REVIEW: “R IS FOR RICOCHET” by SUE GRAFTON
Kinsey Millhone is hired by local elder philanthropist Nord Lafferty to pick up his daughter Reba from the Correctional Institution for Women in Corona and drive her to his house in Montebello near Santa Teresa. It’s to be a two-day job at her full rate. Reba has been incarcerated for two years because she was accused of embezzlement from her former employer Alan Beckwith, known to his friends as “Beck.” On the long drive back to Montebello, she describes to Kinsey all the marvelous skills she learned in prison, including computer tech management. Kinsey deposits Reba at her father’s house and her assignment is finished. Not!
Kinsey has known Cheney Phillips of the Santa Teresa Police Department for a few years and has worked cases with him. He tells her the police and FBI are building a case against Alan Beckwith, who appears to be moving cash all over the world in a money laundering enterprise, and Phillips would like Kinsey’s help in the investigation. As they begin work on the evidence, their latent sexual attraction bubbles up to the surface. Their relationship soon becomes intensely physical, a refreshing interlude in Kinsey’s solitary life. This story contains great seduction scenes, as Phillips caresses her inactive libido. There is no graphic detail, however, Grafton’s descriptions of their passion and longing are superb! Kinsey’s playful thoughts about her new romance: “One of the problems with being celibate is that once sexual feelings resurface, they’re almost impossible to repress. I found myself remembering what had had happened between us and fantasizing about what might come next.”
Reba has little willpower to stay out of trouble and soon drags Kinsey into a sequence of escapades of self-destruction. Given instructions by the FBI and Phillips, Kinsey tries to convince Reba to make a deal with federal investigators, who need her to testify against Beck because she knows the inner workings of Beck’s company. Reba shows little interest in cooperating, because she is more interested in revenge than justice, and, ultimately, her reckless actions jeopardize Kinsey’s safety.
R IS FOR RICOCHET is a breathless romp, from Santa Teresa to Corona, back to Santa Teresa, to Reno, then to Beverly Hills and back to Santa Teresa, with twists of plot piling on until the last page. … Pam Wilder …