64.
Author(s): Sue Grafton
Title: [E is for Evidence]
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 13, 2011
Rating: ****

After a few cozy duds I decided to go with something tried-and-true to bring me out of my schlump: enter Kinsey Millhone.

I've been reading Grafton's series off and on since I was eleven, and my Gram loaned me L is for Lawless. I've never gotten any further in the series, although I own through S, largely because I keep going back to refresh with earlier books. And I keep forgetting where I left off, because I leave so much time and so many other books in-between.

This time I picked up with E is for Evidenc, because I couldn't remember the conclusion.

When Kinsey begins a routine check on a fire claim for CF, she finds herself caught up in a long-festering pool of lies, family tension, and illegal activities. Her investigation puts her under suspicion, and she finds herself working for her own cause. The case leaves a compelling line of dead bodies and old relationships, and the very human protagonist carefully sifts through the pieces- until the answer lands in her living room.

Consistent and engaging; Grafton doesn't disappoint.

P.S. Reviewing on the iPhone is tough.

65.
Author(s): Sue Grafton
Title: [F is for Fugitive]
Publication: Paperback
Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery
Acquisition:
Date Completed: August 14, 2011
Rating: ****

In F is for Fugitive, Kinsey finds herself (blissfully) out of town, and working for one of the most unpleasant families in contemporary fiction after she is hired by the patriarch to exonerate his son, who is convicted of murdering a seventeen-year-old girl more than a decade before. Grafton presents a fairly pedestrian depiction of small-town life, but somehow following the ornery community remains interesting throughout.