K is for Killer (A Kinsey Millhone Mystery, Book 11) - Hardcover

Grafton, Sue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805019367 ISBN 13: 9780805019360

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 1994

Synopsis

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her.

Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious: Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she hadn't died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file.

Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder.

In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door.

In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind.

Eleven books into the series that has won her readers around the world, Sue Grafton takes a darkside turn, pitching us into a shadow land of pain and grief where killers still walk free, unaccused, unpunished, unrepentant. With "K" is for Killer she offers a tale that is dark, complex, and deeply disturbing.

"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:

When I first began working at Ballantine as the mass market managing editor, my mother was so excited. All she could think about were all the free books I could bring her. She immediately wanted a list of all the authors we published; it's a long list, and I told her I only had time to read off a handful of names. (I was so new that I didn't know myself; I was reading it straight out of a catalog.) Suddenly, she called out, "Stop!" "What's the matter?" I asked. "You publish Sue Grafton?" she said excitedly. I looked at the catalog again. "Yeah, I guess we do," I said. "I just finished G IS FOR GUMSHOE and H IS FOR HOMICIDE. Can you get me the I, K, and L books?" she asked. "Well, um, I, uh, hold on a second," I said, quickly running to the person next door, who told me that I IS FOR INNOCENT and K IS FOR KILLER were already in paperback, but L IS FOR LAWLESS wasn't due to be published for another six months. I ran back into my office and shared this information with my mother. "Can you get me L any sooner? I'll probably have the other two books done in a week or so. Then what am I supposed to do?" my mother almost demanded. After explaining to my mother that I didn't think I could change our publication schedule just to fit her reading requirements, she said she'd be happy to take what she could get. So now, whenever my mother tells her friends what I do, she says, "He's Sue Grafton's publisher," as if I do it all by myself.

Mark Rifkin, Managing Editorial

From the Inside Flap:

When Kinsey Millhone answers her office door late one night, she lets in more darkness than she realizes. Janice Kepler is a grieving mother who can't let the death of her beautiful daughter Lorna alone. The police agree that Lorna was murdered, but a suspect was never apprehended and the trail is now ten months cold. Kinsey pieces together Lorna's young life: a dull day job a the local water treatment plant spiced by sidelines in prostitution and pornography. She tangles with Lorna's friends: a local late-night DJ; a sweet, funny teenaged hooker; Lorna's sloppy landlord and his exotic wife. But to find out which one, if any, turned killer, Kinsey will have to inhabit a netherworld from which she may never return.

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0805019367
• ISBN 13: 9780805019360
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 284