Mary Peiffer

"Every investigation has a nature of its own, but there are certain shared characteristics," explains private eye Kinsey Millhone in her 13th alphabetic outing. "Here's what you hope for: a chance remark from the former neighbor on a skip-trace, a penciled notation on the corner of a document, an ex-spouse with a grudge, the number on an account, an item overlooked at the scene of a crime. Here's what you expect: the dead ends, bureaucratic bullheadedness,...

Lonnie Kingman is in a bind. He's smack in the middle of assembling a civil suit, and the private investigator who was doing his pretrial legwork has just dropped dead of a heart attack. In a matter of weeks the court's statute of limitations will put paid to his case. Five years ago David Barney walked when a jury acquitted him of the murder of his rich wife, Isabelle. Now Kingman, acting as attorney for the dead woman's ex-husband and their child...

With motive, access, and opportunity, Nikki Fife is the cops' number-one suspect when Laurence Fife, a prominent divorce attorney, is murdered; eight years later, out on parole, Nikki hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killed her husband.

Beverly Danziger, who looked like an expensive wrapped package from a good but conservative shop, places a problem before female private eye Kinsey Millhone; there was a will to be settled, and Beverly's sister needs to be found.

A Kinsey Millhone mystery.

Kinsey Millhone has been framed for a crime she didn't commit and must now uncover the truth or face losing everything she has worked for.