For review of all books in this series: Go here.
Stars: 3 / 5
My Recommendation: Another successful investigation by Kinsey Millhone rivaling the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but not yet there. Grafton gives us a female gumshoe with her share of flaws and strengths that further more enhances her character. A ripple effect from a tragedy that leads to broken lives and murder.
“D” is for Deadbeat is the fourth mystery novel in the long running Kinsey Millhone “Alphabet Mystery” series by Sue Grafton, first published on May 15 1987. Kinsey’s new client asks her to deliver a $25K check to a 15-year old kid. But when the retainer check bounces and so is the client found dead, she is caught up in a mystery trying to find answers to all the questions she had to begin with.
The Alphabet Mystery series revolves around the various cases handled by Kinsey Millhone, a former police officer turned private investigator. She is based in Santa Teresa, a fictional town in California, thirty two years old and twice divorced, at the beginning of the series. With this series, Sue Grafton sets a bar for female private investigators in a world when most of them were predominantly male. And if any female private eyes existed, were considered amateur detectives like with Nancy Drew or Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote or Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Grafton crosses those bars for Millhone with this series.
Millhone takes many painstaking steps just to get simple information which we could get now just by a few clicks. There was more of phone calls; following a mark; and lots of paperwork; than the car chases, fights and apprehending the culprit like we see in movies.
Grafton shows the evolving racism at that time in a subtle way. Her way of telling a tale is in a lot more detail than a normal private eye plot. In the sense we see every waking hour of Kinsey’s life as she investigates a case. In the first few books I felt that bordering on boring. But this time around I actually liked that perspective. It shows how much more a gumshoe does than just chasing bad guys or getting shot at.
Kinsey Millhone is a much stronger investigative agent than many amateur female detectives that we come across. Of course Kinsey has a background in law enforcement. However, I have read books that show us the sheer absurdity and utter stupidity of those investigators or private eyes. Kinsey is gradually evolving to come closer to the famous male gumshoes such as Phillip Marlowe, Ellery Queen, Sam Spade and others.
The plot is not as sinister as the previous three books, but it does give a chill to you if you think how a situation can change so many lives, and what the consequences are because of one person’s mistake, a mistake that could have been avoided.
Another successful investigation by Kinsey Millhone rivaling the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but not yet there. Grafton gives us a female gumshoe with her share of flaws and strengths that further more enhances her character. A ripple effect from a tragedy that leads to broken lives and murder.
Spoiler Alerts:
Sub-Plots:
- Kinsey’s family & friends: Two friends who live in Claremont, CA – Gideon and Nell and their two kids; landlord Henry Pitts, a baker and crossword puzzle creator; (her parents had been killed when she was a child); she was raised by her spinster aunt; Rosie, owner of Rosie’s tavern.
- Law Enforcement that Kinsey comes across: Patrolman Benedict; Officer Isabella Redfern; Sergeant Jonah Robb; Lieutenant Dolan; Sergeant Spillman; Deputy Collins; Detective Whiteside; Officer Gerald Pettigrew; Officer Maria Gutierrez; Hall Ingraham, a morgue attendant; Kelly Borden, a morgue attendant; Lieutenant Becker; Dr. Yee, coroner; Ron Coachella, dispatcher for Tip Top; Lieutenant Feldman; Lab tech Krueger.
- Kinsey’s other colleagues from California Fidelity Agency (CFI) & it’s subsidiaries – Vera Lipton; Pam Sharkey; Daryl Hobbs, manager at Lambeth & Creek ; Andy Montyeka, manager at CFI.
- In the second book, “B” is for Burglar, Mrs. Julia Ochsner suggests that she and Kinsey should form a partnership in investigation. Will it happen?
- Kinsey was married twice before and divorced. One of them happens to be the jazz pianist Daniel Wade. She has on and off relationship with Jonah, although Jonah is in an open marriage with his wife Camille.
- Other folks who continue to appear: Rosie, owner of Rosie’s a restaurant; Mrs. Moza Lowenstein.
Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
- On Pg. 153, we see that Billy closes the driver side door after putting Lovella in the seat. The very following page shows him driving. How did he get into the driver’s seat when Lovella was already in that seat?
Galavant Reflections 