"D" Is for Deadbeat : A Kinsey Milhone Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Where's The Actual Killer Hiding Out?
Review: The client came to Kinsey Millhone with an easy job she thought-deliver $25,000 to a fifteen-year-old kid. A little odd, and Kinsey wasn't sure what to make of this thing. So she takes Alvin Limardo's retainer check anyhow. It turns out that his real name is not Alvin Limardo, but John Daggett. And the check of course, is as phony as he is. John Daggett has 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 see him dead. There was four in particular that REALLY wanted him dead. Kinsey knew his death was no suicide-it was a plan to kill John. But which one of the four did it? Kinsey must put her detective skills to work and find out someone's secret.

Rating:
Summary: Another great book in the series
Review: The ending to this book caught me by surprise. Great work, Grafton

Rating:
Summary: I liked it!
Review: The funniest passages in this book involve the deadbeat's wife/widow (and she's not who you think in the beginning of the book) both at home and later at the funeral parlor. (Sue Grafton does funny funerals). When I first read this book, I snickered over the anniversary picture description, Kinsey's Sunday School memories, and her Wonder Woman sheets for days. Then I handed it to my mother and said, "you have to read this. It's FUNNY." She liked it, too. Like most of the "Alphabet" books, this one builds to a tension-filled last chapter, with the "respectfully submitted" epilogue that wraps it up for this go-around.

Rating:
Summary: Five stars just for the ending!
Review: When I started 'D', I wasn't finding the plot to be among the most thrilling, especially having come from the captivating 'C'...however, there must have been something there because I shot through this one. And, as the title of my review says, the ending makes the entire story worthwhile. It's not so much even the twist as it is the manner in which Grafton writes it.