‘L’ Is For Lawless by Sue Grafton

Synopsis:

When Kinsey Millhone's landlord asks her to help deceased World War II vet Johnnie Lee's family find out why the military has no record of his service, she thinks it'll be a cinch. But she is about to meet her match in world-class prevaricators who take her for the ride of her life.
When Lee's apartment in burgled and a man named Ray Rawson, who claims to be an old friend of Lee's, is beaten up, Kinsey soon finds herself on the trail of a pregnant woman with a duffel bag. Soon the intrepid P.I. is following leads halfway across the country and encountering another man from Lee's past—a vengeful psychopath.
Stalked by a new enemy and increasingly suspicious of Rawson—not to mention running out of time and money—now Kinsey must steer a collision course to solve a decades-old mystery that some would like better left unsolved.…

L is another action-packed and thrilling installment in the Kinsey Millhone series. This one barely takes place in California as Kinsey is forced to Texas while following a lead.

It seems that she got into more nonsense than usual this time around. I mean, she stole a maid’s uniform and pretended she was part of housekeeping. Meanwhile,  I was laughing through it all.

These books have a way of being highly entertaining and humorous while maintaining integrity and offering up a true thriller.

L keeps you on your toes and keeps the pages turning.

4/5 stars only because I missed the California crew.

Memorable Quotes: “I don’t mean to be a bitch, but in the future I intend to hesitate before I do a favor for the friend of a friend.”

“This is the beauty of keeping up those skills. In a crisis situation, I had only to open my mouth and a fib flopped out. An unpracticed liar can’t always rise to the occasion like I can.”

“There’s a certain horror when you can’t quite remember who’s whistling so merrily behind the bathroom door. Often, when I found out, I couldn’t help but question my taste in male companionship. It didn’t take long to see morality as the quickest way to avoid self-loathing.”

“’What do you know about family?’

‘Not a thing. That’s my point. I like all this bickering now that I’ve got the hang of it.’”

“So far, almost everything I’d done was illegal except the vacuuming – breaking into hotel rooms, aiding and abetting escaped felons. Probably even the vacuuming broke some union contract. Why bother to get prissy at this late date?”

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If These Walls Could Talk by Mark Lazerus

Synopsis:

Led by stars like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook, the Chicago Blackhawks are a modern NHL powerhouse, as much a part of Chicago as the Willis Tower or The Bean at Millennium Park. In If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Blackhawks, Mark Lazerus chronicles the team's rise from the dark ages of the 2000s to the golden age of the 2010s through never-before-told stories from inside the dressing room, aboard the team plane, at the players' homes, and — especially in the case of the rowdy 2009-2010 team that started it all — in countless Chicago bars. If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Blackhawks will bring readers closer to their favorite players than ever before. It's a book Hawks fans won't want to be without.

Now, maybe I am a bit biased. The Chicago Blackhawks are my life and I thoroughly enjoy reading what Mark has to say on Twitter and interacting with him. When he dropped a book about the team, it was a no-brainer to pre-order it. I knew that I would, at the very least, have fun reading it.

What I didn’t expect was the emotional rollercoaster that this book was going to take me on.

Mark lays out the framework for how the Chicago Blackhawks went from being one of the worst franchises in sports to being at the top of the world as 3-time Stanley Cup Champions with this core group. He interjects stories and quotes from players and coaches. It really takes you on a ride.

Now, the book is pretty short for one that spans over multiple years, losses, heartbreaks, and the resurgence of a lifetime. Despite its length, it packs one hell of a punch. I found myself laughing a lot at their antics, and I founds myself crying like a baby reliving the glory of those championship years and reading about how the players love each other and this city.

Mark Lazerus is a writer. It’s what he does for a living. The writing was going to be good. But he took so many years . . . so many emotions . . . and jammed them all into a paperback novel that will make you feel something. If you’re a Blackhawks fan, you’ll end up like me. If you’re a fan of any team other than the Pittsburgh Penguins, it may fill you with rage because you’re sick of these players having success. Regardless, it will make you FEEL. That right there is what makes this a great book.

5/5 Stars

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‘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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