Kinsey Milhone is back for her second case report. Once again, factual and cerebral, giving just the facts plus any opinions she thinks will help, Kinsey spills all her professional secrets in this extended report of exactly what happened after Beverly Danziger breezed into her office and hired Kinsey to find her sister.
Beverly’s sister, Elaine Boldt, spends part of her time there in Santa Teresa, where Kinsey’s office is, and part in Boca Raton, owning a condominium in each city. Beverly needs her to sign some paperwork about an inheritance, and the lawyer hadn’t been able to get ahold of her. Her apartment manager in California, Tillie, hadn’t heard from her either, which was unusual. Elaine would usually send her a postcard every few weeks, or let her know if she needs to let someone in the apartment.
After checking the condo in Santa Teresa, Kinsey makes some calls to Florida to see if Elaine is there. No one answers at her condo, so Kinsey tries the manager and neighbors. The manager says that he hasn’t seen her, but she has a friend who has been staying at her place. And Elaine’s neighbor Julia Ochsner also says that she hadn’t seen Elaine and that her friend Pat Usher isn’t making any friends in the building.
The more Kinsey hears, the more she worries about what happened to Elaine Boldt. The woman is an adult, so she’s certainly allowed to go off on her own, but it seems out of character for her to disappear without telling anyone. So Kinsey heads back over to her California condo and asks Tillie to see inside Elaine’s condo. What she finds is the neatness you would expect of someone going away for several months. When she asks Tillie if she has a photo of Elaine, Tillie finds a Polaroid taken shortly before Elaine had left for Florida.
The photo was of Elaine and Marty Grice, the woman who had lived in the house next door to the condo building. Marty had been killed the night a burglar had broken into their house. She had surprised him, and then he had killed her and tried to burn the house down. Kinsey had seen the burned-out house from Elaine’s condo window. The crime was still unsolved.
Kinsey still doesn’t have a handle on what happened to Elaine. Tillie had seen her leave, in her iconic fur coat and hat, having her designer luggage loaded in to her taxi. But no one in Florida had seen her. There’s only one thing to do now—fly to Florida, ask around, and maybe try to learn bridge for Julia and her friends, who usually play with Elaine at this time of year.
Kinsey doesn’t find much in Florida and goes back to California with bad news for Elaine’s sister. Kinsey suggests filing a police report, but Beverly refuses. Without Beverly taking her professional advice, Kinsey is ready to let go of the case and writes up her final report. But an early morning phone call sends her running over to Tillie’s place, where she had been traumatized by an intruder. And just like that, Kinsey is back on the case, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together to lead her to Elaine.
B Is for Burglar is Sue Grafton’s second book in her iconic Kinsey Milhone series, and it’s one I have long loved. While A Is for Alibi helped establish Kinsey and the series, I feel like this one lets Kinsey be even more Kinsey, showing off those leaps of insight that make her such a dangerous private investigator for anyone trying to hurt those around her.
While I read this book years ago (a few times), this time around I listened to the audio book. Narrator Mary Peiffer brings the voice of Kinsey to life, her intelligence, her diligence, and her ever-present snark. Taking the time to listen to this book (which isn’t all that much time, as it’s just over seven and a half hours) brings a whole new depth to the experience of Kinsey, and it’s a truly fantastic experience.
I have been a fan of Sue Grafton and her Kinsey Milhone for decades, and while I find her later books bring extra layers to Kinsey’s skill and character, I still love revisiting these early books. Getting to know Kinsey all over again, slowly, letting her words sink in just makes me happy. Whatever is happening around me melts away, and I’m back in Santa Teresa, wondering what Henry is baking and Rosie is serving and knowing that Kinsey will catch the bad guys. I love this book!
