‘K’ Is For Killer by Sue Grafton

Synopsis:

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her.

Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious: Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she hadn't died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file.

Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder.

In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door.

In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind.

I just need to mention how much I love Kinsey as a character. I feel like I identify with her and her sassiness and general inability to deal with people’s nonsense. She makes me laugh every time I read one of the books. She also has actual deep feeling though, and those were on display in this book with Danielle. It is a shame we will not be able to know whether they could develop a deeper friendship or not.

This was one of those mystery books were everyone seems like they are guilty. They are all a little bit off, and I was almost positive that everyone was guilty at one point. I am extremely dissatisfied with how this novel closed though. I feel like there was no real conclusion and that it wasn’t actually solved.

I wish we would have figured out more about the motive of the murder, more about the relationships that Lorna had with people, and who the heck she was getting married to. There were a lot of things that I wanted more of, but I guess it would have been too long of a book at that point.

Reading about Kinsey barely sleeping and then messing up her sleeping schedule was also hilarious and I felt myself identifying with her more.

If we could  have gotten more of a resolution and a deeper dive into the relationships, this book would get a full 5-star rating.

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: "I'm the current ranking expert at reading upside down and seldom hesitate to insert myself into matters that are not my concern."

“Sometimes anxiety and caffeine have the same effect.”

“I could feel my stomach lurch at the thought of more coffee. The cups I’d consumed were already making my brain vibrate like an out-of-balance washing machine.”

“I fell asleep wondering if there was a cause-and-effect relationship between memory loss and abstinence. Apparently so, as that was the last thing I was aware of for the next four hours.”

“If I’d gone to bed at nine or even ten o’clock, I could have slept through the night. But now my sleep permit had reached its expiration point. Having stayed awake this long, I was consigned to further wakefulness.”

“’I didn’t actually say that, but if I did, I lied. I’m really a wretched person. I’m sorry you didn’t understand that. Now get out of my car’”

“My phone rang at noon. I’d been awake for an hour but unwilling to stir. Having completed my transmigration into the nocturnal realms, I found the notion of getting up any time before two repugnant.”

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