REVIEW: "I IS FOR INNOCENT" by SUE GRAFTON
In Sue Grafton’s prior book, H IS FOR HOMICIDE, Kinsey Millhone, Private Investigator, successfully completed an investigation that saved California Fidelity Insurance hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims, then was unceremoniously, immediately fired as a contractor from CFI by the new corporate Vice President (who didn’t like her) and evicted from her office space.
So, when this story begins, she has moved her office into a small rented space in the downtown Santa Teresa law offices of Lonnie Kingman and John Ives. Lonnie Kingman calls her into his office to meet his client Ken Voight, who has filed a civil suit against David Barney. Barney was arrested and tried for the murder of his wife Isabelle, but acquitted by a jury two years ago. Voight believes Barney committed the murder and wants to prove it in civil court. Lonnie hires Kinsey to follow up the interviews that were being handled by his investigator Morley Shine, who has just passed away from a heart attack. He tells her he is leaving immediately for a trial in Santa Maria and will return the following Monday when the Voight trial begins.
She picks up Morley’s files from his office and in her review of his notes, realizes he did not interview witnesses or perform any other work to advance the case, though he billed Lonnie for his time. So now, it’s up to her to start from the beginning, to sort out the evidence and bring the case up to speed within the next few days before trial.
She visits a felon named Curtis McIntyre in prison, who claims to have heard Barney confess to killing his wife. She doesn’t believe his story. Soon after he’s released, she meets with him again at a bar. He alters his story somewhat. She still doesn’t believe him.
David Barney contacts her on the phone and pleads for her to listen to his side of the story, but she refuses to talk with him because of law and ethics involved. One day, he disables her car in its parking place so he can delay her to speak with her. He says he’s contacting her because his attorney Henry Foss is doing a terrible job of defending him and he needs help. He insists he did not murder his wife and he can provide proof of his whereabouts at the time of the murder. He tells her that the night of his wife’s murder he was out jogging and there are witnesses. Kinsey feels responsible for looking into this because Lonnie is unreachable and doesn’t know about the new evidence.
When she visits Isabelle’s former architectural partner Peter Weidmann and his wife Yolanda, heavy friction flashes between the married couple as they offer conflicting information in response to her questions. When she talks with Ken Voight’s wife, she gets an earful about what a louse he is. The more people she talks to, the more people she discovers who despised Isabelle, while others merely tolerated her.
Kinsey’s landlord and friend Henry Pitts hosts his brother William when he comes for a visit. Kinsey can see that William is driving Henry mad with his relentless hypochondria. One night Rosie at Rosie’s neighborhood bar devises a plan to foil William’s martyrdom. The ploy works, and before long, William and Rosie are spending lots of time together, which Henry finds as disgusting as William’s constant imaginary health problems. Kinsey’s all in favor of the blossoming romance.
Kinsey reaches a point in the Barney investigation where she realizes that Morley was following the same leads she is, which leads her to suspect Morley was killed by someone targeted by the investigation. The day before Morley’s funeral, she appeals to the Coroner to run tests on the already-embalmed body, and the Coroner agrees. He reports his findings quickly; the results are astonishing.
One night, McIntyre the ex-con calls her and says he has something to tell her, and asks her to meet him at the bird refuge. She realizes someone is with him, dictating what to say. She won’t meet McIntyre without her new, unused H&K gun, so she returns to her office to retrieve the weapon. When she arrives, she comes face-to-face with the realization of who killed Isabelle.
In I IS FOR INNOCENT, as in previous cases, Kinsey’s patience and coy interview skills with difficult people are again superb and exemplary, as she gleans ample information from people, regardless of how stubbornly they withhold it. … Pam Wilder …