by Sue Grafton
Part of Kinsey Millhone, book 25
First published 2017
Kinsey Millhone receives a disturbing call from the McCabe family. Their son Fritz has just been released from prison after serving time for a brutal sexual assault committed ten years earlier. In 1979, Fritz and three other boys from an elite private school attacked a fourteen-year-old girl and recorded the crime. When the tape disappeared, another student was murdered trying to retrieve it. Fritz and one accomplice went to prison while the ringleader vanished completely. Now someone has sent the missing tape to the McCabes with a ransom demand. They want Kinsey to handle the exchange and protect their volatile son. Fritz remains unrepentant and seethes with anger under his parents' constant supervision. As Kinsey investigates, she discovers the past refuses to stay buried. The case draws her into a web of family secrets and old grudges. Meanwhile, a dangerous enemy from her own history may be stalking her, leaving clues only she will recognize.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Period: 1979, 2017
483 pages · Hardcover · Marian Wood Books/Putnam
Content warnings: sexual-assault, violence