Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
Currently reading Sue Grafton's 23rd Kinsey Milhone outing W is for Wasted, and enjoying it. I'm about one-third through and can tell Ms. Milhone is headed for deep waters. A homeless person has died (apparently natural causes) and the only thing the coroner found was a slip of paper with Milhone Investigations and the phone number. The coroner contacted Kinsey who knew nothing about the person nor after seeing the body had never seen him. She's between cases so she decides to occupy her time trying to find out who this bum was. Questioning his friends (homeless people are loathe to give up any information about anything) she finds out his first name and that he served time, allowing the coroner to narrow it down and discover his identity. Meanwhile Kinsey has befriended one of the bums who wants her to help him recover the dead man's backpack from another group of bad bums. They recover the backpack after barely getting away from the bad bums, and discover a safe deposit key (unmarked) which lends credence to a rumor that the dead man had money. Equipped with a letter from the coroner and her PI license she starts visiting all the local banks, and finally discovers the correct bank. She and the coroner return the next day and get into the safe deposit box. To Kinsey's surprise the dead man has a deposit book with almost $600K, and a will appointing Kinsey as executor and leaving all the money to her!
It turns out that the dead man is a distant relative, perhaps a second cousin or something. Kinsey is an orphan raised by her grandmother who refused to discuss Kinsey's family so this is a complete surprise to her.
It turns out the man served about a dozen years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and was exonerated and released, he sued and settled for the $600K. He intended to reacquaint himself with his ex-wife and children but they refused to have anything to do with him, even knowing he was innocent!
So at this point in the story Kinsey has to visit the man's ex-family and inform them they have been disinherited of $600K which has instead been left to Kinsey. Pretty awkward, eh?
Sue Grafton started her Kinsey Milhone series with A is for Alibi and has followed the title format up to now her 23rd novel in the series. I'll admit the series isn't for everybody but if you're interested, start with A although W seems to stand on its own except you won't know the back story of the other recurring characters.
I'll bet money Grafton will write X, Y and Z in the next few years, and retire.
It turns out that the dead man is a distant relative, perhaps a second cousin or something. Kinsey is an orphan raised by her grandmother who refused to discuss Kinsey's family so this is a complete surprise to her.
It turns out the man served about a dozen years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and was exonerated and released, he sued and settled for the $600K. He intended to reacquaint himself with his ex-wife and children but they refused to have anything to do with him, even knowing he was innocent!
So at this point in the story Kinsey has to visit the man's ex-family and inform them they have been disinherited of $600K which has instead been left to Kinsey. Pretty awkward, eh?
Sue Grafton started her Kinsey Milhone series with A is for Alibi and has followed the title format up to now her 23rd novel in the series. I'll admit the series isn't for everybody but if you're interested, start with A although W seems to stand on its own except you won't know the back story of the other recurring characters.
I'll bet money Grafton will write X, Y and Z in the next few years, and retire.
