W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton

Kinsey is contacted by the coroner after an unidentified body has her name and phone number in his pocket. R. T. Dace was an alcoholic who lived on the beach. Business is slow, and Kinsey is curious, so she meets his friends and looks for the reason he was thinking of contacting a PI. Her investigation reveals that Dace had recently come into some money, and leads to Bakersfield, where she meets his estranged children. In a parallel story, rule bending PI Pete Wolinsky is on his last job ever, which doesn’t end well. The reader understands there must be a connection, but it takes the arrival of Robert Dietz from Las Vegas to connect the dots. Kinsey’s elderly landlord Henry gets involved in the case, and Kinsey has some hard decisions to make.

As always, Kinsey is good company and the low-tech 1980s California setting is enjoyable.

Brenda