“T is for Trespass”   by Sue Grafton

Review #161

A Kinsey Millhone Novel

Private Detective, Kinsey Millhone’s elderly next-door neighbor, Gus Vronsky, suffers a fall and needs in-home care.

After Vronsky's out-of-state great-niece arranges to hire a home aide health-care nurse named Solana Rojas, Kinsey does an employee background check and finds nothing out of order.

As Gus's condition deteriorates and Solana limits access to her patient, Kinsey and her landlord, Henry, suspect that something is a little off with Solana.  A "little off" doesn't fully describe this identity thief and true sociopath. Digging around more carefully, Kinsey unearths horrifying details of Solana's past and must act quickly to save Gus.

Since the reader knows from the start that an unscrupulous master manipulator has stolen the Rojas persona, the plot focuses not on whodunit but on the battle of wits Millhone wages with an unconventional and formidable adversary.

This is vintage Grafton, set in the 1980s but scarily current, carefully plotted, and fast paced.  Loved it!