H Is for Homicide - (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries) by Sue Grafton

About the Book

The murder of Kinsey Millhone's sometime drinking buddy leads her to a massive insurance scam.

Book Synopsis

His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjustor for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices.

To the cops, it looked like a robbery gone sour. To Kinsey Millhone, it looked like the cops were walking away from the case. She didn't like the idea that a colleague and sometime drinking companion had been murdered. Or the idea that his murderer was loose and on the prowl. It made her feel exposed. Vulnerable.

Bibianna Diaz was afraid for her life. If there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that you didn't cross Raymond Maldonado and live to tell the tale. And Bibianna had well and truly crossed him, running out on his crazy wedding plans and going into hiding in Santa Teresa--light years away from the Los Angeles barrio that was home turf to Raymond and his gang. Now she needed money to buy time, to make sure she'd put enough space between them. And the quickest way she knew to get money was to work an insurance scam--just like the ones Raymond was running down in L.A. The trouble was, Bibianna picked California Fidelity as her mark. And it wasn't long before her name surfaced in one of Parnell Perkins's open files and Kinsey was on her case. But so, too, was her spurned suitor, Raymond Maldonado.

He had a rap sheet as long as his arm, a hair-trigger temper that was best left untested, and an inability to take no for an answer. He also had Tourette's syndrome, which did nothing to smooth out the kinks in his erratic and often violent behavior. All in all, Raymond Maldonado was not someone to spend a lot of time hanging out with. Unfortunately for Kinsey, she didn't have a lot of choice in the mater. Not after the love-sick Raymond kidnapped Bibianna. Like it or not, Kinsey was stuck babysitting Bibianna along with Raymond and his macho crew. You might say she was a prisoner of love.

It may be Kinsey Millhone's most complicated and risk-filled case. It certainly is Sue Grafton's wittiest venture into low-life crime. It's "H" is for Homicide, and it confirms yet again that Kinsey Millhone is "a wonderful character, tough but not brutish, resourceful and sensitive, a fit knight to walk those mean streets with her male predecessors" (the Los Angeles Times) and that Sue Grafton is "a heads-up delight" (Detroit News).

"A" Is for Alibi
"B" Is for Burglar
"C" Is for Corpse
"D" Is for Deadbeat
"E" Is for Evidence
"F" Is for Fugitive
"G" Is for Gumshoe
"H" Is for Homicide
"I" Is for Innocent
"J" Is for Judgment
"K" Is for Killer
"L" is for Lawless
"M" Is for Malice
"N" Is for Noose
"O" Is for Outlaw
"P" Is for Peril
"Q" Is for Quarry
"R" Is for Ricochet
"S" Is for Silence
"T" Is for Trespass
"U" Is for Undertow
"V" Is for Vengeance
"W" Is for Wasted
"X"

From the Back Cover

His name was Parnell Perkins, and until shortly after midnight, he'd been a claims adjuster for California Fidelity. Then someone came along and put paid to that line of work. And to any other. Parnell Perkins had been shot at close range and left for dead in the parking lot outside California Fidelity's offices.

Review Quotes

"Intelligent, fast-paced, and filled with memorable characters...Kinsey remains as engaging as ever." --The New York Times Book Review

"Exceptionally entertaining...an offbeat sense of humor and a feisty sense of justice." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Millhone is an engaging detective-for-hire...P.I. Kinsey Millhone and her creator...are arguably the best of [the] distaff invaders of the hitherto sacrosanct turf of gumshoes." --The Buffalo News

"Once a fan reads one of Grafton's alphabetically titled detective novels, he or she will not rest until all the others are found." --Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"Millhone is a refreshingly strong and resourceful female private eye." --Library Journal

"Tough but compassionate...There is no one better than Kinsey Millhone." --Best Sellers

"A woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner." --Newsweek

"Lord, how I like this Kinsey Millhone...The best detective fiction I have read in years." --The New York Times Book Review

"Smart, tough, and thorough...Kinsey Millhone is a pleasure." --The Bloomsbury Review

"Kinsey is one of the most persuasive of the new female operatives...She's refreshingly free of gender clichés. Grafton, who is a very witty writer, has also given her sleuth a nice sense of humor--and a set of Wonder Woman sheets to prove it." --Boston Herald

"What grandpa used to call a class act." --Stanley Ellin

"Smart, sexual, likable and a very modern operator." --Dorothy Salisbury Davis

"Kinsey's got brains and a sense of humor." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton (1940-2017) entered the mystery field in 1982 with the publication of 'A' Is for Alibi, which introduced female hard-boiled private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, operating out of the fictional town of Santa Teresa, (aka Santa Barbara) California, and launched the bestselling Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. In addition to her books, she'd published several Kinsey Millhone short stories, and with her husband, Steven Humphrey, wrote numerous movies for television, including "A Killer in the Family" (starring Robert Mitchum), "Love on the Run" (starring Alec Baldwin and Stephanie Zimbalist) and two Agatha Christie adaptations, "Sparkling Cyanide" and "Caribbean Mystery," which starred Helen Hayes. Grafton is published in 28 countries and in 26 languages.