D is for Deadbeat

For #1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's P.I. Kinsey Millhone, if a job sounds too easy to be believed, it probably is—and chances are, it's twice as dangerous…D IS FOR DECEITWhen Alvin Limardo walks into P.I. Kinsey Millhone's office, she smells bad news. He wants Kinsey to deliver $25,000. The recipient: A fifteen-year-old boy. It's a simple matter. So simple that Kinsey wonders why he doesn't deliver the money himself. She's almost certain something is off. But with rent due, Kinsey accepts Limardo's retainer against her better judgment…D IS FOR DEAD ENDWhen Limardo's check bounces, Kinsey discovers she's been had big time. Alvin Limardo is really John Daggett—an ex-con with a drinking problem, two wives to boot, and a slew of people who would like to see him dead. Now Kinsey is out four hundred dollars and in hot pursuit of Daggett. D IS FOR DEADBEATWhen Daggett's corpse shows up floating in the Santa Teresa surf, the cops rule the death an accident. Kinsey thinks it's murder. But seeking justice for a man who everyone seemed to despise is going to be a lot tougher than she bargained for—and what awaits her at the end of the road is much more disturbing than she could've ever imagined…"Outstanding."—Library JournalPublishers Weekly``D'' is for Detective Kinsey Millhone, given $25,000 of stolen drug money by a drunkard named Daggett who then dies in a drowning. When she decides to deliver the money to Daggett's designee, a young man who was the sole survivor of an auto accident perpetrated by Daggett, Kinsey finds herself in a dilemma: too many ``D's'' are after the loot. There are two Mrs. Daggetts, a daughter, the drug dealers and a determined killer who soon claims a second life. At this point, Grafton's lively, well-written adventure develops a deadly flaw. Kinsey comes upon the second victim shortly after he's been shot. Though dying, he is conscious and coherent. Why, then, doesn't she ask who did it? When asked the same thing by the police, she says, ``I didn't want the last minutes of his life taken up with that stuff''a humane but unlikely rejoiner from any private eye. Even so, the pleasure of this story comes through. Let's give it a ``D'' for Dandy. (May 14)