Book ~ "D is for Deadbeat" (1987) Sue Grafton

From Goodreads ~ When Alvin Limardo walks into P.I. Kinsey Millhone's office, she smells bad news. He wants Kinsey to deliver $25,000. The recipient: A fifteen-year-old boy. It's a simple matter. So simple that Kinsey wonders why he doesn't deliver the money himself. She's almost certain something is off. But with rent due, Kinsey accepts Limardo's retainer against her better judgment.

When Limardo's check bounces, Kinsey discovers she's been had big time. Alvin Limardo is really John Daggett - an ex-con with a drinking problem, two wives to boot and a slew of people who would like to see him dead. Now Kinsey is out four hundred dollars and in hot pursuit of Daggett. 

When Daggett's corpse shows up floating in the Santa Teresa surf, the cops rule the death an accident. Kinsey thinks it's murder. But seeking justice for a man who everyone seemed to despise is going to be a lot tougher than she bargained for - and what awaits her at the end of the road is much more disturbing than she could've ever imagined.

Kinsey Millhone is a private detective in Santa Teresa, CA.  She is hired by Alvin Limardo to deliver a cheque for $25,000 to a 15-year-old boy named Tony.  According to Limardo, Tony helped him through a tough time in his life, leaving him indebted.  When the retainer cheque bounces, she discovers that Limardo is actually John Daggett, who had recently been released from prison.  As it turns out, Daggett had been driving drunk a couple years ago and ran into a car, killing everyone but Tony.  Daggett is then found dead on the beach a couple days later.  The police say he got drunk and drowned but Kinsey thinks he was murdered.

Kinsey is then hired by Daggett's daughter, Barbara, to find out what really happened.  Daggett wasn't well-liked so there could a lot people who wanted him dead.  And who was the blonde woman he had been partying with the night he died?

I thought this book was just okay.  I liked the writing style.  It is written in first person perspective in Kinsey's voice.  I found there were a lot of characters involved and I had a hard time keeping them straight.  As a head's up, there is swearing and adult activity.  I wasn't crazy about the ending ... I found it kind of sad and think it could have ended better.

This is the fourth in the "alphabet series" featuring Kinsey Millhone.  I discovered this series in the mid-1990s and have read them all.  Since the series will soon come to an end (I finished the latest, Y is for Yesterday, yesterday), I am starting at the beginning and rereading them.  They are all set in the 1980s before everyone had a computer, cell phone, people still smoke in public places, etc.

Book ~ "Pale Kings and Princes" (1987) Robert B. Parker

From Goodreads ~ Wheaton is a typical New England small-college town, not the sort of place for drugs and murder. But when a reporter gets too inquisitive, he finds both - the latter on his own.

Spenser's call comes when the local cops work a cover. He needs help to solve this one - Hawk for back-up and Susan for insight on the basics of jealousy, passion and hate!

What the trio finds is a cutthroat cocaine ring, where drugs have value supreme and human life has none at all. 

Spenser is a private detective in Boston.  Following the murder of a reporter in Wheaton, Massachusetts, he is hired by a newspaper to investigate the death.  The police suspect the reporter was killed because he was having an affair with someone in the town.  As Spenser starts to investigate, he discovers that cocaine is one of the main industries there and the death may be drug related.  He doesn't get much help from the Wheaton police because they are owned by the rich and powerful local drug lord.

This is the fourteenth 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.

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.

I found it ended really quickly.  There was some build-up and then it was done and Spenser was back home and able to enjoy a decent meal again.

I didn't mind Susan, Spenser's love interest, in the earlier books in the series.  I disliked her in Valediction and Catskill Eagle (the eleventh and twelfth in the series).  I found her annoying in this one and the future ones I've read as she has started to get picky and princessy.

Book ~ "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" (1987) Cleveland Amory

From Amazon ~ This is the pleasant, rambling story of a white cat rescued by Amory one Christmas Eve. Struggling to understand his feline friend, he becomes devoted to a degree that not everyone will understand. An animal rights activist, Amory shares his feelings about veterinarians, airlines, hotels, human and animal natures, and the complexities of modern life. Although amusing anecdotes abound, there is little action. Amory's intelligent, educated musings explain life as he and his cat experience it. He also includes interesting trivia on ancient feline history and celebrities who loved or hated cats.

Sister Sarah had recommended this book. And since I like books about animals, I checked it out.

It took me a while to get used to his writing style ... it seemed rather pompous to me at first.

Amory had rescued and taken in a stray white cat who he names Polar Bear. The book covers his and Polar Bear's first year together.

It was funny to read Amory's descriptions of the conversations he and Polar Bear would have ... they tended to discuss and negotiate a lot!

I'd never head of Amory (1917 - 1998) before this book. He was an animal rights activist and it was interesting to read about his campaigns against seal hunting here in Canada and the killing of burros in the States.

If you love kitties, then you'll probably enjoy this book.