D is for Deadbeat

D is for Deadbeat is the fourth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.My name is Kinsey Millhone. I’m a private investigator . . . female, single and self-employed, with a constitutional inability to work for anyone else. I’m a purist when it comes to justice, but I’ll lie at the drop of a hat. Inconsistency has never troubled me . . . It was late October, the day before Halloween. He introduced himself as Alvin Limardo. The job he hired Kinsey to do seemed easy enough . . . until his cheque bounced. His real name was Dagett. John Dagett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident – death by drowning. Kinsey wasn’t so sure. The man, it seemed, had a lot of enemies . . .

"One of the things that makes Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series so unfailingly entertaining is Millhone's character. She's the last one to cultivate eccentricities in the Nero Wolfe manner, and her unsentimental, loner's-eye view of herself and the world keeps her feet on the ground. But her cases often get messy because she feels things strongly. This happens again, more satisfyingly than ever, in '"D' is for Deadbeat,""--"The ""Detroit"" News" "Kinsey Millhone has the characteristic persistence of the good private eye who won't be deterred from digging out the truth. With skill, Grafton keeps not only her appealing detective but her readers on the edge to know more."--"Ms. magazine" "Taut prose and controlled plotting make Grafton an outstanding writer of hardboiled detective stories. Social awareness and human weakness play a great part in the Millhone books, which always manage to finish with a heart-stopping climax. Well done indeed."--"Library Journal", " One of the things that makes Sue Grafton' s Kinsey Millhone series so unfailingly entertaining is Millhone' s character. She' s the last one to cultivate eccentricities in the Nero Wolfe manner, and her unsentimental, loner' s-eye view of herself and the world keeps her feet on the ground. But her cases often get messy because she feels things strongly. This happens again, more satisfyingly than ever, in ' "D' is for Deadbeat,"" -- "The ""Detroit"" News" " Kinsey Millhone has the characteristic persistence of the good private eye who won' t be deterred from digging out the truth. With skill, Grafton keeps not only her appealing detective but her readers on the edge to know more." -- "Ms. magazine" " Taut prose and controlled plotting make Grafton an outstanding writer of hardboiled detective stories. Social awareness and human weakness play a great part in the Millhone books, which always manage to finish with a heart-stopping climax. Well done indeed." -- "Library Journal"

Sue Grafton has become one of the most popular female writers, both in the UK and in the US. Born in Kentucky in 1940, she began her career as a TV scriptwriter before Kinsey Millhone and the 'alphabet' series took off. Two of the novels B is for Burglar and C is for Corpse won the first Anthony Awards for Best Novel. Sue wrote twenty-five novels in her alphabet series, the last was Y is for Yesterday, before her death in California in December 2017.