I loved the Alphabet Series right up through F. They were
short, tight, and very blunt. Then we come to G IS FOR
GUMSHOE, and I almost dumped the series at that point. There
was too much novel and the Dietz subplot did nothing for me.
H IS FOR HOMICIDE brought Grafton back to form, but it just
wasn't the same as before.
And that's what I came away with after reading I IS FOR
INNOCENT. It's classic Kinsey. Her boss, now a lawyer instead
of an insurance company, is getting ready to sue David Barney
for wrongful death. Rather prescient when you consider this
was written pre-OJ. Barney was accused of murdering his wife
to get the proceeds from her estate. Her ex-husband,
concerned for his daughter's future, wants to give the civil
courts a shot. The original PI on the case dropped dead of a
heart attack, so Kinsey's asked to pinch hit. Not good since
the trial is a week away, and the deceased detective didn't
have the most organized notes in the world. In fact, he was
overbilling Lonnie Kingman, the lawyer, in a desperate
attempt to pay his dying wife's medical bills.
Kinsey dives in and soon starts to suspect the case is going
to fall apart. Barney starts to look innocent, especially
when he points out a police report that puts him two miles
from the crime scene during the window when Isabel Barney
could have been murdered. And there's no shortage of people
who had motives - A sister grown often left holding the bag -
and in one case, injured from - Mrs. Barney's wild ways, the
businessman who gave the Barneys their start, the
businessman's wife, and even a friend of the deceased with
something to hide that the truth eventually exposes. The book
is more intricately plotted than any Grafton novel to this
point, and the characters better fleshed out.
Unfortunately, it's also padded to an extent. While Grafton
has fun with some of the details and descriptions, she goes
overboard at times. One of the gems in the book is Kinsey
driving into a new yuppie development and sarcastically
describing the area in real estate jargon. However, she then
spends a page and a half describing a house where everything
is built to miniature proportions. It's almost as though, in
spite of Grafton's dislike of the marketing BS from realtors,
she's gotten very keen on houses and thinks the readers
should be, too. At least the Henry subplot, wherein Kinsey's
landlord has to deal with his annoying brother for a few
weeks, is kept to a minimum.
Despite the padding, this one hit all the right notes. It's
certainly better than the previous two Kinseys (and a damn
sight better than G), but some of the spark from the early
series is gone. I liked it, but it didn't knock me
over.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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