
J is for Judgement (A Kinsey Millhone Mystery, Book 10)
The next in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet mystery series from bestselling author Sue Grafton. "J" is for Jaffe: Wendell Jaffe, dead these past five years. Or so it seemed until his former insurance agent spotted him in the bar of a dusty little resort halfway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. "In truth, the facts about Wendell Jaffe had nothing to do with my family history, but murder is seldom tidy and no one ever said revelations operate in a straight line. It was my investigation into the dead man's past that triggered the inquiry into my own, and in the end the two stories became difficult to separate.". Five years ago, when Jaffe's thirty-five-foot Fuji ketch was found drifting off the Baja coast, it seemed a sure thing he'd gone overboard. The note he left behind admitted he was flat broke, his business bankrupt, his real estate gambit nothing but a huge Ponzi scheme about to collapse, with criminal indictment certain to follow. When the authorities soon after descended on his banks and his books, there was nothing left: Jaffe had stripped the lot. "Given my insatiable curiosity and my natural inclination to poke my nose in where it doesn't belong, it was odd to realize how little attention I'd paid to my own past. I'd simply accepted what I was told, constructing my personal mythology on the flimsiest of facts.". But Jaffe wasn't quite without assets. There was the $500,000 life insurance policy made out to his wife and underwritten by California Fidelity. With no corpse to prove death, however, the insurance company was in no hurry to pay the claim. Dana Jaffe had to wait out the statutory five years until her missing husband could be declared legally dead. Just two months before Wendell Jaffe was sighted in that dusty resort bar, California Fidelity finally paid in full. Now they wanted the truth. And they were willing to hire Kinsey Millhone to dig it up. As Kinsey pushes deeper into the mystery surrounding Wendell Jaffe's pseudocide, she explores her own past, discovering that in family matters as in crime, sometimes it's better to reserve judgment. "J" is for judgment: the kind we're quick to make and often quicker to regret. "J" Is for Judgment: Kinsey Millhone's tenth excursion into the dark places of the heart where duplicity is the governing rule and murder the too-frequent result. "A" Is for Alibi. "B" Is for Burglar. "C" Is for Corpse. "D" Is for Deadbeat. "E" Is for Evidence. "F" Is for Fugitive. "G" Is for Gumshoe. "H" Is for Homicide. "I" Is for Innocent. "J" Is for Judgment. "K" Is for Killer. "L" is for Lawless. "M" Is for Malice. "N" Is for Noose. "O" Is for Outlaw. "P" Is for Peril "Q" Is for Quarry. "R" Is for Ricochet "S" Is for Silence "T" Is for Trespass. "U" Is for Undertow "V" Is for Vengeance "W" Is for Wasted "X". Exceptionally entertaining...an offbeat sense of humor and a feisty sense of justice." -San Francisco Chronicle on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Millhone is an engaging detective-for-hire...P.I. Kinsey Millhone and her creator...are arguably the best of [the] distaff invaders of the hitherto sacrosanct turf of gumshoes." -The Buffalo News on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Once a fan reads one of Grafton's alphabetically titled detective novels, he or she will not rest until all the others are found." -Los Angeles Herald Examiner on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Millhone is a refreshingly strong and resourceful female private eye." -Library Journal on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Tough but compassionate...There is no one better than Kinsey Millhone." -Best Sellers on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "A woman we feel we know, a tough cookie with a soft center, a gregarious loner." -Newsweek on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Lord, how I like this Kinsey Millhone...The best detective fiction I have read in years." -The New York Times Book Review on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Smart, tough, and thorough...Kinsey Millhone is a pleasure." -The Bloomsbury Review on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Kinsey is one of the most persuasive of the new female operatives...She's refreshingly free of gender clich©s. Grafton, who is a very witty writer, has also given her sleuth a nice sense of humor-and a set of Wonder Woman sheets to prove it." -Boston Herald on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "What grandpa used to call a class act." -Stanley Ellin on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Smart, sexual, likable and a very modern operator." -Dorothy Salisbury Davis on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries. "Kinsey's got brains and a sense of humor." -Kirkus Reviews on the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries - From the Publisher