. His second wife, Crystal, a former stripper 40 years his junior, is just as sure he is dead. Enter private investigator Kinsey Millhone, hired by Fiona to find out just what has happened to the man she loved. Enter also Tommy Hevener, an attractive, flame-haired 20-something who has set his romantic sights on Kinsey. And Tommy is a man with a very interesting past.
DescriptionKinsey Millhone: female, age 32, self-employed, and wiser than she used to be. For this private investigator, only one thing stays the same. When a client sits down in the chair across the desk, she never knows what's going to happen next. Business was slow, and there was nothing about Beverly Danziger to cause Kinsey concern. She was looking for her sister. She paid up front. And if it seemed a lot of money for a routine job, Kinsey wasn't going to argue. She kicked herself later for the things she didn't see. But by then she was in danger, and money was the last thing on her mind.
DescriptionKinsey meets him in the local gym. Bobby Callahan is a scarred young man struggling back to life after a car forced his Porsche over the edge of a canyon, battering his body and muddling his memory. All he remembers is that someone, for some reason, tried to kill him. Desperate for clues about his own past life and certain he is being stalked, he asks Kinsey to protect him. Kinsey can't resist the brave kid, and neither can the killers. Three days later Bobby is dead. In C Is for Corpse, Kinsey must capture a cold-blooded killer before he kills again.
DescriptionLaurence Fife was a slick divorce lawyer and slippery ladies' man. Until someone killed him. The jury believed that it was his pretty young wife Nikki, so they sent her to prison for eight years. Now, Nikki's out on parole and Kinsey Millhone's in for trouble. Nikki hires Kinsey to discover who really killed her husband. But the trail is eight years cold, and at the end is a chilling twist even Kinsey doesn't suspect, a second eight-year-old murder and a brand new corpse.
DescriptionFinding wealthy Elaine Boldt seems like a quickie case to Kinsey Millhone. The flashy widow was last seen wearing a $12, 000 lynx coat, leaving her condo in Santa Teresa for her condo in Boca Raton. But somewhere in between, she vanished. Kinsey's case goes from puzzling to sinister when a house is torched, an apartment is burgled of worthless papers, the lynx coat comes back without Elaine, and her bridge partner is found dead. Soon Kinsey's clues begin to form a capital M, not for missing, but for murder: and plenty of it.
DescriptionThe client came to Kinsey Millhone with an easy job, just deliver $25, 000 to a fifteen-year-old kid. A little odd, and a little too easy, but Kinsey took Alvin Limardo's retainer check anyway. It turned out to be as phony as he was. In real life, his name was John Daggett, a chronic drunk with a record as long as your arm and a reputation for sleazy deals. But he wasn't just a deadbeat. By the time Kinsey caught up with him, he was a dead body, with a whole host of people who were delighted to hear the news. But how do you make a stiff pay up what he owes you?
