K is for Killer by Sue Grafton

Has finished the "K" Sue Grafton alphabetical series about female detective Kinsey Millhone. This one is from 1994, and I remember having read one in the series many years ago. I like it although I can't remember which one.

I read this one in Swedish and maybe that is why I did not entirely like the writing, which could be due to the translation. It felt a little bit 'formal' at times and did not fit the overall tough, hard core writing and dialogue. Furthermore, there were some excessive 'milieu' descriptions which was a little bit repetitive and over the top. Having said that, I really like the murder mystery itself. It was rather slow, but you really get a feeling for the way a private detective have to work. Slowly, slowly finding small pieces of information leading forward, or not.

When the story starts our detective is hired by the mother of Lorna Kepler to try to find her murderer. Lorna died a year ago, and the police put it down to suicide. Her mother believes otherwise. Kinsey takes on the case and starts interviewing more or less the same people as the police did when investigating the case. It leads her in a slightly different way and she soon realises that Lorna is not the nice girl she pretended to be.

It took a long time until I could even start to suspect anyone of the murder. It is all very well hidden during the whole book. It is not until the very end, and more or less at the same time as Kinsey herself realises who the murder is, that the reader can guess. At least that was the case for me. Suspense until the end is never bad for a murder mystery.

The narration is from Kinsey's point of view and the style reminds me a little bit about Dashiell Hammett. Maybe that is why Kinsey slightly irritates me from time to time. She is not Sam Spade and the time is different. The style seems, to me, to belong more in the 1950s than the 1990s. But that might be only for me. All in all I like the story and would gladly read another of her 'letter' books. I like the idea of her using the alphabet to name her books.