After Kinsey's last couple of adventures (misadventures?), I really thought H is for Homicide was going to be comparatively quiet and lowkey. She does deserve a little downtime. Just an ordinary run of the mill case, a straightforward California Fidelity insurance claim investigation. I mean fraud is sort of banal, right? After the last couple of rounds--practically being blown up by a bomb, losing her garage apartment to an explosion and then having a hit man after her, even a homicide shouldn't put her in too much danger.
To be honest I was thinking that this installment actually sounded a little boring in comparison to her life thus far. At the opening of the story two things help set the tone. First, one Gordon Titus has been transferred to the Santa Teresa office of California Fidelity. He's an efficiency expert and you can probably guess what that means. He's not going to like how Kinsey, just a contracted agent essentially, operates. The other morale buster is the recent death, a murder, of one of CF's agents--Parnell Perkins.
This is where the story begins, but it quickly veers off track and it never quite returns until the final pages. Somehow despite it all Grafton manages to weave it all together seamlessly, and while not everything is quite resolved, she is about to pick up one of the threads in I is for Innocent.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Put the murder out of your mind. Accident insurance fraud is not what you would call a very sexy crime. You know, people who cause an accident and then claim whiplash to get a big payout. Pretty smarmy really, but also kind of mundane. And this is what Kinsey is working on at the start of the book Following quick on the heels of her not at all auspicious meeting with Gordon Titus, Kinsey begins looking into a claim that was flagged as being suspicious.
Pounding the pavement. Asking questions, fact checking, going to the library to do research (one of the things I love about these books is the time period where technology is really limited) are things Kinsey is really good at. She is trying to track down the whereabouts of a woman who has filed an accident claim--Bibianna Diaz. Bibianna is a force to be reckoned with. When Kinsey does find her she knows she has to gain her trust to milk her for information and get evidence.
Kinsey has no idea what she is about to get into. Is it when Bibianna is taken at gunpoint or when both women are booked into jail that the two click? if I thought this was going to be a boring case for Kinsey, I was wrong. She spends the bulk of the story holed up with Bibianna in the company of LA gang members who are part of a larger group of criminals working a fraudulent accident claim ring. They are making thousands of dollars staging fake accidents. To ensure her cover Kinsey must taker part in the crimes, and leave it to Kinsey to find she is actually good at it.
Another excellent installment in Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries series. She never ceases to amaze me. Kinsey is a hoot. She cracks me up with the things she does and says. She is not infallible and she has her shortcomings, but she is such an interesting and likable character. She has moxie and brains and I think she has become my favorite sleuth. Onwards to letter "I".
Hi Danielle,
So glad you're still a devoted Kinsey fan. I just finished O is for Outcast, and sometimes I think she is becoming more and more admirably brazen with every book. I love her mouth--she was really shooting it off in this one. P is for Peril is around the corner for me, but I've got so many series going. Reading Maisie Dobbs #4, have 15 pages left, and as always I am so sad at the thought of leaving her world and her people, bereft almost. Sigh.
Posted by: Judith | January 23, 2019 at 04:47 PM
I read most of the book yesterday in almost only one sitting (we had a snow day from work. The books are so engrossing--and Kinsey does have such a great voice it is hard to put the books down! She really is brazen, which is part of her charm. I love her asides and the dry sense of humor she has. I am hoping to finish the series this year, though we'll see. Like you say, there are so many series to read. I need to pick up the last Maisie Dobbs before the new book comes out in March. I want to get back to Mary Ruseell, too. But I might squeeze in an Agatha Christie on the side....
Posted by: Danielle | January 23, 2019 at 10:07 PM