Putnam
December, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-15597-0
Hardcover, 403 pp., $27.95
Nearing the end of the alphabet, “U” is the 21st novel in the Kinsey Millhone series, in which Sue Grafton develops the plot utilizing the past and present, alternating between events during 1967 and her current investigation in 1988. It begins when a young man enters her office and tells Kinsey of something he thinks he witnessed when he was six years old. What prompts his hazy memory is a newspaper story recounting the abduction of a young girl in July, 1967, when he remembers seeing two men burying something in a wooded area. The girl was never returned despite receipt of a ransom note nor was her body ever found.
Her client’s credibility is taken to task when the police dig up the remains of a dog at the site. But Kinsey can’t let go, and follows leads until she reaches a dead end. Meanwhile, we are treated to a look at the hippy days of the 1960′s, as well as Kinsey’s own ambivalence toward her recently-discovered family.
With five letters left in the alphabet, the author has further room to move her protagonist forward, both as a PI as well as a person. The remaining novels should be quite interesting, as Ms. Grafton entertains more elaborate themes and plots.
Recommended.
