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F is for Fugitive by Sue Grafton

F is for Fugitive  - Sue Grafton

Mayday, Mayday, Kinsey Millhone is in mortal peril.

 

Again.

 

This was not my favorite installment in the series, although I still found it enjoyable. Kinsey spends most of this book away from home, where her apartment has been destroyed by a bomb in the E is for Evidence.

 

At the beginning of F is for Fugitive, Bailey Fowler has been captured after decades on the lam. He escaped shortly after pleading guilty to a lesser form of murder in the death of his friend, Jean Timberlake, who was also reviled as the town floozy at the ripe young age of 17. Kinsey is hired by Bailey's father to clear Bailey's name after all this time.

 

Sue Grafton appears to have  rather bleak outlook on humanity. Most of the characters in this book are a mess, and the entire Fowler family is flat out batshit crazy. We have Ann, the long-suffering daughter, who has been caring for her fucked up parents since Bailey disappeared. We have Royce, the patriarch, who is dying, but who is also just sort of a shitty person. We have the mother, Oribelle Fowler, who is a narcissistic hypochondriac. I might have killed her myself, given half a chance.

 

In addition, every adult male in the town seems to have been sexually abusing Jean Timberlake before her death, and no one really seems interested in actually solving the case. Probably because they are afraid that, when the truth comes out, their dark secret will be exposed. All in all, they're a bunch of fucking assholes who belong in jail.

 

The identity of the killer is...not very convincing. And Kinsey almost dies. Again.