by Sue Grafton
Part of Kinsey Millhone, book 14
First published 1999
Private investigator Kinsey Millhone should have driven straight home. Instead she accepts a case that will put her life at risk. Tom Newquist spent years as a respected detective with the Nota Lake sheriff's department. When the nearly sixty-five-year-old cop died of a heart attack, nobody questioned it. His poor health habits made his death predictable. But his widow Selma cannot let go of one mystery. Something had tormented Tom during his final six weeks. He prowled the house at night and brooded constantly. Selma hires Kinsey to discover what troubled her husband so deeply. The investigation seems impossible from the start. Kinsey sets up in Nota Lake to search for answers that may not exist. She soon learns that digging into a dead cop's secrets makes her a target. The entire town appears ready to turn against her. Kinsey must solve the case before it kills her.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: investigation, secrets
Setting: Nota Lake
Period: 20th-century
353 pages · Paperback · Pan Books