Sue Grafton - Q is for Quarry

Four stars. Recommended.

Kinsey Millhone gets persuaded to help Lieutenant Dolan and his retired colleague Stacey Oliphant investigate a murder case that has lain unsolved for eighteen years. Grafton weaves a classic detective story: a few tenuous leads develop into a tangled mess of small-town lives, and it takes all of Kinsey's ingenuity to follow each strand to the end. There are some tantalising glimpses of Kinsey's family, and some hints about where that story arc is going. As an interesting counterpoint to her relationship with her biological family, Kinsey forms a very strong bond with Dolan and Oliphant here, both of whom are in ill health. The overall result is one of Grafton's best mysteries to date.