by Sue Grafton
Part of Kinsey Millhone, book 10
First published 1997
Private investigator Kinsey Millhone gets a straightforward assignment from California Fidelity Insurance. Find out if Wendell Jaffe really drowned five years ago when his boat was discovered empty off the Baja coast. The company just paid his widow Dana the full $500,000 after waiting the required five years to declare him legally dead. Now someone has spotted Jaffe alive in a Mexican resort bar. Kinsey travels south to investigate what looks like insurance fraud. Jaffe had left behind a bankrupt real estate business, empty bank accounts, and a confession that his ventures were elaborate Ponzi schemes. But as Kinsey digs into Jaffe's disappearance, the case pulls her into an unexpected exploration of her own family history. The investigation becomes personal when murder enters the picture. Two separate stories merge as Kinsey discovers that the truth about Jaffe connects to revelations about her own past. She learns that quick judgments often lead to regret, and that family secrets can surface in the most unlikely places.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, personal-investigation
Setting: California, Baja, Mexico
Period: 5 Years Ago
360 pages · Paperback · Ballantine Books