Y is for Yesterday

I have now read two of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone novels: the first, A Is for Alibi, and the last, Y Is for Yesterday. Grafton died earlier this year and her family announced that no new writers will pick up the series, so the alphabet ends at 25 letters.

Though this is the last of the series, it takes place earlier in private eye Millhone's career, 1989 to be precise. I think this is because a videotape is the McGuffin of the story, and it also doesn't involve mobile phones. There are two timelines: 1979, when a girl accused of ratting out some friends for cheating on an exam ends up getting murdered, and 1989, when one of her killers gets out of prison but is being extorted by the owners of a videotape that features him and some other boys sexually molesting a fourteen-year-old girl.

If that weren't enough, Millhone is being stalked by a killer named Ned Lowe, who I'm guessing appeared in one of the earlier novels.

It's difficult to summarize the plot here, as a lot is going on. Grafton, like a lot of mystery/thriller writers, violates one of Elmore Leonard's rules: cut out the stuff people tend to skip over. With Grafton a lot of it is food. I've never read so many descriptions of what people are eating, including how to make the perfect peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Consider the detail she goes into here: "She covered two small jelly-roll pans with foil, patted the chicken pieces dry, and placed them in one pan. She took out the Spike, generously seasoned the chicken breasts, and set them in the oven to bake. When the chicken was close to being done, she’d whack the cardboard tube of dinner rolls on the counter, remove the rolls, and place them in the second pan to bake. She took out a packaged mix of fettuccine amandine, filled a saucepan with water, and lit the fire under it. With the romaine, she’d make a freestanding Caesar salad with the lettuce upright in a bowl, glossy with vinaigrette, and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese." None of this matters to the story.

The other thing she does is spend too much time writing about driving. The town where Millhone operates is Santa Teresa, a fictional city. So why, if the place is fictional, are there mentions of what streets she takes? Maybe if you've read all the books you have memorized the map, but otherwise it's wasted words. And we don't need to know if she got a good parking spot.

The book is almost 500 pages long, and could have been half of that. When Grafton sticks to the plot, it's a pretty good mystery, with a whodunit and some good characters, especially a bully named Austin Brown.. I even got the vibe a private eye must get when they have to ask people uncomfortable questions.

I'm sure Grafton, who sold millions of books, didn't have an editor who wielded a red pen that much, but she sure needed on here. I haven't even mentioned all the subplots, like a cousin who gets knocked up and a homeless couple who have camped out in her backyard.