REVIEW: “Y IS FOR YESTERDAY” by SUE GRAFTON
Many scenes in this final book in the Kinsey Millhone, Private Investigator series terrified me. Sue Grafton’s vividly-detailed, animated descriptions engaged me instantly and carried me breathlessly throughout the story as Kinsey experienced heart-stopping events – such as, being stalked by murderer Ned Lowe, who has been harassing her since “W Is for Wasted,” through the stories of “X,” and now pursues her in “Y Is for Yesterday.”
“Yesterday” refers to a clique of high school students who engaged in some very bad behavior when they graduated Climp Academy in Santa Teresa, California, which included various roles they played in the murder of a fellow student. Their past deeds follow them ten years into the present, when Mrs. Lauren McCabe contacts Kinsey and asks for her help, because of a ransom note she and her husband recently received. Someone has unearthed a 10-year old video tape of what appears to be a sexual assault, in which her son Fritz participated, and is asking for $25,000 to withhold it from the District Attorney. Fritz has recently returned home from a long stint in California Youth Authority prison for the shooting death of his classmate, Sloan. Mrs. McCabe hires Kinsey to find and identify the blackmailer without incriminating her son for his role in the video.
Kinsey interviews all the participants who appear in the video scenes, and though the men, who are now in their mid-twenties, state they were all horsing around and laughing because it was a film production stunt, the video exhibits criminal behavior for which they could all be charged with a felony. The young girl in the video, who is now 26 and works in a trendy vintage shop, tells Kinsey that it was a staged film project. Kinsey doubts this.
Ned Lowe, who has been on the run from law enforcement for months, suddenly shows up to terrorize Kinsey again. When Lowe’s ex-wife Phyllis is beaten to a pulp in her new condo and hospitalized, Kinsey is convinced the attacker is Lowe. She analyses and investigates how Lowe could have known where Phyllis lives, because only she and Phyllis know that information. She’s alarmed by what she learns.
Kinsey’s landlord Henry has invited her cantankerous, homeless acquaintance Pearl to move into his guest room. Pearl unpacks her meager possessions into the room, then pitches a pup tent in his back yard and brings along a male friend named Lucky, who has a big-old-black-dog named “Killer.” Kinsey and Killer become pals, which sometimes works to her advantage, because he’s always lurking in the back yard.
Unexpectedly, Mrs. McCabe calls Kinsey and fires her, indignantly citing that she’s learned that Kinsey suspects Fritz and his friends are all making up the story about the staged stunt in the video, in order to cover up the truth of the activities the group participated in that night, ten years ago.
Kinsey believes that her cousin Anna, newly relocated to Santa Teresa from Bakersfield, has been dating Cheney Phillips, with whom Kinsey was romantically involved in the recent past, because she sees them together often at Rosie’s bar. One night in Rosie’s, she accidently discovers that Anna is actually involved with someone else and Cheney is helping her cover it up. The situation blows up, of course.
Mrs. McCabe contacts Kinsey again and pleads for her help to locate Fritz, who has disappeared. Kinsey follows her investigation notes and instincts to find him.
I was deeply affected by the story and characters. For example, the irresponsible, callous acts and deeds of a particular group of high school friends chilled my blood, including the way they covered up their actions by committee for years. The prowling psychopath Ned Lowe frightened me out of my wits. After anxious story twists, all mysteries and crimes were ingeniously resolved in a ferocious finale, in Sue Grafton’s final diamond of literary fiction. … Pam Wilder …