Readers of Sue Grafton s fiction know she never writes the same book twice and I Is For Innocent is no exception. Her most intricately plotted novel to date it is layered in enough complexity to baffle even the cleverest among us. Lonnie Kingman is in a bind. He s smack in the middle of assembling a civil suit and the private investigator who was doing his pretrial legwork has just dropped dead of a heart attack. In a matter of weeks the court s statute of limitations will put paid to his case. Five years ago David Barney walked when a jury acquitted him of the murder of his rich wife Isabelle. Now Kingman acting as attorney for the dead woman s ex-husband and their child (and sure that the jury made a serious mistake) is trying to divest David Barney of the profits of that murder. But time is running out and David Barney still swears he s innocent. Patterned along the lines of a legal case I Is For Innocent is seamlessly divided into thirds: one-third of the novel is devoted to the prosecution one-third to the defense and a final third to cross-examination and rebuttal. The result is a trial novel without a trial and a crime novel that resists solution right to the end. When Kinsey Millhone agrees to take over Morley Shine s investigation she thinks it is a simple matter of tying up the loose ends. Morley might have been careless about his health but he was an old pro at the business. So it comes as a real shock when she finds his files in disarray his key informant less than credible and his witnesses denying ever having spoken with him. It comes as a bigger shock when she finds that every claim David Barney has made checks out. But if Barney didn t murder his wife who did? It would seem the list of candidates is a long one. In life Isabelle Barney had stepped on a lot of toes. In I Is For Innocent Sue Grafton once again demonstrates her mastery of those telling details that reveal our most intimate and conflicted relationships. As Kinsey comments on the give-and-take by which we humans deal with each other for better and sometimes for worse the reader is struck yet again by how acute a social observer Ms. Grafton can be. Frequently funny and sometimes caustic she is also surprisingly compassionate-- understanding how little in life is purely black and white. Except for murder. Somewhere out there a killer waits to see just what Kinsey will find out. Somewhere out there someone s been getting away with murder and this time it just might turn out to be Kinsey s. I Is For Innocent is Sue Grafton in peak form. Fast-paced. Funny. And very very devious. A Is for Alibi B Is for Burglar C Is for Corpse D Is for Deadbeat E Is for Evidence F Is for Fugitive G Is for Gumshoe H Is for Homicide I Is for Innocent J Is for Judgment K Is for Killer L is for Lawless M Is for Malice N Is for Noose O Is for Outlaw P Is for Peril Q Is for Quarry R Is for Ricochet S Is for Silence T Is for Trespass U Is for Undertow V Is for Vengeance W Is for Wasted X