My review

       Full discloser I read this book several months ago and I have read all the way to H is for Homicide. Some of this review may reference things that occur in other books, but none of these facts will be spoilers. 

     Kinsey is a relatable female lead for me personally. I've never been great at being "girly". I wouldn't take it as far as she does with cutting her hair with nail clippers, but it is nice to have a female lead that doesn't strive to be anything other than herself. Well, except when she is undercover. She doesn't take herself too seriously, and she makes mistakes. A lot of them. But she doesn't let it get her down, and she tries to remedy them to the best of her abilities. 

      Keep in mind this is a bit of an "older" book. The technology is outdated in the story, but I don't find it to be a bad thing. It matches the time and setting of the book. This series gives you a "slice of life" meets "mystery/crime/ detective" . You hang out with Kinsey throughout the book and hunt down clues with her through to the end. Sometimes I find the foreshadowing a little on the nose, but it is also a pretty low stakes series for me. I did get very into the book. I was bummed when I had to put it away for the moment, and thought about Kinsey and the mystery throughout the day until I could pick it up again later. 

     This book in particular ended quite abruptly and that threw me off. I also saw the plot twist coming, but that wasn't a huge bummer for me. Kinsey goes running. A lot. It made me want to start running again, but I live in Florida and it is summer. No thanks. Like I said earlier. She makes a lot of mistakes. Some of them are a little frustrating, and I'd like to think I wouldn't have made that mistake if I was a professional Private Investigator. There is a slight love interest, but it never really got serious. They were just too different which we kind of knew from the beginning. Grafton didn't make us pine for a relationship that was rocky to begin with. 

     Overall, I recommend this series and this book. I bet you'll like Kinsey, human error and all. See if you can out investigate her and put together the clues before Millhone. Don't let the ending scare you away. They don't all end that abruptly, but it did draw me into the second book, which does continue Millhone's story, but the plot of book A is left behind. A few mainstay characters carry over from book to book, but the cases don't cross over (yet?). 

My Review