is for Lawless is the um… lemme see… ABCDEFGHIJK… it's the twelfth! The twelfth novel in Sue Grafton's ongoing private investigator Kinsey Millhone series. Like the other three I've read in this series, this is not a mystery novel as much as it is an detective story, with Kinsey once again starting off on a small case, one that quickly escalates into a large and dangerous business that she is lucky to survive.

This time Kinsey's looking into the background of a dead man, one who was reported to be in the military during WWII. The Army says they've never heard of him though, and as Kinsey starts to investigate his old apartment is broken into and his seemingly-worthless belongings are ransacked. Who would do such a thing? What were they looking for? Who was the old man really, and where was he during WWII if not in the Army? All questions are answered in the novel, and you'll thrill (or not) along with Kinsey as she travels cross country, gets dragged into a treasure hunt for stolen goods from half a century ago, and finds hidden and unexpected relationships between characters.

To the scores.

L is for Lawless, by Sue Grafton.
Plot: 6
Concept: 6
Writing Quality/Flow: 6/7
Characters: 7
Horror: NA
Humor: 5
Fun Factor: 5
Page Turner: 7
Re-readability: 4
Overall: 6.5

This book isn't really any better than the other three I've read in this series, and yet I enjoyed it the most of all of them. Like all of Grafton's work, it's a very quick read, and I put away the last 200 pages of this one the night before a recent trip, reading them all in the tub in hardly more than an hour. I wouldn't call these books junk food, but they're definitely closer to a snack than a meal, and they read as or more quickly than any novels I've ever cracked open. I don't think Grafton is a very good writer, and her plots are always a few twists short of what they could be, but she does have a J. K. Rowling-esque ability to string together flowing prose, and to keep a story moving along briskly. If you want a novel to get involved in, blow through quickly, and forget in a day, Grafton's an excellent choice.

In addition to being the best overall of the four I've read in this series, Lawless has by far the single best scene; one that had me laughing out loud while I cheered on the actions of one character. That joy didn't last all that long, but I still remember my surprise and enjoyment as I read that scene, and just for that one I bumped up the overall score a point, and gave this one a better score for humor than I had any intention of awarding it.

I'd say more, but there's really nothing more to say. If you've read any of the Kinsey Millhone novels, you pretty well know what to expect from this one. She eats junk food, she jogs, she scrambles for money, she digs through paperwork on a professional level, and she winds up unarmed and desperately scrambling to survive by her wits while surrounded by semi-hostile and very dangerous men. It's far from great, but it's the best one in the series so far, at least in my opinion. The majority of Amazon.com reviewers don't seem to agree, but what the hell do they know?

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