A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

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A whole alphabet of books. I'm not sure what to think. But the book challenge I'm doing requires me to find a book starting with the letter X, so I discovered this series, and decided to try it first with the first book of the series. Surprisingly, the book is fast paced and interesting. The writing is interesting, even though I started getting annoyed at the number of characters for the length of the book. It feels like every chapter is an introduction of new characters. Overall, it's not a bad read, and since my expectations were low, it exceeded my expectations.

A Is for Alibi draws us in immediately - the wife Nikki of a prominent divorce attorney Laurence had just gotten out of prison, after serving 7 years for her husband's murder. She approaches private investigator, Kinsey Millhone, because she wants to clear her name and find out who the true killer is. Detective Millhone reluctantly takes the case, since it's been 8 years since the murder and she wonders if she can find any useful evidence by now. She uses her wits and skills and travels all over the country, talking to many relevant people, some of which end up dying under suspicious circumstances. In the end, she realizes her assumption of one killer behind it all is incorrect. The killer of Laurence was his first wife, Gwen. Gwen was the dutiful wife while Laurence cheated on her with many people. She lost her kids during the divorce because of Laurence's power and influence. The killer of the others is Laurence's law partner, Charlie. Charlie was stealing money from clients and killing the people who discovered his secret. Ironically, Kinsey was starting a relationship with Charlie before finding out the truth. Charlie killed Gwen in a hit-and-run accident. When Kinsey tried to confront Charlie, a showdown happens and Kinsey ends up killing Charlie with a gun.

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