Book 10 X by Sue Grafton

X by Sue Grafton fulfills the category “Book with only Words on the Cover” for the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge. It’s number twenty-four in her Kinsey Millhone series. Yes, I have read all the others and plan to finish Y is for Yesterday by the end of 2020. Plus, doing X for my tenth blog is just kismet.

A dozen years ago, my stepmother introduced me to Sue Grafton. Knowing I was an avid reader and enjoyed mysteries, she recommended Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell, both authors I had never read. (If you can believe it.) I’d been reading fantasy series like Xanth, Dragon Lance, and loving every Mary Higgins Clark too. The length (short) and the direct style of the narrator appealed to me.

Since X is the twenty-fourth novel in the series, I won’t rehash the entire storyline. Ms. Grafton does that for you as she introduces Kinsey in every book, describes her business and her morning run.

In every single book.

Not looking for Pulitzer work, I enjoyed the book and the series. In X, Ms. Grafton impressed me when Kinsey said she wasn’t going to describe her morning run for the third time in the book as it was boring.

I laughed so hard. Maybe she finally got the hint. Unfortunately, there is only one more in the series and Ms. Graft passed in December of 2017.

In the story, our detective gets drawn into a mystery she’s not hired to solve. It seems she wants to put a cap on the last story where another private detective died. She picks up one of his old cases, helps his widow, and solves the whole thing.

Ms. Grafton did a great job of interweaving subplots with this book, though I thought the ending was rushed. She has the naughty neighbor subplot, another to help Pete Wolinsky’s widow, and the main dealing with an art scam. Kinsey navigates all three stories, some getting more time than others. The main plot of the stolen painting seemed to be pushed back, while the one about Pete took the spotlight. It was odd, especially since it wrapped without catching the bad guy.

And the neighbor plot. Oh dear, Ms. Grafton showed in highly digitized, painted pictures of how much research she did about water conservation. I don’t know if they were trying to reach a certain word count or if the author refused to remove some of the lengthy discussions with her landlord.

It seemed a long way around to get to the point that the elderly couple next door were stealing Henry’s water. A very long way around. But I listened to the novel on CD, and Judy Kay is a nice reader (though her old people sound like women).

Again, it’s Book Twenty-Four. I can’t ask for more.

It was a light read, great for the crummy February weather.

I give X by Sue Grafton Four Low Flush Toilet.