We listened to this book while driving to Oregon thsi summer. We are nearing the end of the Kinsey Milhone series, and what impressed me about this book was its breadth and depth. It was a six-hour recording, and when we got to the ending, we discovered that there was another six-hour file that we would need to download to hear the rest of the book. It was a complicated book, one where, strangely, Kinsey was not center stage. The book started out as a straightforward case. A young man, Michael Sutton, comes to see Kiney to ask her help. He has a troubling childhood memory. He remembers seeing two men burying a child. He believes it was Mary Clare Fitzhugh, a girl who went missing at that time, back in 1972.
The book is structured so that it travels from the investigation back to that time in the seventies. We are privy to the lives of the people who were somehow involved in this mystery. There is a surprisingly large number of them, all with intricate back stories. There is a certain heft of information about the wolf dog. There is a poignant side trip where a young man discovers the joy of writing and sets out to find his own creative voice. Grafton also weaves in Kinsey's present time personal problems with her recently reunited family.
I enjoyed this book very much. I was impresesd with Grafton's ambition, her endurance, how she was stretching herself as a writer as she nears the finish line. I did wonder at the editorial process. What did this book look like before it was edited? Is it a situation where Grafton is that famous that there is not much editing done? Is this just the current state of affairs in the publishing world, where things are left alone?
It is a big, beautiful mess. It is a crazy quilt with wonderful patches. It will activate your inner editor. It will cause you to marvel at how much is here.
