T is for Trespass

Starred review from September 17, 2007
The 20th Kinsey Millhone crime novel (after 2005's S Is for Silence
), a gripping, if depressing, tale of identify theft and elder abuse, displays bestseller Grafton's storytelling gifts. By default, Millhone, “a private investigator in the small Southern California town of Santa Teresa,” assumes responsibility for the well-being of an old neighbor, Gus Vronsky, injured in a fall. After Vronsky's great-niece arranges to hire a home aide, Solana Rojas, Millhone begins to suspect that Rojas is not all that she seems. Since the reader knows from the start that an unscrupulous master manipulator has stolen the Rojas persona, the plot focuses not on whodunit but on the battle of wits Millhone wages with an unconventional and formidable adversary. Grafton's mastery of dialogue and her portrayal of the limits of good intentions make this one of the series' high points, even if two violent scenes near the end tidy up the pieces a little too neatly. Author tour.

April 15, 2008
In her 20th outing, another "New York Times "best seller for Grafton, private detective Kinsey Millhone finds her elderly neighbor Gus sprawled on his living room floor after a fall. His injuries make it impossible for Gus to care for himself, so his only relative, a niece who lives in New York, hires a home-care provider and hopes for the best. In a cursory background check, Kinsey finds Solana Rojas to be a competent and caring companion for Gus. However, the narrator reveals that Solana is a sociopath who steals the identities of others and uses their good names to abuse, rob, and eventually kill helpless elderly people. When Kinsey begins to suspect that something is wrong, Solana is well on her way to transferring all of Gus's property to her own name. Kinsey's struggle to liberate Gus from Solana and bring Solana to justice is hampered by a system meant to protect and defend the defenseless. Grafton's story confronts the dark side of society today; elder abuse, child abuse, bureaucratic roadblocks, social services incompetence, and absence of family values all play a part in this all-too-realistic tale. Judy Kaye's interplay of first and third person narration adds interest and suspense. Recommended.Joanna M. Burkhardt, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 24, 2007
Tony award–winner Judy Kaye has been the voice of private eye Kinsey Millhone since the beginning, and 19 titles later, she's still an inspired choice, capturing the character's unique combination of femininity and ruggedness, intelligence, street savvy and self-confidence with just a hint of uncertainty. Trespass
is possibly a series best. Both reader and sleuth are working at full tilt as Kinsey interacts with a large cast. Her foremost opponent is the devious and homicidal black widow who has spun a web around the detective's aged and infirmed next door neighbor. Grafton deviates from Kinsey's narration to delve into the killer's history and mind-set, underlining the seriousness of her threat. Kaye offers a crisp, chillingly cold aural portrait of a sociopath capable of anything. Kaye's spot-on interpretation of the two very different leading characters would be praiseworthy enough, but she's just as effective in capturing the elderly men and women, the screechy landladies, the drawling rednecks, the velvet-tongued smooth operators, the fast talking lawyers and all the inhabitants of Kinsey's world. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 17).