H Is for Homicide (A Kinsey Millhone Mystery) - Hardcover

Grafton, Sue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080501084X ISBN 13: 9780805010848

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 1991

Synopsis

His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices.

To the cops, it looked like a robbery gone sour. To Kinsey Millhone, it looked like the cops were walking away from the case. She didn't like the idea that a colleague and sometime drinking companion had been murdered. Or the idea that his murderer was loose and on the prowl. It made her feel exposed. Vulnerable.

Bibianna Diaz was afraid for her life. If there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that you didn't cross Raymond Maldonado and live to tell the tale. And Bibianna had well and truly crossed him, running out on his crazy wedding plans and going into hiding in Santa Teresa--light years away from the Los Angeles barrio that was home turf to Raymond and his gang. Now she needed money to buy time, to make sure she'd put enough space between them. And the quickest way she knew to get money was to work an insurance scam--just like the ones Raymond was running down in L.A. The trouble was, Bibianna picked California Fidelity as her mark. And it wasn't long before her name surfaced in one of Parnell Perkins's open files and Kinsey was on her case. But so, too, was her spurned suitor, Raymond Maldonado.

He had a rap sheet as long as his arm, a hair-trigger temper that was best left untested, and an inability to take no for an answer. He also had Tourette's syndrome, which did nothing to smooth out the kinks in his erratic and often violent behavior. All in all, Raymond Maldonado was not someone to spend a lot of time hanging out with. Unfortunately for Kinsey, she didn't have a lot of choice in the mater. Not after the love-sick Raymond kidnapped Bibianna. Like it or not, Kinsey was stuck babysitting Bibianna along with Raymond and his macho crew. You might say she was a prisoner of love.

It may be Kinsey Millhone's most complicated and risk-filled case. It certainly is Sue Grafton's wittiest venture into low-life crime. It's "H" is for Homicide, and it confirms yet again that Kinsey Millhone is "a wonderful character, tough but not brutish, resourceful and sensitive, a fit knight to walk those mean streets with her male predecessors" (the Los Angeles Times) and that Sue Grafton is "a heads-up delight" (Detroit News).

"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

About this title

From the Publisher:

One of the nice things about a mystery series is that readers can become familiar with a character and anticipate his or her foibles and methods. I've been following Sue Grafton's alphabet series for years, long before I came to Ballantine Books -- no, not compulsively starting with A is for Alibi, but close enough -- and it's been a pleasure to watch Kinsey Millhone, Grafton's series heroine, grow from one book to the next. It's also a pleasure to watch a writer not only become at ease with her character but hone her storytelling skills. Sue Grafton was good back when she began the series, and she's getting better -- and I, for one, am very glad she's only halfway through the alphabet.

--Margaret Sanborn, Senior Publicity Copywriter

From the Inside Flap:

"THE LADY CAN WRITE . . .

Any reader who needs a smart and sassy P.I. would do well to hire Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. . . . H' is for Homicide continues to show the author in strong storytelling form. . . . [It] finds Kinsey Millhone working on a case involving the death of a claims adjuster for a California insurance company. The story takes her into the Los Angeles barrio in pursuit of a violent criminal, into jails and hospitals, and into a grungy bar named the Meat Locker. . . . Count on Millhone not only to corner the murderer but also to make a statement against the foibles of the insurance game."
--The New York Times

"The eighth in Grafton's bestselling series is perhaps the wildest ride yet. . . . Grafton's skill with dialogue, her vivid characterizations and California scenery are priceless. . . . There are moments when the tension becomes so unbearable that you are tempted to skip paragraphs out of self-preservation."
--USA Today

"One of the best . . . A vivid, funny portrait of life in an ethnic underworld, viewed without judgment. Suspense there is, plentifully, and a final suggestion that Kinsey will be exploring different mischiefs next time. Outstanding."
--Los Angeles Times
From the Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 080501084X
• ISBN 13: 9780805010848
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256