Sue Grafton. F is for Fugitive (1989)

     Sue Grafton. F is for Fugitive (1989) A dying man, father of a fugitive convicted murderer, hires Kinsey to find the real murderer of a school girl 17 years after the fact. The setting is a small town, which means there are open secrets that no one acknowledges, and secrets that no one knows. The murderer is the fugitive’s sister, a school counsellor who has a lunatic crush on her principal and suffers from pathological jealousy. Kinsey’s investigations provide fuel for her jealousy, and prompt more murders. Grafton, like so many women crime writers, is a good satirist, and in her characters presents us with a number of acid comments on human frailty and vanity. A pleasant entertainment, but lacking the tension and edge of earlier books. **½ (2007)