karma's gonna track you down

Kinsey Millhone, private investigator, is getting her home back. After having her small apartment blown up by a killer she was about to expose, her landlord has rebuilt her living space with plans he’s kept secret from her. And when it’s finally ready and she gets to spend time in her own space again, she is thrilled. Henry had the place rebuilt with a lot of special touches, and even a small loft bedroom. After sleeping on the sofa for years, Kinsey has a bed of her own. She is home.

She accepts a short job from a Santa Teresa local, a woman who needs Kinsey to find her mother, who had been living in a trailer in the Mojave Desert. Kinsey only spends one night in her new place before heading out to find Agnes Grey. Agnes lived off the grid out in the desert, but she would usually check in with her daughter every so often. But her daughter Irene hadn’t heard from her for several months and was getting worried. She hired Kinsey to go out and track her down.

But Kinsey is not the only one with a job to do. A convict that Kinsey had helped to put away many years previous had taken out a contract on her, the district attorney that prosecuted him, and the judge that sent him to prison. The DA who called and warned her about the hit recommended she find some professional help, like a bodyguard, until she was safe. Kinsey took the recommendation he offered. but she felt like she was safe enough, especially so far away from home as she tried to find Agnes.

Some good, old-fashioned legwork leads Kinsey to Agnes, from the trailer where she had been living that had been taken over by squatters, to the hospital where she had been taken during a medical emergency, to the nursing home, who had been hoping a family member would find her. Kinsey reports back to Irene, who sets in motion a plan to bring Agnes back to Santa Teresa and put her in a local nursing home. Agnes seems reluctant to go to Santa Teresa though, and start telling Kinsey stories about her past. Kinsey isn’t sure how much to believe, but she listens.

And then, before Kinsey can get back to Santa Teresa, her car is run off the road in he desert. Kinsey had seen the man’s face, the man driving the truck who had been coming for her. It was no accident. So she called Robert Dietz. Dietz is also a private detective, one Kinsey had worked with briefly in the past, although just over the phone, helping Kinsey find out some information in Las Vegas. When Kinsey calls and tells him about the car accident, he heads out to the desert immediately to help keep her safe. When Kinsey is surprised that he was able to get there so fast, he tells Kinsey that the judge had been shot. The threat of a hitman just got more real.

Dietz helps get her back to Santa Teresa in one piece, and she helps wrap up her missing persons case. Agnes is in Santa Teresa, at a good nursing home, where she will be cared for. Except that she’s not. Irene calls her to tell her that Agnes has gone missing from the nursing home. Kinsey wonders if this has anything to do with the stories Agnes had been telling her, but the more she digs into her stories, and into Irene’s childhood, the more questions she comes up with.

Will Kinsey be able to figure out where Agnes went and why? Or will a hitman’s bullet stop her in her tracks?

G Is for Gumshoe is book 7 in Sue Grafton’s masterful Kinsey Millhone series, and it offers a look into Kinsey’s mind and heart, as she is on the run from a man trying to kill her. Facing her fears and self-doubts, feeling confident and alive, Kinsey brings the full human experience to her search for the truth and her obsessive need for closure.

I have always loved this book for the contrast of Kinsey and Dietz, seeing how they both face the challenges before them and stare down the danger. The way they connect as colleagues, and then friends, and then lovers, is fascinating and heart-warming, as Kinsey settles deeper into the live she’s chosen for herself and the friends who are like family to her.

I listened to G Is for Gumshoe on audio, narrated by Mary Pfeiffer, who is now the voice of Kinsey to me. The voice she uses for Kinsey is smart but vulnerable, showing Kinsey at her best and her worst, and I loved every minute listening to her. I originally read these books many years ago, and I’m listening to them now for a new experience with them, and I absolutely love it. Pfeiffer brings Kinsey’s stories to life, and I’m only sorry I waited so long to get these books on audio. It is an amazing experience to listen to them.