“R is for Ricochet” by Sue Grafton

“R is for Ricochet” by Sue Grafton
2004, Berkeley Books
ISBN: 0-425-20386-7

“R is for Ricochet” by Sue Grafton is a story about a private detective, Kinsey Millhone, who has been hired to shepherd Reba, just recently released from jail, into life on the outside without her getting into trouble again. The problem is that trouble seems to follow Reba around and not only that, but Reba isn’t afraid of it.

Reba was in love with a guy at the helm of a pretty large business, shady business, and he put the finger on her so that she took the rap for his own shenanigans. She spent two years in jail. Reba thought he was still in love with her. But, we all know that couldn’t possible be true. Once a rat, always a rat in my books.

The justice department is after the guy too and Kinsey gets caught in the middle trying to steer Reba onto the straight and narrow while Reba comes to her senses and wants revenge and tries her hardest to somehow convince Reba to help to bring the rat to the doors of justice.

I enjoyed the relationships Kinsey has with her landlord, Henry, and his brothers (all well into their advanced years) and with a romantic liaison that she began with Cheney, a detective on the local Santa Teresa police force. Maybe he will be in the next book too???

This is the first one I’ve read by Sue Grafton. Her trick is to name each of the books about Kinsey Millhone with a letter of the alphabet. Seeing as how I tapped into the letter R which means I jumped into the series at the 18th letter into the alphabet it was still a fantastic read. It’s funny, but I’d wanted to read Sue Grafton but, Virgo that I am, I wanted to start at the beginning and I just couldn’t find the book that started with A. You don’t have to wait. Just plow in. Your library is sure to have a few, maybe even a lot. Sue Grafton is definitely a prolific writer and certainly knows her stuff. I really enjoyed this book.