W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton

I know I'm weird but am I alone in the habit of sitting on books as a series winds down? There are only three more Kinsey Millhone books planned at the moment and while it doesn't excuse my taking over a year to get to W is for Wasted, I really don't want this series to end. I decided enough was enough over the weekend and finally broke down. Let me tell you, it was a very welcome return to 1980s Santa Teresa!

Kinsey is taking a welcome little work vacation when an odd call comes in: a homeless man has been brought into the morgue. He has no identification on him, but apparently carried Kinsey's card in his pocket. Could she come down and identify him?

Kinsey's never seen the man but considering she has some time on her hands she decides to poke around and see what she can find. At the very least, her curiosity about why he'd had her card has been piqued. Unfortunately, when Kinsey does finally discover the truth about the man's identity, things get pretty complicated for the PI!

I've been reading this series for over a decade and am amazed that Sue Grafton can continue to come up with new, intriguing plots while never neglecting her characters. In W, Kinsey has to face more family challenges and the appearance of two exes (oh, Dietz!), Henry takes on a new housemate (or two), William and Rosie are doing well - all things considered, and we meet a slew of new characters as well!

Even with all of that, Grafton still finds time to weave in a whole secondary plot involving fellow Santa Teresa PI, Pete Wolinsky. Guess our PI really can't stay idle for too long after all :)

W is out in paperback now (as is the whole series leading up to it) and X is tentatively set for release fall of 2015. Til then, I'll survive and find some way of tiding myself over. I guess by the time the whole thing is wrapped up with Z it'll be time to go back and re read the whole thing, right? 

Rating: 5/5