Book ~ "Homemade Sin" (1994) Mary Kay Andrews (Kathy Hogan Trocheck)

From Goodreads ~ Callahan Garrity is the owner of House Mouse, a cleaning service that tidies up after Atlanta's elite. She's also a former cop and a part-time sleuth. She and her coterie of devoted helpers can ransack a house for clues faster than it takes a fingerprint to set.

Some people might call Callahan Garrity nosy but she prefers to think of her tendency toward snooping as a healthy interest in the truth. So when news reaches her of her cousin Patti's death during a carjacking, Callahan shakes off her House Mouse cleaning uniform to don her detective's cap. It's not that she doesn't have confidence in the Atlanta police - she used to be among their ranks - but the crime is too incongruous with Patti's suburban life to seem like a random incident.

Callahan used to be a police officer and changed careers when she bought House Mouse, a cleaning service that she runs with her mother, Edna ... but she still does private investigating on the side.

Callahan is shocked and sad when her close cousin, Patti, is murdered in a carjacking.  Patti's young son was in the backseat when it happened and is a witness but has a mental handicap so isn't able to fully tell what happened.  The police are looking into it and suspect that it's gang related. But Callahan is wondering what her cousin was doing on that side of town where it happened because she rarely left her neighbourhood.  Callahan starts her own investigation by questioning and then alienating her family members.  There is a $1.5 million insurance policy on Patti so Callahan gets some help from the insurance company agent investigating it and friends who are still police officers but who aren't on the case.

The writing style and storyline were okay.  It is written in first person perspective in Callahan's voice.  Because it was originally written in the early 1990s, they are still using pay phones, CDs, etc. and there are references by Callahan of growing up in the 1970s.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

This is the third in the Callahan Garrity Mystery Series ... I read the first one in 2018 and recently picked the series back up again and read the second one last week.  Though part of a series, it works as a stand alone as there is enough background provided.

Book ~ "K is for Killer" (1994) Sue Grafton

From Goodreads ~ When Kinsey Millhone answers her office door late one night, she lets in more darkness than she realizes. Janice Kepler is a grieving mother who can't let the death of her beautiful daughter, Lorna, alone. The police agree that Lorna was murdered but a suspect was never apprehended and the trail is now ten months cold. 

Kinsey pieces together Lorna's young life: a dull day job a the local water treatment plant spiced by sidelines in prostitution and pornography. She tangles with Lorna's friends: a local late-night DJ, a sweet funny teenaged hooker, Lorna's sloppy landlord and his exotic wife. 

But to find out which one, if any, turned killer, Kinsey will have to inhabit a netherworld from which she may never return.

It's the 1980s and Kinsey Millhone is a private detective in Santa Teresa, CA, in her thirties.  She is hired by Janice to investigate the death of her daughter, Lorna.  Lorna had been found dead and badly decomposed ten months earlier in her home and the police rules she had died naturally as a result of an allergic reaction.  Janice hasn't been coping well with Lorna's death and wants Kinsey to find out the truth.

Lorna was a receptionist at a water treatment plant by day and a successful high class prostitute by night.  As Kinsey investigates, she becomes friends with Danielle, a teenage prostitute, who hung out with Lorna.  Despite being hired by Lorna's mother, there is a lot of opposition to the investigation by Lorna's father and sisters.

I liked this book and found the story was okay.  The "whodunnit" is a bit convoluted, though, and there seemed to be a lot of information that could have been tighter or deleted.  It's written in first person perspective in Kinsey's voice.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

This is the eleventh in the "alphabet series" featuring Kinsey Millhone.  Though it is part of a series, it works as a stand alone.  I discovered this series in the mid-1990s and have read them all.  I started rereading them this year.  I read the latest, Y is for Yesterday, in October and with the author's death this week, Y is for Yesterday will be the end of the series.

Book ~ "Toronto Sketches 3: The Way We Were" (1994) Mike Filey

From Goodreads ~ Mike Filey's "The Way We Were" column in the Toronto Sun continues to be one of the paper's most popular features. In Toronto Sketches 3, the third volume in Dundurn Press's Toronto Sketches series, Filey brings together some of the best of his columns. 

Each column looks at Toronto as it was, and contributes to our understanding of how Toronto became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city's people and places of the past, Toronto Sketches is a nostalgic journey for the long-time Torontonian, and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer.

Mike Filey had a column in the Toronto Sun for about 30 years and I read it for many years (I like learning about the history of Toronto) ... this book is a compilation of some of his columns.  We learn about Roy Thompson and why there is a hall named after him, the history of Union Station(s), the Scadding Cabin (Toronto's oldest house), Woolworths, etc.

Scadding Cabin

Even though the book was published in 1994, it was still an interesting book because it dealt with many historical events in Toronto.  Plus since it was published in 1994, it was interesting to see what was going on back then and what has changed. For example, Filey devotes many pages to the mural that was on the Toronto Sun building which was still being done when this book was published. To mark Toronto’s bicentennial in 1993, the Toronto Sun had commissioned a large mural (180 feet long and 25 feet high) for the side of its building. Called “History as Theatre, 200 Toronto Years,” the mural consisted of 32 vignettes about the city, ranging from First Nations inhabitants to the official naming of the city of York and right through to the streetcar.  It was taken down in June 2011.

If you live in Toronto or are from Toronto, you should check it out. 

Book ~ "Sweet Dreams, Irene" (1994) Jan Burke

From Goodreads ~ Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.

This is the second in this series of nine (as of 2011). I'd read it years ago and am now rereading the series.

I enjoyed this one. It's been a while so I'd forgotten whodunnit so the mystery was still there for me.

I like the characters of Irene and Frank ... they are nice people who have recently found each other and care about each other. The other characters are secondary and there's no one annoying.

There is a kidnapping and beating situation that I thought was a bit extreme ... if anyone had taken that kind of punishment, there's no way they could have survived.

I am looking forward to rereading the third one!