Plot or Premise

Kinsey and Henry’s neighbour falls, and Kinsey helps his niece arrange a nurse to look after him. Not an easy task when he’s as grumpy as all get out.

What I Liked

Kinsey’s background check doesn’t turn up any red flags, but Kinsey’s not entirely sure about the person, and how Gus is doing, particularly after the nurse moves in. Nor should she be, since the story also gives the woman’s side of the story, and she’s a sociopath. With a very large son. Meanwhile, Kinsey has a lovely car accident to over-investigate.

What I Didn’t Like

I found the storyline a bit repetitive from previous ones — a scammer on the one hand, a fake accident situation on another. And the general elder abuse is depressing. Plus at the end, the finale is way over the top, reading more like an action movie than a Kinsey story.

The Bottom Line

A generally depressing descent from beginning to end.

Plot or Premise

Kinsey is hired to be a babysitter for a newly-paroled wayward daughter who apparently turned to embezzlement when her gambling losses got too high.

What I Liked

The description of the daughter’s original crime, the limited evidence against her, and a rapid guilty plea sound a tad suspicious, and so it isn’t a great surprise to find that her former boss (the one she supposedly embezzled from) is sniffing around her in an oddly-friendly manner just after she is paroled. It also doesn’t take long for the various federal agencies to all show up hoping Kinsey will convince wayward Reba to inform on her former boss about money laundering and drug cartels. Reba’s definitely a handful, and there are some moments where Kinsey and Reba almost act like friends, even if can’t last.

What I Didn’t Like

The financial stuff is a little too simplistic, the feds are mostly caricatures, and the ending has almost nothing to do with Kinsey, she’s just along for the ride (as the book itself notes in the epilogue).

The Bottom Line

More like rebound than ricochet.

Plot or Premise

Kinsey is hired for a missing persons case, a retired family doctor, running a nursing home.

What I Liked

The mystery opens with a nice quirk — it’s the ex-wife who hires Kinsey, not the current wife. Like all Kinsey’s cases, it gets complicated really fast — cheating wives, messy divorced families, a search for new office space, Medicare fraud, kids who murdered their parents, etc.

What I Didn’t Like

The sub-story about kids murdering their parents and the convenience of some evidence that comes to her from Henry by coincidence really detracts from the story.

The Bottom Line

Decent mystery, too much other noise.