REVIEW: "F IS FOR FUGITIVE" by SUE GRAFTON
Kinsey Millhone, Private Detective, receives a request from Royce Fowler in Floral Beach, California, to investigate a murder charge against his son Bailey that took place seventeen years before. He believes his son was not the murderer of Bailey’s close friend Jean Timberlake, and he wants to appeal the conviction. Mr. Fowler invites her to stay in his motel in Floral Beach, a ninety-minute drive north of Santa Teresa, while she conducts her research. Bailey has recently been re-arrested and is incarcerated in San Luis Obispo, so she will be close to the prison. Because her apartment was obliterated by a bomb in the previous book, E IS FOR EVIDENCE, she’s grateful for Mr. Fowler’s offer of this residential arrangement for the next month or so, while her landlord Henry Pitts rebuilds her apartment.
Kinsey finds the small town to be a community of rather unpleasant people, but she slogs on with her work, digging up old case history and talking with everyone she can, including the high school counsellors and the principal, the church minister, and many townspeople who knew both Bailey and Jean. She coyly and carefully interviews Bailey’s former running pal Tag. The day that Bailey is arraigned, Tag shows up and causes commotion so Bailey can escape. This adds to her work, because now she needs to find out who put him up to this. Each new unexpected event concerning Bailey Fowler contributes to the escalating fear among the residents of the little seaside town, who were already on edge.
She returns to her motel room about 1 A.M. after talking with the local bar owner and Bailey’s friends, and discovers that someone has broken into the room. After this incident, someone repeatedly calls her room in the middle of the night, and threatens her in an audio-altered voice.
Kinsey notices that men in town are uncomfortable about her probing into Jean’s business, and she eventually realizes that Jean had sex with many of the men in town, including older men. One of the women takes exception to her investigation and conducts a beat-down on Kinsey with a tennis racket.
Mr. Fowler’s health deteriorates. When he has a coughing fit and is spitting up blood, an ambulance is summoned and he is admitted to the hospital. Tests reveal that his cancer has spread to his lungs, liver and kidneys, and he has less than a month to live. He worries because his wife Orielle’s health is precarious. Orielle lives in a hospital bed in the living room of their apartment at the motel, and is cared for by their daughter Ann. Kinsey wonders if she will be able to provide them with a timely answer to the mystery of who actually killed Jean.
Kinsey endures encounters with macho misogynists, Christian busy-bodies, an assortment of liars covering their backs, and law enforcement sicced on Kinsey as the fall-guy. Nonetheless, she finds a way to gather important bits of information that form a logical conclusion. During a nighttime prowl, she stumbles upon recording equipment being used to call her motel room with threats on her life, and with this clue, she’s able to piece together the mystery of who killed young Miss Jean Timberlake.
This story was high on my “tall-tale-o-meter.” because incredible, surreal scenes ratcheted up the violence at times. Otherwise, F IS FOR FUGITIVE is a complex mystery created by Sue Grafton that is unique and entertaining. … Pam Wilder …