Kinsey Milhone, PI, sends herself on another private mission to solve the case for a former acquaintance, her ex-husband. Mickey, her ex, shows up shot and in the hospital and Kinsey decides to follow the clues to find out why and how. This takes her back through her life and the time she left him for case in which he asked her to lie providing an alibi for him during a murder investigation in which he was suspect. This caused the rift in their marriage ending it. Kinsey feels compelled to "make things right".
This is an interesting leap for Kinsey who seems to only run into family during cases. Otherwise, she would stay the lone wolf forever. She, of course, is a better investigator then the 2 dics that come from LA to accuse her of the shooting. She solves the case (for them) due to her usually tenacity and end up forgiving her ex as he lays in bed at the ICU. Some of things that arise for Kinsey personal relationship with him make him look like a very bad person. The only part that doesn't fit is Kinsey's forgiveness of his betrayal.
The cast of characters is large, but interesting. There is a nice element of Vietnam vets. Because Kinsey has grown too big for Santa Teresa, Grafton takes her from there to LA, Louisville and back which is a nice scenery shift. The story flows nicely until the end with a nice revenge scene after the twist. ( )

Grafton reveals more still of out beloved Kinsey's past when Kinsey gets pulled into the shooting of her 1st ex-husband Mickey Magruder. Ms. Grafton shows us how Kinsey and her 1st husband met, and soon divorced, and why. An a quick lesson about not judging based on reputation alone. For me, Grafton is back on track with her "O" book in the series, one I can say I enjoyed much more than the previous 2 in the series. The more personally involved Kinsey gets, the more these seem to come alive, the more driven she is about her cases. Only thing I have to wonder is - what is Ms. Grafton's interest in louisville, KY? ( )

I think this has been my favorite in this series so far. This is also one of the few series I've read entirely in order. I think I liked this as much as I did because it was personal for Kinsey. You get a glimpse into her past, which is usually very shadowed and un-mentioned. I also did not have it remotely figured out, which is a mark of a good mystery to me. ( )

This has got to be one of my favourite Kinsey mysteries: the emotional involvement of her ex-husband, and the background it gave us on her earlier pre-private investigator life was quite fascinating, and explained an awful lot about her.

But, yet, it wasn't like the later Dr Kay Scarpetta novels (by Patricia Cornwell) where the focus went from the mysteries and onto Dr Kay Scarpetta and her failure of a love life. It was still about the mystery (and I've read enough of the later Millhone novels to know it continues to be about the mysteries).

I didn't guess whodunnit or whydunnit at all, but the Kinsey Millhone series aren't really about trying to second-guess the author, they're about the fun of the chase. And this was a fun chase, with Kinsey one step ahead of the law who are suspicious that she may have been involved in the shooting of her ex-husband, the seriously paranoid Mickey Magruder. ( )

It's been a while since I read a Kinsey Millhone adventure so I was surprised to find that Grafton plots a mystery better I remembered. The setup is straightforward - Millhone discovers a letter from the past and it leads her to re-evaluate a past murder and the people involved. Grafton does a good job in making sure the twists are unexpected but still logical. On the down side, there's not much to recommend Millhone as a likable or memorable character except her enjoyment of Quarter Pounders - a pity given the time we have to spend with her when the supporting cast are much more interesting. ( )