R is for Ricochet

R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton

There are few regular fictional characters that I enjoy as much as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone.  Grafton’s works, dubbed the “Alphabet Mysteries” feature private eye Kinsey, a 30-something, twice divorced ex police officer, who works free lance out of her California apartment.  She takes odd detective jobs now and then to help make the world a safer place and pay the bills. 

These books are told in first person, through the eyes of Ms. Milhone, and overall, author Grafton does a very admirable job making her heroine affable, humorous, and fun to follow along with on her adventures.  The cases that Kinsey help solve aren’t too gruesome nor blood curling.  Quite often, they come across as quite minor.  As matter of fact, as I write this review of her 18th adventure (starting at the letter “A”, obviously), I can’t honestly remember much of any of the plots of the previous 17.  What I can remember, though, is that Kinsey lives alone, was orphaned as a child, raised by an Aunt, has a friendly 80-something year old landlord named Henry, goes on early morning runs, enjoys McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, has one “all purpose” black dress, and is kind of unlucky in love.   Maybe because she only has one “all purpose” dress?

All of this to say, it’s not so much the mysteries that are enthralling, yet it’s Kinsey herself that is so appealing.  I feel like I’m visiting an old friend every time I pick up one of these books.  Kinsey is quite introspective, very observant, and darn good at what she does.  Plus, she has a very sardonic sense of humor and I generally enjoy her wry wit as she tries to track down whatever it is that she’s been paid to do.

In this story, she’s hired to watch over a daughter of a well off, dying older man.  The daughter, named Reba, is just being paroled from prison for embezzling money, and her father wants Kinsey to sort of babysit her.  Doesn’t sound too difficult of a job, especially since Reba is close to Kinsey’s age, not really that bad of a person, and two seem to hit it off quite well.  Well, it turns out that Reba went to jail to cover for her boss/lover, and upon release, she finds out that boss lover isn’t quite the man he led her to believe.  So the intrigue sets in, and the ride begins.

As I’ve mentioned, the stories are kind of secondary, and it’s more fun to just follow along with Kinsey and her escapades.  This might be a drawback for some, since not everything that happens in these stories is necessarily related to the plot.  Some find it a bit tedious when Kinsey rambles on with some of the regulars (as she does in all her books) about nothing in particular, but I confess that I find it somewhat interesting.  In this book, Kinsey spends a lot of time trying to help her elderly landlord (who is quite the fit man for his age) win the affection of a newly acquired lady friend.  He’s competing with, of all people, his older brother.  None of this has anything to do with the story, but as I said, I don’t mind it.

What I do mind in most of Grafton’s books is that she (i.e. - Kinsey) tends to go overboard in the detail department when describing every single new situation that she encounters.  For example: Let’s say Kinsey is going to a restaurant to meet someone for the first time and she’s never been to the restaurant.  Well, Grafton has Kinsey spend an entire page describing the neighborhood where the restaurant is located.  The trees, the roads, the color of the buildings, the people that used to live in the neighborhood, etc.  It’s a bit much.  Then, Kinsey finally gets to the restaurant, and spends another page describing every single nuance of the eatery.  She finally meets the person, and we get yet another page describing the person - their hair color, hair style, shape of the nose, contour of the mouth.  And on and on and on and on.  So we finally think we have all of that behind us.  But, then, a waiter arrives.  So another page on describing the characteristics of the waiter…..  It’s enough to make you yell “Enough already!  Get on with it!”  But this is just how Grafton writes.  Maybe it’s Kinsey’s meticulous observations that make her good at what she does?   At one point, Kinsey and Reba go clothes shopping, and Sue Grafton spends three pages describing the details of the ladies trying on clothes.  Three pages.  Trying on clothes.  I’m not making that up.  I honestly  have to say that these books might be cut by 20-25% if Grafton could learn to summarize.

Another weird thing about these books is that to keep Kinsey somewhat “the same age” through all of her adventures, the timeframe of the book is stuck back in 1987.  That’s really not much of a deterrent, however, it just seems a bit strange reading about a Private Investigator that is always having to use a pay phone and doesn’t have Google handy to do research.

Some of the books are better than others.  I can’t honestly remember any that I was disappointed with, so it’s safe to say that this one is par for the course.  As long as Kinsey keeps being an interesting character, I’ll keep enjoying the books.