Despite enjoying plenty of grocery store detective novels in my younger years (James Patterson, Michael Connolly, etc.) I had somehow never read anything by Sue Grafton. I knew of her, of course, and her alphabet-themed series of detective novels, but for whatever reason had never picked one up. Well, for the 2024 PopSugar reading challenge, I had to read a book starting with the letter X. I had started reading a different book, and was struggling with maintaining interest, and decided to switch it up. When I read the description of X it sounded fascinating – a detective on the trail of a potential serial killer who knows she’s looking into him. I love a good cat and mouse!
Unfortunately X isn’t quite like that. Much of the book has our protagonist Kinsey getting involved in a divorce dispute over a piece of artwork, and includes a lot – A LOT – of surveillance and stakeouts while she tries to figure out what, exactly, the ex wife is planning. And the potential heist is fun, there’s red herrings and disguises and whatnot, but it definitely isn’t a serial killer.
The secondary plot involves aforementioned serial killer, but it takes 5/6 of the book to actually develop. Kinsey is helping her friend Ruth clean out files from her deceased husband Pete, another PI and occasional colleague of Kinsey’s. In one of the boxes Kinsey finds a hidden compartment containing personal items of a dead woman, and a document written in code. This eventually leads her to discover that the deceased woman may have actually been murdered by her husband, and that there may be more victims out there. But like I said, it takes a long time and a lot of meandering to get to the point where Kinsey thinks this might be a murder. Hardly a psychological thriller as advertised.
The final storyline is about water conservation, and is kind of inane – Kinsey and her landlord’s new neighbors are leeches and might be scamming them, and Kinsey is trying to protect her landlord (and friend) from being taken advantage of. This storyline, while silly, does at least have a satisfying conclusion.
The book was enjoyable, and I can understand why the series was so popular, but it was also a bit of a disappointment. It was meandering, the plots were really disparate and didn’t tie together at all (not even thematically), and there was no satisfying conclusion to the serial killer plotline. I would probably try another Grafton novel – I did enjoy her style of writing and Kinsey’s character – but would check out some reviews before committing.