REVIEW: "A IS FOR ALIBI" by SUE GRAFTON
Sue Grafton’s first novel in the Kinsey Millhone, Private Investigator series is a humdinger of suspense and mystery. Nikki Fife is released from prison after serving eight years for allegedly murdering her husband by filling one of his allergy capsules with oleander. She contacts Kinsey and hires her to find out who really killed Laurence Fife, a prominent divorce lawyer and serial philanderer.
In Kinsey’s research, she learns about the murder of Libby Glass of West Los Angeles, who died from a lethal dose of oleander four days after Fife’s murder. She sets out to investigate if somehow the two cases are related. She drives to Los Angeles, where she meets with Libby Glass’s mother Grace and Libby’s childhood friend Lyle, who continues to be a family friend on whom Grace can rely. Kinsey is wary of him.
She interviews several relatives, friends, and colleagues, including Laurence’s 48-year-old business partner Charlie Scorsoni at his law office, and Fife’s first wife Gwen at her pet grooming establishment. Kinsey’s probing for evidence takes her to Las Vegas, then to the Salton Sea, then back to Los Angeles. On her way home, she stops in at Grace Glass’s house again, in time to interrupt someone breaking into Grace’s basement. The storage boxes of Libby’s belongings have been ransacked. When Kinsey inspects the contents of the boxes, she discovers evidence that she can provide to Lieutenant Dolan in Homicide at Santa Theresa Police Department, who was the original detective in the Fife murder case.
Kinsey has a difficult time solving the dual homicides because of the multitude of suspects who could have accomplished the poisonings. She initially goes after the wrong person. As she grasps her mistakes and re-processes the evidence and relationships, belatedly, she realizes that what happened to Laurence Fife was actually a separate event from what happened to Libby Glass. By that time, Libby Glass’s murderer is pursuing Kinsey.
I enjoyed the kinetic pacing, constant surprises, and churning suspense. The entire novel races along from start to finish. Grafton is a gem of a novelist! … Pam Wilder…