I think I like Kinsey more as the series goes on and I’m probably stuck with this series up til ‘Z’ now, providing Grafton manages to take her all the way there. After reading several of the early books in quick succession I got rather burnt out but I’ve been going steadily since about ‘H’ and I think the books are all the better for it.

Although this book begins the second half of the series little has really changed since ‘A’ but I don’t especially want it to. For much of this book Kinsey is away from home and it’s a bit disconcerting to be missing the usual references. She gets back to Santa Teresa, to her blue VW Beetle, to her converted garage home, to Henry’s baking and Rosie’s tavern for a while and it’s a relief to have her back in her rightful place. She manages to go a whole book without, as far as I can remember, mentioning her habit of cutting her own hair, going for a three mile jog at 6am, or wearing her all purpose little black dress. This is quite enough variety for me, for this series anyway.

As far as the plot goes, there’s a decent mystery in it, if one that’s a bit slow to get going. There’s the usual suspenseful climax and quick wrap up. Nothing out of the ordinary but a good book in a mostly consistent series.