AudioMysteries.Net

Title: T is for Trespass
Author: Sue Grafton
Reader: Judy Kaye
Audiobook: 2008
Unabridged
Length: 10 hours

Ears: 4

Rent: audiomysteries.com

Sue Grafton has been writing Kinsey Millhone detective stories for over 20 years. In this, her 20th in the alphabet series, Grafton continues to experiment with changes to her distinctive style. In the immediate predecessor, S is for Silence, Grafton uses two narratives almost thirty years apart to find the answer to a decades old missing person case.

In T is for Trespass the author pushes even further; using two first person plots that slowly meet with terrible consequences. We get all that we have come to expect in the opening chapters featuring Kinsey, lots of detail and a wry eye about the daily life of a private detective working in the late 1980s before cell phones, the internet, and all that information floating around that makes it so much easier today. I particularly enjoyed Kinsey’s take on computers. Kinsey is doing some grunt PI work, process serving as well as investigating a traffic accident that has resulted in a lawsuit.

Meanwhile we get a glimpse into the life of Sonja Rojas a nurse who is much more (actually much less) than she seems to be. In fact Rojas isn’t her name at all, but a stolen identity. Grafton uses the early chapters to show us the mechanics of identity theft and its disturbing implications.

Rojas and Millhone cross paths when an elderly neighbor of Kinsey’s takes a fall and needs home care. What happens next is certainly a cautionary tale about what can go horribly wrong when an infirm senior with no close family is put in the care of strangers. I do have a problem with the Grafton plots which almost always end with a big violent confrontation that puts Kinsey in mortal danger. The moment Kinsey had to give up her guns because of a restraining order I knew that she would desperately need one very soon. In this story, Kinsey has two battles, the final one with Rojas ending rather pedestrian fashion. The author then wraps up all the various plots very quickly.

Judy Kaye has been reading the Kinsey Millhone stories for years. She knows the character and gets it all just right. In this audio version Kaye gets to stretch by creating a detached and chilling portrait of a sociopath through a restrained performance.

T is for Trespass is more than just a mystery detective novel. We have had the “ripped from the headlines” stories on television about elder abuse, and Grafton seems to have taken heed; writing a terrifying tale of what can and does happen to the helpless when someone truly evil enters their life under the guise of caregiver. You will most definitely think about that when and if the situation crops up in your own life.

Reviewed on 4/12/08 by Robert W. Karp