Y is for Yesterday (Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series, 25)

Grafton, Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447260279 ISBN 13: 9781447260271

Publisher: Pan, 2018

Y is for Yesterday is the twenty-fifth in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series by Sue Grafton.

The darkest and most disturbing case report from the files of Kinsey Millhone, Y is for Yesterday begins in 1979, when four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate – and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns in evidence for the state and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace.

Now, it’s 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents – until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help. As she is drawn into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. But he’s not the only one being haunted by the past. A vicious sociopath with a grudge against Millhone may be leaving traces of himself for her to find . . .

Review:

This will leave readers both relishing another masterful entry and ruing the near-end of this series. Prime Grafton Source: Booklist

Grafton once again proves herself a superb storyteller Source: Publishers Weekly

Grafton constructs an intricate plot following two time lines with at least a dozen characters in play while rarely slowing the pace Source: Library Journal

I’m going to miss Kinsey Millhone. Ever since the first of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mysteries, A Is For Alibi, came out in 1982, Kinsey has been a good friend and the very model of an independent woman, a gutsy Californian P.I. rocking a traditional man’s job . . . It’s Kinsey herself who keeps this series so warm and welcoming. She’s smart, she’s resourceful, and she’s tough enough to be sensitive on the right occasions Source: New York Times

Y Is for Yesterday is one of the strongest novels in the series as the beloved lady sleuth Kinsey Millhone, the perennial main character, is hired to investigate the aftermath of a ten-year-old murder involving high-school students. The milieu ― wealth and privilege in a beautiful California setting ― is enticing, as are the cast of colourful regulars. This story of teenagers gone bad runs in parallel with a deadly threat to Kinsey’s life, and the ending is truly satisfying, in more ways than one. Source: The Times

Book Description:

The alphabet mysteries continue with a harrowing case for private investigator Kinsey Millhone.