Book ~ "C is for Corpse" (1986) Sue Grafton

From Goodreads ~ How do you go about solving an attempted murder when the victim has lost a good part of his memory? It's one of Kinsey's toughest cases yet but she never backs down from a challenge. 

Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Callahan is lucky to be alive after a car forced his Porsche over a bridge and into a canyon. The crash left Bobby with a clouded memory. But he can't shake the feeling it was no random accident and that he's still in danger.

The only clues Kinsey has to go on are a little red address book and the name "Blackman." Bobby can't remember who he gave the address book to for safekeeping. And any chances of Bobby regaining his memory are dashed when he's killed in another automobile accident just three days after he hires Kinsey.

As Kinsey digs deeper into her investigation, she discovers Bobby had a secret worth killing for - and unearthing that secret could send Kinsey to her own early death.

Kinsey Millhone is in her 30s and a private detective in Santa Teresa, CA. She is hired by Bobby Callahan, who was nearly killed when his car went off the road nine months before.  Bobby is convinced that the accident wasn't an accident ... someone was trying to kill him and he wants Kinsey to find out who wanted him dead.  The problem is that Bobby lost a lot of his memory and can only give Kinsey bits and pieces of his life before the accident.

A couple days later, Bobby is killed in a car accident and the autopsy reveals he had a seizure, a result of the first accident.  Because he had paid Kinsey a retainer, she continues with the investigation.

I thought this book was just okay.  Though I liked the writing style, I didn't find the story engaging and didn't really care about the characters.  It is written in first person perspective in Kinsey's voice.  I found it wrapped up really quickly and I thought the ending (the catching of the "whodunnit") wasn't believable.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

This is the third in the "alphabet series" featuring Kinsey Millhone.  I discovered this series in the mid-1990s and have been a fan since and have read them all.  Since the series will soon come to an end, I am starting at the beginning and rereading them.  They are all set in the 1980s before everyone had a computer, cell phone, etc.

Book ~ "Taming a Sea-Horse" (1986) Robert B. Parker

From Goodreads ~ Nice girls don't. But blond, beautiful April Kyle does. She's a hooker hooked on the wrong guy - and she's on her way to trouble. So is Spenser. 

Looking out for April has landed him in the crud of Times Square. It's not a long way to big-business boardrooms where blood money get laundered into long green, sex is a commodity and young girls are the currency.

Spenser is a private detective in Boston.  Four years ago, he had placed a teenage hooker named April with Patricia Uttley, who ran a a high class escort service in New York.  Patricia advises Spenser that April has fallen in love with a pimp and has left her employ.  She wants Spenser to make sure April is okay.

Spenser finds Aprils but she wants to be left alone.  But Spenser can't/won't let it go, especially when April disappears and he's on the hunt to try to find her.  This leads him to discover that hookers are bought and sold and he won't give up until he finds April again.

This is the thirteenth in the Spenser series (there are currently 46, with the last six written by Ace Atkins after Parker's death in 2010).  I've read many over the years (and have liked the series) and have started reading them from the beginning of the series.  Though it is part of a series, for the most part it works as a stand alone.

Susan, Spenser's love interest of 10+ years, is annoying as she's now picky and princessy.  In A Catskill Eagle, the twelfth in the series, we discovered that Susan has been cheating on Spenser before she had broken up with him and that book focused on him rescuing her from her new boyfriend.  To me, that's pretty heavy duty.  But apparently Spenser has forgiven her and they have moved on.

We first met April and Patricia in Ceremony, which was written in 1982.  At that time, April was a teenager and a hooker with no prospects.  Since she wanted to remain a hooker, Spenser connected her to Patricia so she could work for a classier establishment and be groomed by Patricia ... I had found the ending of that book a bit unbelievable.  It sounds like April didn't appreciate what she had and took off with her sleazy boyfriend who was also pimping her out.  I had a hard time believing this too ... I would have thought April would have matured by now and been a classier hooker.

I liked the writing style ... I found it humorous at times.  Spenser is a tough guy with a wisecracking sense of humour.  It's written in first person perspective in Spenser's voice.  As a head's up, there is swearing.