I love a good mystery. One of my favorite authors is Sue Grafton who writes a series of mysteries that have been nick named the alphabet mysteries. The name was given to them because Grafton has been writing each of her books in alphabetical order and assigns a new letter to the alphabet in the title of each book. For example the first book in the series is entitled A is for Alibi, the second B is for Burglar, etc. etc. she is currently up to R. The mysteries to do not need to be read in order in fact I myself have never read the first one. Kinsey the main character often introduces herself in the beginning of each book and tells a brief history of her life. I tend to read them as I find them and recently I came across D is for Deadbeat which is of course the 4th book in the series.

Main Character Introduction

Kinsey Millhone is the main character in the alphabet series. Kinsey is a private detective in the Santa Teresa, California area. She is single (divorced twice) and lives alone. She is a former police officer but prefers being self employed. She is in her thirties and currently works out of an office that is rented to her and is adjoining to an insurance company that she had previously worked for as an insurance fraud investigator. She occasionally still does jobs for them at least at the time of the book I am reviewing.


The Plot of D is for Deadbeat

A man by the name of John Daggit comes in to Kinsey’s office. He has what seems like a very simple job for her. Deliver a certified check to someone for $25,000. Of course life just isn’t that simple and we learn that John Daggit has been recently released from prison for a reckless homicide charge of which he killed 5 people. Kinsey finds that the person the check is meant for is the surviving son and brother of a man, woman, and young girl who were killed in the accident. Along with that family there were two other victims. But when Daggits body is found laying dead on the beach this case becomes a lot more than just a simple delivery of a check. Now it becomes a possible murder case and now Kinsey must figure out who killed John Daggit. A lot of people had reasons to not like John Daggit and the suspect list is very long. Can Kinsey figure out who murdered John Daggit? Will she deliver the check? To find out you will have to read D is for Dead Beat by Sue Grafton.

My Thoughts

This book hit a little too close to home for me as two close relatives of mine were killed by a motorist who was allegedly under the influence. One of the victims was just 31 years old and the other who would have been my nephew, but now I will never have a chance to meet him, as my Sister in Law was pregnant at the time she was killed. I didn’t realize what this story was about when I got the book. Since I am a big Sue Grafton/Kinsey Milhone fan, I try to read each of her books as I come across them, so when I got this one book I did not even read the back cover before plunging in to the story line. Parts of the book were actually painful to me but still I forged ahead.

A great deal of the book had Kinsey interviewing the surviving family members of the victims. It also explored the pain and anger of John Daggit’s own family members and how they dealt with his alcoholism problem and eventually his killing of innocent victims. All of the surviving victims had a great deal of pain and anger and these feelings are all quite understandable under the circumstances.

The alphabet series varies so much with its cases some of them are quite serious, and some of them are a little bit silly, we are talking about things ranging to theft, to missing persons, insurance fraud, and murder. But this one was probably one of the most emotional books out of the ones that I have read so far in the series.

The book has a couple of suspenseful moments and once the book gets towards the end it is hard to walk away from. While there is some suspense there is not really a whole lot of action. The book I would say is more emotion based than action based. The mystery part of the book I thought was pretty good, I did not guess who the killer was until about a chapter before it was revealed and even then I was not really sure. Grafton also adds the occasional witty line and sentiment to Kinsey’s character which makes her a very human and likable character.

This is one of the better books in the Alphabet series though I don’t think that it is the best. Fans of the series will probably really like this one. People reading this one as a first timer of the series would probably like it as well. I do recommend this well written mystery by Sue Grafton.



Another Kinsey Millhone Mystery from the alphabet series
M is for Malice

http://www.epinions.com/content_108192763524

Recommended: Yes