In July 1953 a party girl drove off in her brand new Chevy and was never seen again. Thirty-five years later her daughter wants closure so hires a private detective to discover what she can about her mother’s fate.
The private investigator is reluctant to take on a case so old and expects to make no more headway than anyone else has over the years. Against her advice the client insists that the cold case be reopened. The investigator soon discovers most people believe the woman simply ran away from an abusive relationship, a view the PI shares until someone starts trying to scare her off. The unexpected reaction to her vague and unconventional questions leads her to believe she might be on to something. Encouraging confidences from the main players in the case by allowing their lifetime of petty grievances to come to the fore she soon puts together a theory about the fate of the woman.
Her theory proves correct and the car, with body inside, is found buried in the grounds of a ruined house.
Having found the body she hands the case over to the police but in tying up a few loose ends she inadvertently discovers who murdered the woman. Needless to say they are not happy to have their crime uncovered after getting away with it for so long. In a nail biting ending the PI is forced to fight for her life. A fight she wins.
At this exceptionally busy time of year it is nice to have a reliably good read that won’t require too much effort, or time, on the part of the reader. Grafton delivers just that. Familiar yet novel, any book in this long running series would fit the bill.
In this book she uses a slightly different approach. Scattered throughout the story are chapters told from the perspectives of the main players at the time, allowing the reader to build a picture of the days leading up to the disappearance. This gives the reader an opportunity to see the victim through the eyes of those around her and to see who had motives for murder and what those motives were. In doing this the author quite cleverly hides the identity of the true murderer until the very end, since at one point or another everybody appears to be a reasonable suspect.
There was nothing in the way of development for the main character or her usual cast of associates but I don’t feel that was detrimental to this story at all. And the solving of the mystery after so long, including the unmasking of the murderer, didn’t feel at all contrived. The situation that leads to the resolution, though coincidental, felt thoroughly believable.
Overall, interesting without becoming demanding. A good read-Lynn
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