Book Review #30 “J” is for JUDGMENT” by Sue Grafton

Main Character: PI Kinsey Millhone

Financier Wendell Jaffe has recently been declared dead, five years after his Real Estate Ponce scheme collapsed and he disappeared from his beloved 35-foot ketch off the coast, an apparent suicide. California Fidelity has just paid his widow $500,000. But then Jaffe is spotted in Mexico with another woman. Kinsey's investigation lands her in some tough spots--such as a drunken stranger's hotel room where she pretends to be a hooker. It gets her shot at and, finally, leads to a dramatic resolution at sea.

It also introduces her to a genealogist who requires Kinsey to revise her belief that she is an orphan and alone in the world. You will still see familiar characters such as, Kinsey's octogenarian landlord Henry, his older brother, William, and Rose, the neighborhood bar owner, but, not as much as usual. The spotlight remains on Kinsey who, without a love interest to distract her, sticks to the case at hand and tries, with limited success, to assimilate the existence of a not to distant family she didn’t even know existed before this.

A Library reviewer thinks “many readers are likely to feel as if all the bits and pieces of the confusing, meandering plot never quite come together”.
I agree. It’s not one of Grafton’s best books with Kinsey Millhone. Fans will read it anyway! I did!