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.